Care and Feeding an Icom PW1
W6DE
Copyright 2017, All rights reserved.
--On the PW1 meter, switch the right meter from ALC to SWR, transmit again. Look at SWR. If it isn’t
below 1.2 or 1.3, stop and find out why it isn’t closer to 1:1. Do not continue until you fix the SWR.
--If your SWR is ok, stop transmitting, return the PW1 right meter to read ALC.
--On the exciter turn the power down to its lowest level.
--Power up the PW1 and depress “AMP/PROTECT” once and the “AMP/PROTECT” light is on and green.
The PW1 is now on and will amplify the RF fed to it.
--With the exciter’s power at its lowest level, resume setting the ALC level. Start transmitting again.
Increase the exciter power out until: 1) the PW1 Power out shows 1000 Watts, OR 2) you reach 35-50
Watts output from your exciter, OR 3) ALC level reaches mid-scale (where the red band starts).
--If your PW1 power gets to 1000 Watts before the ALC meter gets to midscale—turn down the ALC
adjustment on the back of the PW1.
--If you get to midscale ALC before you get 1000 Watts of PW1 power, then turn up the ALC adjustment
on the back of the PW1.
--Perfect ALC adjustment is when you reach 1000 Watts of PW1 power out, the ALC meter will be at
midscale and your exciter power lever is around 35 to 40 watts out (ok, maybe 50+ watts on six meters).
--If you can’t get 1000 Watts out of your PW1 with 35 to 40 Watts drive, something is misadjusted or
broken.
--There is absolutely no reason you should ever turn the exciter drive level to more than approximately
halfway up when driving a PW1. Reason defined as: safe from errors that will blow up your PW1.
--Now that you have the ALC set correctly; when adjusting the exciter’s power knob, you will find lowest
exciter power when the knob is pointing to a 7:00 o’clock position; then normal PW1 driver level setting
should be around 11:00 o’clock on 40 and 20 meters. For 6-meters the driver power level setting will be
around 1:00 o’clock. And when the PW1 is OFF, you will find 100 watts of maximum power is at 5:00
o’clock.
I leave my 7600 power level set at 11:00 o’clock. I almost always transmit through the PW1. When I
want to run 100 Watts I turn the drive level down to somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 o’clock. That
way, I never have the exciter running full power and when I walk away from the radio, there is no
chance of forgetting to turn down the power at the next operating session. The only time I turn off the
PW1, when operating, is when I run WSJT. That way the power level is a somewhat comfortable power
of 35 watts if I forget to turn power down to the WSJT HF recommended 15 to 20 watts.
To Next Page
Loading...
