Really, the 100 watt is cleaner? I seriously doubt that this is the case. The 100 watt PA is just a 12 volt FET design whose IMD performance wont be that good. It is very difficult getting cheap 12 volt fets working with excellent
IMD performance unless you drop the output power drastically.
I would not hold my breath expecting a clean amplifier from any manufacturer wanting to make money. The amplifier on the ANAN radio are just designed so that they can say they have a 100 watt radio. If you spend such a
large amount of money on a Anan 100 you should expect better IMD performance for a 2000 dollar kit radio.
The IMD issue is of more importance on the VHF and UHF bands than it is on HF. You can hear phase noise across borders during VHF and UHF contests. Now considering that the IMD performance is typically 60 db worst than the phase
noise performance you can see why it so important having a cleaning radio.
Anyone who sells a 12 volt PA and calls it clean is really fooling their customers.
Terrible seeing a -50dbc IMD radio like the hermes being stuffed into 12 volt PA with 26dbc third order, an insult really to the design team. Theres is no scruples when it comes to making a dollar, even engineering ideals!
A radio like the Hermes should be using an adaptive pre-distortion PA, that will be the best long term solution for a clean signal on any band. I had to homebrew my PA chain to meet my IMD objectives of -40db 3rd order on any band.
It was very easy to do with MRF148's and VRF151's. I wonder why it is so hard for the commercial designers?
Thanks for the reply, until I read at least one independent review by those whose job it is to assess this sort of equipment I feel uneasy about a purchase. It's early days though. As you seem to have your finger on the pulse of these things, will the 100 watts transceiver have the IMD issues the 10 watt unit has? I believe the Anan-10 is having issues running transverters, with drive power being unable to be software controlled, as yet. This is important to me as I want to have a play with microwaves. I am told this is NOT an issue with the 100 watt boards. So would you know if the 100 watt boards are likely to less than optimal amplifier design? Thanks and all the best for the New Year.