Willie,
Simulation FFT says that the commutating diode does no damage to
spectral purity.
This makes sense for two reasons:
1) The current flowing through the diode is small and capacitive until
commutation takes place at the end of a transmission. That is where a
large diode current will flow, but only briefly.
2) The diode current never flows through the primary or the secondary
of the output transformer, and so it never makes it to the LPF.
If you are greatly concerned about spectral purity, consider that
sloppy winding of the output transformer, or parameter imbalances
between the two banks of PA transistors, will do more damage to second
harmonic cancellation and content than the diode can ever do.
JZ KJ4A
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On Fri, Aug 25, 2023 at 10:53?AM William Smith <w_smith@...> wrote:
And, of course, the third question is if adding the commutating diode and/or the zemers will affect the output characteristics (spectral purity, spurs, harmonics), in such a way as to render transceiver illegal to operate.
73, Willie N1JBJ
On Aug 25, 2023, at 10:38 AM, John Z <jdzbrozek@...> wrote:
?
Dan,
The QMX has a PMOSFET modulator that can gracefully ramp down the supply voltage to the power amplifier stage, under digital/MCU control. That circuitry is essential for the QMX wave shaping function and to it's future SSB functionality. It doesn't exist on QDX, and so a firmware solution for QDX is not possible.
Is the inductive spike damaging transistors on QDX?
Hans and I have had a lively debate on that subject, with he of the opinion that the energy level is too low to do damage, and I of the opinion that it is responsible for some, perhaps many of the fails attributed to high SWR.
A big problem in resolving the question is forensics: How do you know which mechanism is responsible? A dead part looks the same either way, and usually winds up in the trash!
JZ KJ4A
On Fri, Aug 25, 2023, 10:12 AM Daniel Walter via groups.io <nm3a@...> wrote:
John,
Your explanation of QDX L14 makes sense. It doesn't seem to be a serious problem for semiconductor failures tho. More of an issue for spectrum 'dirtiness'. The diode would take care of both concerns.
I wonder why it could not be taken care of in the QDX firmware, as it has been with the QMX. There doesn't seem to be the memory and processing constraints of the QCX, even though it doesn't have the capacity of the QMX processor.
--
73, Dan NM3A