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110W UHF Quantar minimum power

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 4:19 pm
by mr.syntrx
What's the lowest power a 110W UHF Quantar can be set to?

I'm licensed for 83W EIRP, and plan to use an antenna with about 6dBi of gain, which means I'm looking at around 20W after the duplexer etc to stay legal. The RSS will allow me to wind the power down to 20W, but will the station's PA behave properly at this power?

Re: 110W UHF Quantar minimum power

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:21 am
by Bill_G
In my experience, not for long. These horses like to run. You might be better off placing a high power attenuator, or a 4:1 power splitter in line.

Re: 110W UHF Quantar minimum power

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:08 pm
by PETNRDX
If your planned antenna really is 6 dBi, then subtract 2.15 dB for the difference between dBi and dBd.
Your antenna may only be 4 dBd.
Subtract out your duplexer, and feedline losses, ( maybe a couple more dB ) and likely you are talking more like running the Quantar at 50 or 60 watts, and it should be fine at that power.

Re: 110W UHF Quantar minimum power

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:56 pm
by MassFD
Let me at that duplexer, I can burn off them extra TX watts.

But realy, We have uhf quantars also and run them at 30W out with no problem. Never tryed to go lower

Re: 110W UHF Quantar minimum power

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:34 pm
by PETNRDX
Sheesh....
Did I read that wrong or what...
Never answer posts when tired.

Re: 110W UHF Quantar minimum power

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:43 am
by 515
I think around 20 watts is as low as they go. I don't think you'll have any problems running it there.

Re: 110W UHF Quantar minimum power

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:05 am
by d119
20 Watts is the minimum. I have a UHF station on my desk at work that has a 110W PA in it, and it's programmed for 20 watts and runs into a dummy load. I use it as a test platform for various configurations and it's seen some serious key-down time with nary a problem.

I can't imagine Motorola would allow you to set the power that low if it was going to introduce problems. Now I know that it's not good practice to run other amplifiers designed for high power at such a low rating, but I would consider the Quantar an exception to this. There's a reason you can't go below 20W on a high power station.