How does one emulate a tube anyway? Put an FET in a corona bottle? You make it sound like tubes are the only way to make good audio with swing but yet the Mauldulator doesn't contain a single tube. The common Cobra 148 GTL board is so much more suited for Hi-Fi AM modification then a typical HF amateur transceiver and yet we do it all the time on 75. The CB never has any crystal filters limiting the AM TX bandwidth like HF rigs do. The 148 uses series pass modulation so it doesn't have the low frequency limitations associated with a poor modulation transformer.
This means that the frequency response is entirely shaped by the capacitors used in coupling, bypassing, and any feedback loops if an IC audio amp is used. These feedback loops used on audio chips are often what rolls the high end off at 3 KHz. Going after all of those caps will easily provide more bandwidth then 80 to 6000 cycles. Of course you still need a good mic. I've modified the 148 board so that a signal generator set at one cycle would make the output meter bounce between zero and full scale once a second. The high end rolled off at 10 KHz. You need nothing more then a handful of capacitors.
Years ago the car audio market had popular 5 band 20 watt per channel automotive equalizer / amplifier units in metal cases. You want AM Hi-Fi the easy way? Buy one on eBay and wire a good XLR mic with a pre amp to drive the eq / amp and replace the entire AM TX audio chain with this external box! Might cost ya $30.00. This could introduce RFI problems if used with power. Just like connecting a PC to run a Mauldulator. That's why I like going after the caps in the existing audio chain that was designed to work in an RF environment.
Once you find VR-10 in the 148, getting well over 100% modulation peaks are no problem. In fact, the 148 board can readily be modified to produce 400% more AM peak power then stock. In 1985 I realized this board only used a modulated 6 volt line to feed the driver and final on AM. It didn't take a few days to figure out two different ways to get fully modulated 12 volts to them. Collector modulation trough a small transformer (out of a 29 LTD) or Heising right off the audio chip with a modulation reactor.
The Heising method is easier if you can find the right inductor. That's probably why it was copied in many CB books. The problem is the written Radio Shack DC alternator filter is not the right inductor. The part is very marginal in this application since it's inductance and core are not ideal. It can make some radios distort since it becomes difficult to keep the audio chip decoupled from the DC line with the Radio Shack part. Finding a modulation transformer and copying the schematic of the 29 LTD is probably easier now in terms of parts. You would still vary the DC carrier voltage through the transformer secondary.
Point is Wahlrite, if someone told you the only way to get 80 to 6000 cycles with swing was to buy a Mauldulator, they lied or were misinformed. I suspect you know this and are associated with the sales of this product. It's not possible to be "new on CB" as you claim with your new Mauldulator and have already grasped the concept of things like negative peak limiting in the terms you described. They don't print owners manuals that good anymore. Negative peak limiting is actually the only feature on your device that can't be easily "emulated" by just changing a few capacitors and proper carrier setting. Market this without the PC and you might have something.
