Hello everyone!
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I am happy to report that although the problem with initial SWR on my QMX+ being too high, and sometimes triggering the protection, is still there, I have managed to mitigate the problem until it is addressed in firmware to make it even better.
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First, I raised the SWR protection threshold from 3 to 4. I make a special effort to pre-tune with the tune feature, and am waiting with anticipation when the firmware is edited to default to the current frequency. I realized that THIS was why the problem was worse on 80 meters than the other bands. It's because my SWR tune is much sharper on 80 than on other bands (antenna is not optimized for 80 by any means). So the tune function found the tune at the default frequency, but I could not assume that the SWR was reasonable at my actual operating frequency.
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Now, I am able to use SSB without triggering protection. The procedure I use to tune is...
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(1) Use the SWR / tune function to rough tune the band and get as close as I am able without risking finals
(2) Use a CW carrier to fine tune at the actual frequency I am on
(3) When I first start transmitting on SSB, I activate the PTT without speaking... with the safety threshold at 4, this seems to be fine. The initial SWR problem corrects, and I am able to transmit from there on out with good SWR, at least for the length of a normal QSO. If it;'s been a while since I transmitted, I quick repeat the PTT without talking step...
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With this procedure, I am getting very good SSB reports. I am using the specified Digikey mic wired up on a protoboard. I use a mic gain of 50 and a mic compression of 5. Everything else is at factory default. I have received no complaints and a few compliments on my audio.
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I also have managed to successfully integrate an old Ten Tec 405 amp to get 50 watts out, using a Pacific Antenna 11 dB variable attenuator between the rig and the amp to limit the input to result in <= 50 watts out (per the Ten Tec amp requirements). Eventually I plan on integrating the attenuator inside the amp only in the transmit chain so that it doesn't affect my receive at all.
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Just checked into the OMISS 40 meter net and waiting for my turn. A picture or two of my setup is attached here.
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I am having fun... finally LOL...
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73,
Joel W9JFK