Measuring setup:
These measurements are all done on a standard spectrum analyzer with the gain increased to put the SSB signal 10 or 20 dB! above the screen. This is in fact a severe overload, but by observing how the noise floor changes with attenuator setting, the most obvious error caused by gain compression can be avoided.

YAESU FT 225 2 meter all-band transceiver. This was measured at the output of the 500 W PA. As we were interested in products close to our signal a 20 kHz/div and 1 kHz BW setting was chosen. As a consequence the measured noise level is 4 dB too low (relative to SSB bandwidth).

Another YAESU FT 225, this time measured "barefoot".

This ICOM IC 202 2 meter SSB transceiver is measured with a home brew 20 W transistor PA. The spectrum is clean in CW mode (inner lines), but the station shows some curious sidebands in SSB mode. It is not uncommom to have "halfway stable" amplifiers - stable at full power but unstable at some lower power level.

The Kenwood TS 120 HF-transceiver has a good clean output spectrum during modulation.

Back to "Big signals and the contest station."