On 9/19/21 11:47 AM, W0LEV wrote:
Jim reminds me that loss matching and loss broadbanding are both accepted
approaches in RF design. Of course the antenna is the worst place to
introduce losses in the system, but I've seen it used to broadband several
of the ionosonde LPDAs. In designing discrete "RF boxes", loss matching is
also excellent for stabilization between gain stages. And....these days,
gain is cheap.
No kidding, it is the core of the famous terminated folded dipole, especially the ones made of stainless steel cables.? If you're an embassy, or state operator, and you've got that 10 mW in to 10kW out amplifier from Harris, lossy broadbanding is a much better way to deal with things like ALE or frequency hopping than trying to run a tuner and wear out the relays.
Hams are somewhat unique in having a "output power" limit (as opposed to a radiated power or EIRP limit), but no requirement on efficiency, and, as well, various rules that tend to reduce the market for inexpensive amplifiers with 40dB of gain in one box.
