• You are considering which amplifier class to use for an AM aircraft transceiver that has an output power of 10 watt and uses 24 V for power. Assuming that the transmitter consumes 50% of the overall energy used by the transceiver, while the receiver and other circuitry consumes the rest, compare the average power requirement in watt-hours using a Class A, Class AB, and Class C amplifier. The Class C amplifier operates with a conduction angle of ?/6. Assume the Class A and Class AB amplifiers attain their maximum possible efficiency. Note: the Class C amplifier would not be suitable for modulated AM. For this class amplifier, the Class C amplifier would be used to generate the RF and a separate amplifier would be used to generate audio that would modulate the RF. This technique is know as "plate-modulation" for vacuum tubes, "collector-modulation" for bipolar junction transistors or "drain-modulation" for field effect transistors.
• Compute the power levels of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th harmonics relative to the fundamental output signal for the Class C amplifier. (Hint: compute the Fourier coefficients for the harmonics of the clipped sinusoid that results from the partial conduction angle of the amplifier).