Normal voltage drop when running lights?

On my 99 with 130k when idling if I turn on my X2 100w kc's and key my 12amp draw ham rig my factory volt meter dose dip a little bit. No headlight dim though. It dose not come back up unless I rev it up to 3k or un-key the mic. I don't "think" it used to do this. With switching on the kc's it goes down but but then comes back up to normal. What is an acceptable amount of voltage drop in this situation? And for low rpm sub-2k situations? (want to check it with my multimeter) Do note that my optima has been in there scene 06.
When idling with nothing extra turned on she reads 13.94v. My brother's 2k xj with new a new alt reads 14.04v. Ant input would be appreciated. I just don't want to be replacing the dammed thing in the middle of winter.

Sounds perfectly normal to me.

Ok. hope your right. Will do some testing comparing my brothers 2000 to my 99. Really though I think this is the perfect excuse to go HID!

Star, my 89 reads 14 in the am when cool, then after she warms up, 13.8 with accessories it's not uncommon to read 13 to 13.6... As lOng as its reading above 12.6 your charging system is working and your reasoning to spend $300 on lights is kind of dumb, for a lighting upgrade you could spend the Same 300 and get a pair of rigid industries dually D2's and have an almost 3000 lumens at less than 28 watt draw...

Don't trust the factory voltmeter. Although later ones are far better than the old ones that would drop by four volts when you turned on the heater fan, it still doesn't measure true voltage well because it shares too much circuitry, not reading directly. Measure with a good meter at the battery. If you get a base measurement with a freshly charged battery and the engine off, you will know what your battery itself does. The voltage with nothing big running and engine on is what you want most, but if it falls between those two it's still charging rather than discharging.

Update:
Tested with my meter and it was fine. However it's always been at 13.98v but recently it's occasionally been in the mid 14v range Then on Saturday the belt squealed a bit and my lights dimmed. The volt gauge went way down. Then it shot up to over 14v. Same thing just happened tonight. Only the gauge did not come up quite as far as is usually dose. Came home and it was at 13.6v lower than it's ever been. Going to replace the Alternator. Pretty sure it's going out. Glad I caught it before I was left stranded. Odd thing is that I replaced my brother's alt in his 2000xj at almost the same millage as mine is at now!

What you are seeing is perfectly normal. Don't waste your money on a new alternator. The voltage on that alternator is actually controlled by the ECU, as there is no voltage regulator in the alternator on the newer models.

Well, I don't know if I would call it normal for the belt to squeal and voltage to drop "way down". Last time exact same thing happened on my 93 it was the alternator bearings. Pulled it and took to a local automotive electrical shop where they put it on the test rack and it would barely rotate along with a lot of of protesting. Replaced bearings and brushes for $42 and been fine for five years this month.

That's my happy story -- yours may be different.

Took the alt and battery into the parts store and had them tested. Battery is fine. Alt tested ok but squawked a bit. Figured I'd do like Pelican did and replace the bearings and bushings. Kits are only like 30bucks. Wile getting the alt part numbers I noticed that the front of the housing has a crack in it. A pretty pretty decent one at that. Looks like I'm stuck buying a new one.