power control section 522 then applies the scaling factors to the amplitude control circuit and vga attenuator 508 to effect the power level change if the power level increase is so great that it causes a jump over the overlap region i e from within the uncompressed region and into the compressed region a mode switch is performed by retrieving the appropriate scaling factors for the amplitude and phase paths that will set the pa 510 at the new power level in the new mode because the output power level tolerances are wide for these large step sizes no calibration between the two modes is required the situation is different when smaller step sizes are commanded and the power level increase u03b4p results in an output power level that falls within the overlap region when this condition occurs the pal 514 of the polar modulation transmitter 500 is activated to determine whether a mode switch from uncompressed mode to compressed mode is required and what steps must be performed to ensure that the resulting power level change satisfies specified output power level control tolerances as explained above a discontinuity or gap may be observed between the output compressed mode and uncompressed mode power level curves.