Overdriving and AGC

TLDR; In Amateur Radio, if your reply to a critique of your clipped modulation (overdriven) is “….turn on your AGC.” and that’s the only way to “fix” your transmission, you’re wrong, that’s just selfish and narcissistic behavior. I am not trying to be a “know it all”. In fact, I contacted the person I was trying to help through email and I did not mention the issue in the open, on the air, with the group. The person I had dealings with brought it up over the air and made a point to tell me to “turn on your AGC.” as a fix for THEIR PROBLEM. In turn, folks like this have influenced others in their group (not all others, but a few) that this is the correct way of doing things and that could not be further from the truth. Is it a way of fixing the issue? Yes. Is it the right way? Absolutely not!

This entire blog entry took me all of 30 minutes to formulate and write, don’t give me that boomer response of “….you have too much time on your hands.” Use your fucking brain and think about stuff and don’t let your emotions or contrarianism influence your behavior. Yeah, good luck with that.

Sigh. Anyway…..

Granted, if you’re within a city block of someone else and they appear to be overdriving, I can see where some sort of decrease of RF gain on the receiver’s end may be needed because the close TX station can’t decrease enough and still be hearable by distant stations. But if you’re 100-200 miles away from someone and your audio signal is clipping to the RX station without AGC, YOU ARE OVERDRIVING YOUR SYSTEM.

Again, I don’t know why people feel the need to crank up their legal limit amplifiers for conversations with a group that are all within 200 miles of each other during normal operating conditions. My thoughts on this aren’t because I lack a legal limit amplifier. I’ve had amps, I just find that I can make the contacts (252 DX entities to date, with around 130 of those coming since I began taking DX’ing seriously 3 years ago) with 100 watts or less. Any argument or thought that boils down to “…..having a legal limit amplifier makes me a better ham radio operator than a 100 watt guy.” is of course, classic narcissism.

First, an amateur radio station in the United States is only authorized to use the minimal amount of power necessary to conduct a QSO.

FCC rule 47 CFR § 97.313(a) legally requires all amateur radio operators to use the minimum transmitter power necessary to maintain a clear and reliable conversation. Maxing out your output power (such as running the legal limit of \(1.5 \text{ kW}\)) when a much lower wattage would suffice is a direct violation of FCC regulations. [1, 2, 3]

This mandatory rule promotes “good neighbor” operations, prevents unnecessary signal interference, and directly ties into FCC RF exposure safety requirements. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Here are the key details to keep in mind regarding this rule:

• Signal Reports (S-Units): Base your transmit power on the signal report (RST or S-meter reading) you get from the other operator. If they are already copying you perfectly (e.g., an \(S9\) signal), you should dial your power down. [1, 2]
• Power vs. Clarity: The rule applies strictly to the power required to carry out desired communications. If atmospheric conditions degrade and you need more power to be understood, increasing your output is perfectly legal, provided you remain below your license’s maximum allowed limits. [1, 2]
• General Power Ceilings: While you must use the minimum amount, your station’s output can never exceed your license privileges (e.g., a General or Extra Class maximum of \(1.5 \text{ kW}\) Peak Envelope Power (PEP), or a Technician Class maximum of \(200 \text{ W}\) PEP on most HF bands).

If I, with 100 watts (or less), can have said QSO with someone, they do not need legal limit amplification to have said QSO.

Second, when a waveform of a transmission’s audio looks like this, you’re overdriving and putting the burden of cleaning up the signal on the receiver. Folks, that’s just selfish and narcissistic behavior.