Peak envelope power (PEP) is the average power supplied to the antenna transmission line by a transmitter during one radio frequency cycle at the crest of the modulation envelope, under normal operating conditions. The United States Federal Communications Commission uses PEP to set maximum power standards for amateur radio transmitters. The PEP output of an AM transmitter at full modulation is four times its carrier PEP; in other words, a sold-state, 100-watt amateur transceiver is usually rated for no more than 25 watts carrier output when operating in AM.
PEP was often used in non-broadcast AM applications because it most accurately described the potential of mobile transmitters to interfere with each other. Its use is now somewhat deprecated, with the average transmitter power output (or sometimes effective radiated power) now typically being preferred.
Famous quotes containing the words peak, envelope and/or power:
“In all things I would have the island of a man inviolate. Let us sit apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all round Olympus. No degree of affection need invade this religion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Geroge Peatty: I’m gonna have it, Sherry. Hundreds of thousands, maybe a half million.
Sherry Peatty: Of course you are, darling. Did you put the right address on the envelope when you sent it to the North Pole?”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)