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 the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“There are many strange happenings, my boy. Many mysteries beyond the power of the human mind to comprehend.”
—Edward T. Lowe. Frank Strayer. Dr. von Niemann (Lionel Atwill)