OK guys. Maybe I'll reconsider CW! I'm nowhere near your schmartz when it comes to design. I'm more a "if it looks right, I'll go with it" person. It's like doing recording.
Last November I recorded the Reformation (yeah, I'm Lutheran) Service at our church. We have a massive two-chancel pipe organ with bass and some mid pipes left, short pipes and chimes right. Isolated, permanent mics because we broadcast from the church. Picture a 50-voice choir and a 5 piece brass choir all parked below the left chancel totally left of the altar. Now make it stereo. I set up mics while the Broadcast Engineer set up levels on an 8-Track digital machine. No chance to re-adjust mics for placement. Point and shoot. Record. It wasn't a broadcast so the other engineer adapted for recording. The church has capability as a recording venue. Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress" finale gives me goosebumps.
Back to the point. I know audio. Recorded my first 45 disk in '65. I got out of Ham around the same time. No Ham until around 4 years ago. Recovered from heart shit. Studied, got ticket.
All my Ham projects from now on will combine the studio with Ham station. I worked over 38 years in radio broadcasting and production with over 4 as production manager at KSTP-AM in Minneapolis.
Here's my question (finally!!!): I have a nice Kenyon 500 Ohm balanced Line to class B grids iron, NOS. I'd have to check, but I think it's at least 10 watts. I can switch outputs to various grids. Just remember the limiter will feed the Kenyon.
I have an incredible limiter amp that I built back in the late 60's. It uses a pair of 12AU7's operating in parallel push-pull parallel for the output. It's a cool amp I pirated. Each tube acts as a parallel triad. The two tubes (basically 4 triodes) is the driver. That bugger was designed to drive a broadcast transmitter. Coolest thing I ever built, and I have a pair. It's the big white unit in the pix in the rack Old pix.
I'd like to mount the Kenyon so I can switch from my limiter/driver to any modulator using a chassis and rack panel with output assign switch. The Kenyon has multi-matching out. Perfect! No problem.
Now. Any ideas how I can hang a VU meter into either the input or output circuits and create a true modulation meter at that point? My Broadcast experience is barking. I'm assuming I can put a meter on one of the unused taps on the secondary, and then use a scope to match the meter with modulation percent through a separate meter driver? Hanging it on the input side of the Kenyon doesn't make sense, or does it?
My goal is to control the Ham station from the studio. The meter on the board will correspond with modulation. Basically I'm merging the Ham with studio. What goes round comes round. I gave up Hammin' when I started recording. One expensive hobby too many! Merger time!
I'm including all this background just to give you an idea where I've come from in the hopes I can build my dream "combo". My other major product is getting cataract surgery. Gotta see to solder!
Sigh.