Amplifiers

Choose Window ► External Devices ► Amplifiers to open the window for managing your amplifiers.

You can use SkookumLogger to monitor the on/off state and the operate/standby state of an amplifier and to control drive power. Amplifier 1 is associated with Radio 1 and similarly for Amplifier 2.

Except for the ACOM 2000A, the Power On button can toggle the amplifier power on and off, and the Mode button can toggle the amplifier between Standby and Operate . For the KPA1500, the Tune ATU button starts the tune process for the amplifier and the bar graph displays amplifier forward power with 25 dBm tick marks between 45 dBm and 65 dBm.

The primary role of the amplifier interface is to control drive power based on whether the amplifier is in operate mode or standby mode. To do this, SkookumLogger needs to be able to read and set the transmit power level of your radio. You can define drive powers for each amplifier type, for each amplifier mode, for each contest band, and for each radio mode. The default drive powers are 25 W for operate mode and 100 W for standby mode.

To define a drive power setting, set the radio band, mode and transmit power level, then tap the Save Drive Power button. To enable SkookumLogger control of drive levels, turn on the Automatically set drive power option. The Track Radio applies to the KPA1500 amplifier. When enabled, SkookumLogger sends the radio transmit frequency to the amplifier to select the appropriate ATU settings without transmitting.

The Elecraft K3 or K4 with either the KPA500 or the KPA1500 combination does all of this automatically, and also changes the amplifier band when the transceiver changes bands. For these radio-amplifier combinations, you should uncheck the option Automatically Set drive power and the 3 options.

If you want to use drive power management without a serial connection to an amplifier, choose the Phantom amplifier type.

Another role of the amplifier interface, for the ACOM 2000A only, is preemptively changing the ATU segment within a band when the radio transmit frequency changes to a new frequency that would cause a segment when transmitting begins. There is no configuration needed for this role.

Note: If you use Automatically set drive power with the ACOM 2000A, you should disable the RCU-programmed amplifier option that causes the amplifier to automatically return to OPR mode following any STDBY period initiated by a “soft” fault. Otherwise, it is possible that the amplifier will switch to OPR while an in-process message (such as from an F-key) is delivering RF from the transceiver at the level you have previously set for the amplifier’s STDBY mode, thus potentially overdriving the amplifier tube grids and triggering one or more faults, including total amplifier shutdown. Alternatively, do not use Automatically set drive power .

Also see:

Type Choosers

Port Choosers