You can't regulate output "power" by regulating the amount of current
the power supply provides. You can regulate the voltage you apply but
the current drawn is a function of the input power to the amplifier
chain and the amplification of the amplifier chain. The amplifier chain
needs to be operated where the amplifier is linear.
If you operate so that the power supply *never* has to provide 1.5amps
then you would be ok. But if you are depending on the power supply to
regulate the current to 1.5amps regardless of the drive level then you
are likely operating the amplifier chain in a non-linear manner thus
causing IMD products.
At 12v to the mainboard and 15v to the final amplifiers my unit pulls
about 2.2 amps on CW. Of course it pulls about 300ma on receive because
I am using an enhanced Radi2cino with a teensy adapter and a teensy 3.6
cpu.
A 3amp supply wasn't cutting it initially, the output voltage from the
suppy would drop on voice peaks. I went to a 10amp supply and had no
more problems.
try this site: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodulation
to begin with.
tim ab0wr
On Fri, 29 Jun 2018 20:48:55 -0700
"Gwen Patton" <ardrhi@...> wrote:
Thank you, Tim.
That's certainly a better answer than assuming I want to overdrive
it, or telling me what I already knew, that I needed to regulate it.
I'll check RV1.
I'm still a bit confused about what kind of power to put INTO the
thing, though. 12v at how many amps? My bench supply can put out 3a
easily, but I've been running it at 1.5. I got one suggestion to
regulate the input power...isn't that what I was doing, with the
bench supply? Maybe I need a link to a reference or something,
because the docs aren't very explicit and so far I've gotten 3 wildly
different opinions on it.
