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Mic Gain and AlC
- Thread starter Riverman
- Start date
It depends on the radio, for my 101ZDMKIII if I jump on it and drive the ALC to near redline then the audio is very compressed and distorted. It sounds best when running with little to no movement of the meter. I also have a scope on this monitoring my audio as well and can see the distortion. When I use the 706gMkIIg the rig works best in with the ALC running in the middle of the peaks. Its a matter of trial and error to fine the best setting for you voice and radio.
Depends on what I'm trying to do with the radio. On most modern radios the important thing is to not be doing what I call "shooting blocks" or blasting outside the
ALC range.... but if I'm pushing the radio hard getting peaks up to 2/3rds or more is
common, if I see overshoot off the end of the scale in testing I back it down until it stops happening.
Another thing that gets confusing to some people, is the ALC is going to change on power levels. So for example radio is wide open, to get mid or most of the ALC deflection, I'll have to crank the mic gain up a bit. Crank the power back down, and if you don't bring the gain down too, you'll be overdriving the radio at lower output
levels.
The "I only like a little deflection" people likely aren't getting the full output out of their
radio, unless its a rig with peculiar requirements etc. (like the ZD mentioned above, that would certainly qualify).
-Mike
ALC range.... but if I'm pushing the radio hard getting peaks up to 2/3rds or more is
common, if I see overshoot off the end of the scale in testing I back it down until it stops happening.
Another thing that gets confusing to some people, is the ALC is going to change on power levels. So for example radio is wide open, to get mid or most of the ALC deflection, I'll have to crank the mic gain up a bit. Crank the power back down, and if you don't bring the gain down too, you'll be overdriving the radio at lower output
levels.
The "I only like a little deflection" people likely aren't getting the full output out of their
radio, unless its a rig with peculiar requirements etc. (like the ZD mentioned above, that would certainly qualify).
-Mike
Not in my experience. Take pretty much any modern HF rig at full output on SSB, and if you're keeping ALC meter at 50% or less on most of them there's no way in hell its putting out the maximum power on a decent PEP meter. For example if I did that on my old 706mkII, you would be lucky to get 40 watts out of it at full output power. I also know this bit very well because I had a friend who was "one of those minimum deflection guys", although not by choice. He had a Shure 44? on his FT1000D, and while that mic sounded good, but it didn't drive the radio for crap, and even with the mic gain wide open at full RF power, he might have been lucky to get 125W out of a 200W radio... I go for 50%-75% when it doesn't matter (eg, local, low power) but otherwise if I'm actually trying to beef things up I try to keep it 75-90%. It's not that hard to do, and it will still sound good. The key is "setting it up so that you reliably never exceed".
Most of the ICOM radios seem to like ALC higher on the scale.
I run my 7300 @ ~80% of the ALC range indicator.
I run my 7300 @ ~80% of the ALC range indicator.
Go with what the manual says as a good starting point. It really does depend on the rig. The manual for my older rigs says 1/4 to 1/2 scale inside the ALC bracket and they work well this way. My anan sdr is designed to be pushed to 0db (per the manual) and does not distort when ran this way. You actually have to push it that hard for pure signal to work properly.
For AM operation I have found some rigs sound horrible if you hit the ALC too hard. You'll have to play that one by ear.
For AM operation I have found some rigs sound horrible if you hit the ALC too hard. You'll have to play that one by ear.
This is why no matter what radio or amp or whatever you have you should always hook up a monitor receiver after making huge changes, even if you just have a loose coax jumper hanging out of it or whatever with a set of headphones on it..... this will give you the true reality of your audio/signal.