"And now for something completely different..."

[Robert Cullen]

In the Old Days, "Linear" amplifiers meant "Class A" amplifiers, which have low DC-to-RF power efficiency. A lot like plate modulators.

Bob Cullen
W8MAU


On Feb 15, 2010, at 5:44 PM, Mike O'Dell wrote:

> can someone explain why in the bad old days,
> AM transmitters were almost always plate-modulated
> in the finals? this required the modulator to have
> a substantial fraction of the horsepower the
> RF finals had. this was especially spectacular
> for the big AM BCB stations.
> 
> why didn't they AM the signal when it was "small"
> and easy to do and then just use a linear final
> so all the muscle went into the signal instead
> of heating the modulation transformer?
> 
> what am I missing here??
> 
>   -mo
> 
> -- 
> "Of course it's hard!
> If it was easy, we'd be buying it from somebody else!"
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