Power output for FT8

KD4UNX

Hey, all. I just got my Flex 6400 from a fellow local ham, and I'm trying out FT8. On my IC-7300, I was told to keep power at about 30w, and this seems to be the general consensus about FT8 -- but I notice that the FT8 profiles on the 6400 are all set to 100w.

Is it safe to run the 6400 at 100w in digital modes? I don't want to burn up this radio!

I searched the forums but did not find anything on this. I did some web searches and find all sorts of recommendations. 25w, 50w, 100w...

What is the real truth about the 6400 and FT8/digital mode power?

Thanks.

Mike-VA3MW

good question

FT8 is a weak signal mode but it doesn’t have to be a low power mode if required.

With a correctly aligned radio, meaning you do not overdrive the audio, you can run at 100% power all day long as long as you follow the radios specs for duty cycle. You can even safely amplify it to your full legal limit but make sure you follow the laws for your country. Since I am Canadian, that is 750 watts for digital modes. So, for modes like FT8 and RTTY you should chose enough power to be able to make a contact.

The 30 watts is from the day of PSK31 when if you overdrove the audio and your ALC started to move, you risked introducing IMD products into the transmitted radio signal and this is what you didn’t want.

In most cases, 30 to 100 watts is lots for FT8 unless you are trying to catch something special and the other ‘DX’ station you are trying to work is working the loudest signals he can copy.

73

KD4UNX

I'm using SmartSDR on my Mac, so I assume the audio levels are correctly handled by the software.

Thanks so much for your help.