updates and issues using PA profiles

VK4BXI
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updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby VK4BXI » Sun May 22, 2022 5:58 am

I'm not sure if I'm missing something (as usual) or the PA profile is still work in progress. I use barefoot operation (100 Watts) and Amp ( 30 Watts out of the rig 7000mkII) and have set up two PA scaling profiles ( bare foot and Amp) with all of the scaling and offsets done. They appear in white at the bottom when they are selected and work well. My problem / question is they don't seem to be part of the Tranmit profile that is selectable on the front screen. So if I change Tx profiles to one that is setup for QRO I have to dive into the setup menu to change the PA profile to Amp to cut the drive range down. Is this correct ? or am I missing a setting somewhere. I have looked at the u tube video's on the PA profile and am still no wiser.

Regards Bob
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w-u-2-o
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby w-u-2-o » Sun May 22, 2022 11:29 am

As you have surmised, the PA profile is not tied in anyway to the transmit profile. You have to manually change either or both as required.
VK4BXI
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby VK4BXI » Sun May 22, 2022 12:23 pm

Ok thanks for that Scott. Drat! I would have preferred to have screwed up somewhere.
Where do I apply to have this added to the ever growing list of wants and wishes.

Regards Bob
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w-u-2-o
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby w-u-2-o » Sun May 22, 2022 12:28 pm

We don't currently have a topic for wants and wishes. I had to lock the last topic because people were using it as a mailing list. I recommend just hanging on to it for now and when Richie resurfaces from his work on meters and starts a new topic then that will be a good time and place to post it.
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W1AEX
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby W1AEX » Sun May 22, 2022 12:38 pm

Hi Bob,

Just curious here but I'm not sure I can see any benefit to having the PA profiles stored in the transmit profiles. I have three PA profiles, one for the ANAN barefoot to assure 100w out per band, one for an LDMOS amp that only requires around 35w to make full output and one for a pair of 3-500's that requires as much as 90 watts to make full legal limit. It only takes a few seconds to switch between those as needed. I use the same 10 TX profiles with each of those PA profiles and everything works as expected, always.

I'm wondering what your configuration looks like where storing the global PA profiles in the TX profile would be a benefit?

Just my 2 cents here of course! ;)

73, Rob W1AEX
"One thing I am certain of is that there is too much certainty in the world."
VK4BXI
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby VK4BXI » Sun May 22, 2022 11:04 pm

Rob, you are quite correct, I can and do make it work.

My amp is a Ldmos type and I have been warned....don't over drive it !!! I use a Midi device with slider to set the drive levels with 30 watts of drive giving me ~900 Watt of output from the Amp (theres a 10 db attenuator in the amp input to help). My legal limit here is 400 watts so a slider setting of ~50% is nice. The main concern is when chasing DX (in the heat of things) going from bare foot to amp and forgetting to change the PA profile while having the slider set to full wally. I'm going to do that one day for sure. I probably won' kill it the first time but I would prefer not to take chances.

So I want to have my PA profiles tied to to the main transmit profiles. Then changing from a Bare foot profile to the Amp profile will keep my Ldmos amp happy.
Oh and some of my antenna's have a100 Watt tuner on them so staying QRO all the time is not so clever either (I'm working to fix that, but it's work in progress).

Regards Bob
Joe-W4WT
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby Joe-W4WT » Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:22 pm

Old thread but pertinent to my question. Rob, I see you are doing what I want to do but I can't seem to make my setup work like that. I too have a couple of amps I use, one a LDMOS and one a tube amp. I want to set up profiles for the LDMOS for both CW and SSB power levels and do the same for the tube amp. Thus, I would use four pa profiles. My problem is I assume since we're setting a drive level per band per profile you would need to set the "power limit" by right clicking the Drive (or tune slider) and set the maximum power level. If I do that, it works great as a per band power limit but it doesn't follow a PA profile; just the band What I set is what I get for that band regardless of PA profile.

How are you doing what you describe as regards setting maximum power for each band for each profile?

Thanks,

Joe W4WT
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W1AEX
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby W1AEX » Sun Apr 02, 2023 2:33 pm

Joe-W4WT wrote:My problem is I assume since we're setting a drive level per band per profile you would need to set the "power limit" by right clicking the Drive (or tune slider) and set the maximum power level. If I do that, it works great as a per band power limit but it doesn't follow a PA profile; just the band What I set is what I get for that band regardless of PA profile.


Hi Joe,

I lifted out the quote above from your post as I don't think I fully understand the last statement so bear with me. I currently have 3 PA power profiles; BAREFOOT, AL-82, and MERCURY IIIs.

I make a PA power profile for the ANAN barefoot that assures 100 watts output on all bands except 6 meters, where I watch the current being drawn from my power supply and set the maximum power to whatever RF comes out with 25 amps being pulled since the ANAN has a 25 amp fuse in the power cable. It's all good and I set my power to whatever I want between 0 and 100 watts wherever I operate.

With my AL-82 amp I set the maximum output to whatever it takes to reach 1500 watts output for each band. Works like a champ and when operating I pick my desired transmit profile and then set my TX drive for the power I want on whatever band I am on.

With my LDMOS Mercury IIIs amp I set the maximum power level to whatever is needed on each band to drive it to 1000 watts. It's a 1200 watt amp but I don't have a need to push it to that point. Again, it works like a champ and prevents any chance of pilot error that might be catastrophic if the amp's safeguards don't intervene quickly enough. When operating, I pick my Transmit Profile and set the power to whatever I want to run at that time.

With all the power profiles I have used the very accurate calibration points across each power profile so my TX drive slider setting indicates the expected power output from the amplifier. That pretty much meets my expectations for the Power Profile feature so I'm a happy camper!

It sounds like there are other expectations for what this feature does so I might be missing something. :|

73, Rob W1AEX
"One thing I am certain of is that there is too much certainty in the world."
Joe-W4WT
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby Joe-W4WT » Sun Apr 02, 2023 6:36 pm

Hi Rob,

Thanks for responding. I obviously didn't make myself clear in trying to describe what I was talking about. Sorry about that. Let me give it another shot.

Your statement "With my LDMOS Mercury IIIs amp I set the maximum power level to whatever is needed on each band to drive it to 1000 watts" is exactly what I want to do. My desire is to set this maximum drive per band for a particular profile and not have to touch anything afterwards other than selecting the "Mercury Profile" or the "Drake L7 Profile" or what have you and then as I go band to band the maximum power for that profile is automatically set. I don't have to adjust anything. I can't seem to make this work. I guess if that is working for you, I am missing somthing about the PA profiles.

Okay, I think it just dawned on me as I was writing this of the way to achieve what I want. Perhaps you can confirm this is what you are doing. Rather than set the PA gain for each band to 100 watts, you set the PA gain for each band to the desired output on each of your profiles. I'm pretty sure that is what you are doing; it just didn't dawn on me to do it that way (forrest for the trees thing). I was trying to use the "power limit" function that is available by right clicking the drive or tune slider in each band and setting it so regardless of the slider sitting at 100, the max output would only be what I set the "power limit" to. This works just fine to set the maximum for each band but it isn't saved in the PA Profiles. Regardless of the profile selected, this "Power Limit" is maintained for each band. I had assumed that this Power Limit would be saved in the profiles and that caused me to miss the obvious.

I'm sure this will work and I'll verify it this afternoon.

Edit: Tried it and it worked just fine as I thought, once I got my mind right :D

Thanks,

Joe W4WT
JJ4SDR
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Re: updates and issues using PA profiles

Postby JJ4SDR » Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:47 pm

I have 3 amps, 1 is Solid State and the other 2 are tube. Add running the ANAN barefoot, I would have minimum 4 different PA profiles.

Now, I would want to set up two PA Profiles when I am on the Solid State amp in particular, one for CW and the other for SSB as I don't want to overdrive the Solid State amp on either mode. This may also be necessary for the two tube amps, I am not sure. What is the easiest way to accomplish this?

I played around with the above yesterday, but likely goofed up. When I switched from SSB to CW (using the same Solid State amp) I don't see the name of the PA Profile at the bottom center of the screen as I do when I am on SSB. Why is that? It would be a reassuring feature to see the name of the PA profile used whether I am on SSB or CW (or any other mode). Perhaps I didn't save the the PA profile correctly. ;)

73!
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