V. 3.4.21 AM Carrier

Larry _ NY8T

In AM mode with the AM carrier level set to 100% it should be 25% of selected RF Power level, it is now 100% of the selected RF Power level. I am seeing a 92 watt carrier in AM. Is this just my radio or is anyone else seeing this?

Erika - KØDD

Huh, yeah mine is doing that also... I haven't checked into my AM net guys since updating to dot 21. They were on SSB when I did drop in to tell them dot 21 was out. Most of them run 6700 and 6600 radios plus heavy iron. Thats OK previously it limited the power to 25w and sometimes that was a tad high according to my mod monitor guys... Also you'll want to have the processor off or on NORMAL one click. Best to have an am mod monitor. I also do not have a PGXL but i do have a widdle amp... 1 to 4 carrier to PEP, So I just turned my AM Carrier down to 25w... That might be the way it was supposed to work originally but we AMers got used to it presetting 25w... Erika DD

Dan Trainor

I was away from AM operation for several weeks. I use my Flex 6600 and 6400 on AM all the time. And just this weekend, I load my AM profile which has the correct settings that I always had for years, then I hit the MOX button and the AM carrier was at 80W. ****!? Not possible. So after some experimenting, I found that I needed to reduce the AM carrier reduction level control to 56% in order for the RF Power meter to read a nominal 25W carrier! This is not the way it is supposed to work. I had several QSOs in AM today and it works when AM carrier reduction is at 56%, but I normally would always have the AM carrier reduction level at 90-100% which would give me a AM carrier of 22-25W, as it is supposed to be. Otherwise there is risk of blowing the finals. Something must have changed in this last release or something else weird is going on. The way it is supposed to work and has always worked and how it is clearly documented in the manual is that if you have RF Power control set at 100% (100W PEP) and AM Carrier Reduction at 100 (no reduction) , you get exactly 25W for the carrier. The MAX that a 100W radio can handle. Which is exactly correct. Now, it is messed up and clearly NOT correct. I could have damaged my finals! The only thing that changed was an update from 3.3.29 to 3.4.21 - Dan de WA1QZX.

WX7Y

Just save your Global and TX Profiles for your settings on AM on each band.

Dan Trainor

No, Not a profile issue. It is fundamentally a bug in the firmware. Flex Engineering is investigating it along with the other bugs introduced in 3.4.21

Mike-VA3MW

This is actually not a bug, but we do owe you a formal explanation. That will be coming.

What I do know (and I am not an AM user), is that you will have to manually set your Carrier to 25% manually (or with a profile). Driving it higher won't damage the radio but you also won't be heard.

Dan Trainor

If it is not a bug, then it is an undocumented or unintentional change. If RF Power is set to 100, the AM carrier must be no more than 25W (without reduction applied).

Ron Koenig

Dennis Wage

We waited almost a year for 3.4, and the only thing I see that was slightly improved on is the profile manager.

Still have audio pops and gurgling on TX and RX.

I saw dozens and dozens of really good suggestions in the community and Facebook for improvements and features added, and not ONE of them were implemented. Pitiful.

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I like the new options for the M models’ function buttons.

Geoff AB6BT

Nice to see some positive feedback!

Dan Trainor

My last post was removed.

Mike-VA3MW

No posts of yours have been removed Dan.

Just to confirm, I checked your profile. If something was deleted, it would show up in the logs.

Dan Trainor

Not a post, a reply comment.

Geoff AB6BT

My last post was removed.

Not a post, a reply comment.

???

Dan Trainor

Yes, a reply comment to this thread. Why are you asking?

Geoff AB6BT

No reason, except I believe Mike was referring to your comment/post.

I suppose a reply or comment is considered a post.

That's all...

Mike-VA3MW

No posts or comments were deleted Geoff. I would see them in this list. If it isn't here, it never made it to the server.

Geoff AB6BT

Mike,

I was not referring to anything removed or deleted that I posted.

I was just remarking about Dan's statement.

Sorry for th econfusion...

Dennis Wage

Surely we won't have to wait another year to fix all this AM issue will it?

I submitted a ticket a week ago and haven't hear a word.

I guess those government contracts have taken precedent.

Dan Trainor

I have submitted a ticket and waiting to hear the so-called "explanation".

Dan Trainor

FWIW: Here is the "explanation" from engineering:

"The sustaining engineering team looking into this has initially determined that the issue is a possible software defect. They are scheduling time to investigate this issue in more detail. At this time I do not have an ETA as to when that may happen.

This issue has been logged as defect number: SMART-9401

 At this time the only known workaround is to use an AM Carrier level of 50-60 with an RF Drive level of 90-100."

They closed the help ticket and I have documented the bug number as SMART-9401 in the list.

My hope is that some future release, this bug will be fixed. I assume at some point it will. My advice to others that are using an Amplifier on AM mode, Be Careful to test RF power and AM carrier levels before operation of Amp, as the behavior of the AM Carrier slider control is no longer the same as documented in manual. The AM Carrier level will exceed 25W if you don't know to reduce the carrier level from 100 to no higher than 56. If you are reading this and experience the same symptoms, you can simply refer to defect number SMART-9401 to avoid any ambiguity.