http://elecraft.85.s1.nabble.com/KPA-500-Output-for-Input-schedule-tp6352735p6353684.html
NOTE to ALL: This was not done with lab equipment or even a dummy load. This
> It's very easy to measure the 1-tone gain compression characteristics of an
> amplifier. The desired result is a graph of Pout vs. Pin, with Pin on the
> horizontal axis and Pout on the vertical.
>
> So what one needs to do is set Pin to the amp, and measure Pout into a
> dummy
> load. If you do this for several values of Pin, you'll be able to plot all
> of
> those measured points on the graph. It will look like a pretty straight
> line
> toward the lower Pin values, then it will flatten out (become more
> horizontal)
> as Pin (and Pout) get higher.
>
> The slope of the line is the gain of the amplifier.
>
> Very often the Pin values are 1 dB apart. One dB is about a 25% increase in
> power. Meaning that if you are measuring Pin in Watts, then you can set Pin
> to
> roughly the following values:
>
> 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13 Watts, etc.,
>
> and measure the Pout at each value. The values should be converted to dBm
> before
> plotting. That's all there is to it.
>
> This is all done in CW mode. If you want to go further, you can go into SSB
> mode
> and apply two tones to the amp (which a K3 has the ability to do) and then
> look
> at the output of both the K3 and the KPA500 with a spectrum analyzer... but
> I'll
> leave that explanation for another day... or it can be found on the web.
>
> Al W6LX
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