I was catching up with December’s PW this morning (yes, I’m THAT far behind) and reading the review of the 818 - and wondering exactly the same thing.
And yes, I’ve only noticed it recently, and only noticed it because of my use of FT8, meaning I’ve had the meter set on PWR (and occasionally ALC) when for years I’ve only really had it set on SWR. It also occurred to me that might therefore have always behaved like this, and not actually developed a “fault” as such.
Guru’s post further up (Radio Mysteries - #35 by EA2IF) shows the power output change is real, so the internal power meter is reporting with reasonable accuracy, given the display it has to work with.
It sounds like it may be something that happens only when the rig’s really cold, and not so much with a rig starting at room termperature? I guess the next step (if anyone wants to know more detail) would be to put temperature sensors onto parts of the rig and repeat the tests (but that probably gets past the “open the case” stage if it’s to be done effectively, so only for the really curious…).
…and a note that this effect is only observed on the HF bands. 50/144/433MHz all indicate full power out from switch-on - even in the cold.
Rick,
I don’t think this behaviour will be typical of the radio type. It is a fault in one or more components and likely to be specific to that particular radio. I know Guru found similar behaviour on his, I would say that means a similar fault is in his radio. (It worked ok when I used it, Guru!)
No-one can be certain until the fault is properly diagnosed and repaired, then other radios of the type can be tested for the same problem.
Noted Tom’s comment about the behaviour not being seen on vhf. I can see a situation where the drive level on those bands is set higher than it is for lower bands, so the fault may be masked by the higher drive level. But hey, this is all guessing. I used to repair my own radios and do warranty work on those I had sold but that was in the days of Noah, when radios only had a few active devices in them, very simple things indeed. They didn’t have computers then.
Cue three Yorkshiremen skit, translated into radio lingo.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
It was summer and we activated in the afternoon IIRC, so no cold temps.
Cheers,
Guru