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TheMerc
Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2001 - 1:59 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I just put a KLV 200V into service. The unit came out of the box ready to operate. The removal of the IC to enable transmit was performed by the manufacturer or retailer. I opened the unit to take a peek. Very nice and clean inside. Not as boogered up and sloppy as RM's mobile line. Upon power up I noticed the internal fan that pulls air in from underneath and blows it up across the tube, was a bit noisy. This poor fan hardly moves any air as it is, but it was sounding like a dustbuster. This is caused by the height or lack of height of the little rubber bumpers on the bottom of the case. It sits so close to the table top, that it cant help but make a vacuum cleaner roar. Lifting the case up off the table cut the volume of noise in half made by the fan. I have temporarily set the case on hard foam blocks to raise it up until some proper replacement feet can be located. I think soft rubber about 1/2" thick or better will do wonders. I also found fault with the lack of strain relief on the AC line cord. Last but not least is the fact this unit would not produce the SSB power level claimed by the manufacturer of 160-200 W PEP with a max of 20 W PEP drive. I was only able to see a level of 120 W PEP with 20 W PEP in. Im looking into this matter, and it was not a big deal to me. The AM power output meets the manufactures claims very well. The watt meter in the face of this unit was too generous in comparison to my Diawa peak reading cross needle meter. The outword appearance of this unit is very nice. Too bad I cant leave it on the same table as the rest of my gear. A desk mic will pick up the fan noise very easily. I will give more impressions of the unit after some air time reports come in.
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TheMerc
Posted on Saturday, October 27, 2001 - 4:39 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

So far so good...

I gave up on trying to use my desk microphone with this unit. So I put on the 636L that I should have been using all along. I was able to turn up the levels in my SP-1A processor and that provided louder audio, and got rid of all the background noise caused by the fan. With 1/2 watt drive the KLV keys at 25 watts and swings to 100 with ease keeping a good 4 to 1 ratio on AM. The SSB performance is still lacking. I found another 5, now at 125 W PEP with the hotter audio from the processor. I guess I need to look up the specs on the EL509/EL519/6KG6 to see what it is really rated at.

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