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A Little Theory
As a rule, to plate-modulate a class C amplifier, the modulator must furnish a peak-topeak voltage that is twice the plate voltage (B+). When impressed onto the plate
voltage, the positive swing adds to the plate voltage to generate a peak voltage up to two
times B+, and the negative swing subtracts from the plate voltage to reduce B+ to zero.
The final B+ on my Globe King 500 is approximately 1,500 volts. I would need a
transformer capable of 3,000 volts peak-to-peak at a little better than 250 watts. I found a
transformer rated at 5,000 volts center tapped at 500 mA: a big honker! The primary can
be set for either 110 or 220 Vac.
Because I needed only 3,000 volts p-p to fully modulate the Globe King, I knew I would
not have to supply the full 110 volts to the primary. Remember power transformers are
rated in RMS volts; 5,000 volts RMS is equal to a little over 14,000 volts p-p, and 110
volts RMS is equal to a little over 300 volts p-p. The transformer has a turns ratio of
110:5,000 or approximately 1:45. To obtain 3,000 volts p-p, I needed 66 volts p-p on the
primary. An audio amplifier capable of delivering at least 66 volts p-p (23 volts RMS) at
250 watts (the equivalent of a 2-ohm load) should do the trick. An amplifier of that
capability, however, can be expensive, and this was, after all, an experiment.
Fortunately, I have a Peavey solid-state amp that I bought last March at the Midland
Hamfest that has two channels, both capable of 130 watts RMS into a four-ohm load. By
reconfiguring the amplifier to use both channels to drive the transformer primary, I was
able to obtain the voltage and power levels needed.
Mono-Bridged
Using both channels of a stereo amp to drive a single transformer winding (or speaker,
for that matter) requires that they be driven 180o out of phase. This means that one
channel is driven directly by the audio signal and the other by the inverse, making a
modification to the amplifier necessary, unless it has the capability to be configured this
way. Many stereo amps today have this feature.
By using the both amplifiers to drive the load with 180o phase shift, the effective output
voltage doubles, yielding four times the power that a single channel can provide. This is
theoretical, of course, and assumes that the power supply and output transistors can
handle the increase. Be careful; assumption is a fools game! The reason for the increase
of four is because of the square law:
Power = E2 / R.
The Experiment
I built a simple operational-amplifier circuit with its own voltage regulation, powering it
from the internal power supply rails in the Peavey. I mounted the phase inverter board on
a printed circuit board in the amplifier on which the volume controls are mounted. This
allowed me to wire the phase inverter output directly to the potentiometers, keeping the
wires short.
From the above curve, you can see the frequency response of the plate transformer rolls
off rapidly above 2,000 Hz, but this can be easily compensated for using a graphic
equalizer or some other form of equalization built into the amplifier.