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Appendix D – How does it work?
The primary task of the universal control board is to facilitate control of output power and help protect and monitor the
amplifier. There are generally three ways to control the amplifier’s output power:
- by varying its drive level (either by inline adjustable attenuator or by changing exciter output power)
- by varying the gain of the amplifier (usually by moving its working point).
- by varying its supply voltage (requires adjustable power supply)
Controlling drive power works very well for amplifiers operating in linear mode, but such amplifiers are almost never used in
the output stages of FM band amplifiers due to poor efficiency and large amounts of generated heat. When you reduce drive
level of a typical fm band amplifier you may at some point experience instability and rise of spurious output. Oscillations can
even lead to premature failure of the final stages. This method is definitely not the best for FM radio and offers only limited
range of reliable control.
Controlling ob bias point has its shortcomings as well, it can also lead to instability and its range of control is also limited.
Controlling of supply voltage enables full control of power practically down to zero. You may need to use it in tandem with
controlling of drive power to prevent saturation (when used in linear mode – TV for example).
As you can see the best results can be obtained by controlling supply voltage to the amplifier. This guarantees power
efficiency (no unnecessary heat generated in low power modes), stability and good control virtually down to zero watts
output. Universal Amplifier Control Board v4.0 supports this mode of control of the amplifier, but it can also be used for
the other two modes. This manual will show you how to implement all of these modes.
The block diagram of the amplifier control board in a system is shown below. It is simplified as the actual block diagram
would be too complex for this manual. Only the basic building blocks are shown and briefly explained one by one.
Fig. 35: Block diagram of the Amplifier Control Board v4.0
Appendix
D