DX on 15 watts

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DX on 15 watts

glover3149@comcast.net
Until I built my K2 (7186) I had no idea that dx on 15 watts was even possible.  I have been running QRO for a couple of years and making the contacts, but getting alot of these same contacts (Sweeden, Hungary, Lithuania) on 15 watts with a radio I built is hard to top.  Only been running this rig for a week or two now, but am extreamly well pleased with it.  Just wanted to share the joy.
73
mike-kb3qja
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Re: DX on 15 watts

g3ymc
On 31 Jul 2011 at 22:07, vicki glover wrote:

> Until I built my K2 (7186) I had no idea that dx on 15 watts was even
> possible.  I have been running QRO for a couple of years and making the
> contacts, but getting alot of these same contacts (Sweeden, Hungary,
> Lithuania) on 15 watts with a radio I built is hard to top.  Only been
> running this rig for a week or two now, but am extreamly well pleased
> with it. Just wanted to share the joy. 73 mike-kb3qja __

15 Watts is decidedly QRO, I have never run more than 5 Watts from my
K2 in the past 9 years and have 231 DXCC. Last month I worked in the
Club 72 Marathon (http://club72.su/marathon.html) with just 1 Watt for
most of my QSOs and found stations came back just as easily with that
power as they did with 5. Conditions have been pretty dire recently but
nevertheless had quite a few nice QSOs including some in PY and LU.
Give it a go, you will be surprised.

73 Dave G3YMC

http://www.davesergeant.com

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Re: DX on 15 watts

k5oai
All these QRP/QRO contacts stories,
are pretty meaningless to me,
*UNLESS*
they have antenna, band, and qth information included.

1w/5w/15w from a 3 ele beam @ 70 feet
is a bit of a different story
from a short clandestine wire and an apartment building....

or
160m vs 20m

or
DXCC from middle of Europe _or_ middle of Kansas

just saying......
;-)

--
GB & 73
K5OAI
Sam Morgan

On 8/1/2011 12:48 AM, Dave Sergeant wrote:

> On 31 Jul 2011 at 22:07, vicki glover wrote:
>
>> Until I built my K2 (7186) I had no idea that dx on 15 watts was even
>> possible.  I have been running QRO for a couple of years and making the
>> contacts, but getting alot of these same contacts (Sweeden, Hungary,
>> Lithuania) on 15 watts with a radio I built is hard to top.  Only been
>> running this rig for a week or two now, but am extreamly well pleased
>> with it. Just wanted to share the joy. 73 mike-kb3qja __
>
> 15 Watts is decidedly QRO, I have never run more than 5 Watts from my
> K2 in the past 9 years and have 231 DXCC. Last month I worked in the
> Club 72 Marathon (http://club72.su/marathon.html) with just 1 Watt for
> most of my QSOs and found stations came back just as easily with that
> power as they did with 5. Conditions have been pretty dire recently but
> nevertheless had quite a few nice QSOs including some in PY and LU.
> Give it a go, you will be surprised.
>
> 73 Dave G3YMC
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Re: DX on 15 watts

alsopb
Hi Sam,
Agree.  They also don't report how the guy they worked had to struggle
to pull them out or what his equipment was.

I did a breakdown of the maximum distance to 100, 200 and 300 DXCC
countries for each country of the world.  EU certainly has a big
advantage.  Several EU countries have 100 countries within one hop or Es
skip.  The best locations ring the Mediterranean sea.

On the other hand the worst places are in the Pacific.  At least they
have a "prefix gain" advantage.

At the 300 country level, everybody is about equal.

Easiest    km to 100,200 and 300 countries
5A Libya   3373, 8179, 15547
3V Tunisia 3477, 7762, 15495
9H Malta    3583, 8000, 15315
7X Algeria  3603, 7694, 15173
TA Turkey   3638, 8779. 14158

Difficult
3D2 Fiji    10710, 14499, 17308
3D2 Rotuma  10813, 14260, 16932
T30 West K   10823, 13757, 16170
YJ Vanuatu  10825, 14514, 16819
H40 Temotu  10892, 14213, 16458

73 de Brian/K3KO

On 8/1/2011 12:41, Sam Morgan wrote:

> All these QRP/QRO contacts stories,
> are pretty meaningless to me,
> *UNLESS*
> they have antenna, band, and qth information included.
>
> 1w/5w/15w from a 3 ele beam @ 70 feet
> is a bit of a different story
> from a short clandestine wire and an apartment building....
>
> or
> 160m vs 20m
>
> or
> DXCC from middle of Europe _or_ middle of Kansas
>
> just saying......
> ;-)
>
> --
> GB&  73
> K5OAI
> Sam Morgan
>
> On 8/1/2011 12:48 AM, Dave Sergeant wrote:
>> On 31 Jul 2011 at 22:07, vicki glover wrote:
>>
>>> Until I built my K2 (7186) I had no idea that dx on 15 watts was even
>>> possible.  I have been running QRO for a couple of years and making the
>>> contacts, but getting alot of these same contacts (Sweeden, Hungary,
>>> Lithuania) on 15 watts with a radio I built is hard to top.  Only been
>>> running this rig for a week or two now, but am extreamly well pleased
>>> with it. Just wanted to share the joy. 73 mike-kb3qja __
>>
>> 15 Watts is decidedly QRO, I have never run more than 5 Watts from my
>> K2 in the past 9 years and have 231 DXCC. Last month I worked in the
>> Club 72 Marathon (http://club72.su/marathon.html) with just 1 Watt for
>> most of my QSOs and found stations came back just as easily with that
>> power as they did with 5. Conditions have been pretty dire recently but
>> nevertheless had quite a few nice QSOs including some in PY and LU.
>> Give it a go, you will be surprised.
>>
>> 73 Dave G3YMC
> ______________________________________________________________
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>




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Re: DX on 15 watts

AD6XY
The largest contributor to DX success has and always will be your ability to be there and efficiently radiate a signal in the right direction and to receive signals well. I have always found QRP based on TX power to be anachronistic. It is the EIRP that matters. Neglecting efficiency for the moment running 5W to a 10dB gain beam is exactly the same at the far end of the QSO as running 50W to an isotropic. So many hams are QRAntenna. QRP + QRAntenna is difficult.

Usually though, the antenna difference is much greater due to losses, especially with covert low antennas. That is not all of it either. The older ham with the large real estate, the 60ft tower and the beam and a pension, is not only going to have a better signal but does not need to spend most of their waking hours at work. These hams are QRTime. So QRTime + QRAntenna + QRPower = really hard challenge. Eliminate any one of those and it is still an impressive achievement. Eliminate two and it is getting a bit easy.
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Re: DX on 15 watts

stan levandowski
In reply to this post by glover3149@comcast.net

Sam, I clearly see your point.  Perhaps I can volunteer some specifics
from my own QRP station.  I live in a townhouse in NY state opposite a
1500 foot mountain a half mile away and I'm about 200 feet MSL.  My
antenna is an East/West 44' nonresonant doublet in my attic which  loads
up on 80 through 6 through an SGC-237 autocoupler.  However, I presently
choose to only work 40, 30, and 20.  I built and use all the Elecraft
transceivers.  I generally use only 5 watts and I only operate CW. I am
a QRP fanatic.  I've worked 83 countries on 5 watts or less and nearly
all states with this antenna and my K2 and K3 within the last year.
I'm a ragchewer, not a paper-chaser so these numbers do not represent
any kind of concentrated effort.  My other antennas are equally
non-awe-inspiring.  A 28 foot wire thrown into a tree, with a 33'
counterpoise on the ground, regularly gets my K1 signal into Europe and
South America from my back deck with 559 average reports.  A homemade
magnetic loop sitting in my driveway and 900 milliwatts out of my KX1
got to UA1CE in St. Petersburgh on two different occasions. That's
better than 5000 miles per watt.

QRP is responsible for bringing me back into ham radio.  I left the
hobby for many years after becoming rather bored with how easy it was to
push the button, aim the tribander on the tower attached to the side of
my house, toss my 180 watts into the ether and get a reply 99% of the
time.

For me, QRP became one of those niche areas in ham radio referred to by
another lister.  Every contact is a 'big deal' and when I reach for the
power knob on my rig its usually to turn it *down* even further just to
see how low I can go.  I've been milliwatting recently.  I also go CW
mobile on 40, 30, and 20 with hamsticks.

In the end, it all comes down to the gods of propagation.  But even
then, I've called CQ on a "dead band" more than once and received a
surprising reply around 14.060.

Anyway, for what it's worth.....


73, Stan WB2LQF
KX1 #2411    K1#2994    K2# 6980    K3#5244     K9 #1 (Cocoa the
Chihuahua)
Everything is QRP, even the dog.



On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 8:41 AM, Sam Morgan wrote:

> All these QRP/QRO contacts stories,
> are pretty meaningless to me,
> *UNLESS*
> they have antenna, band, and qth information included.
>
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Re: DX on 15 watts

John Ragle
In reply to this post by AD6XY
How about some QRChat?

John Ragle -- W1ZI
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Re: DX on 15 watts

Tony Castellano
In reply to this post by stan levandowski
I totally agree with Stan. I built my K2 less than 2 months ago and have
worked 32 countries with 5 Watts so far.
I also don't have a beam with 10 db gain; I use a plain old dipole, and like
Stan, my average reports are 559.
I have even made a DX contact through a pileup.
I operate only CW and don't even own a mike. Try it, you may like it.

Tony Castellano W1ZMB
[hidden email]
Hopewell Junction, NY
RV-6
N401TC

----- Original Message -----
From: "stan levandowski" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Cc: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] DX on 15 watts


>
> Sam, I clearly see your point.  Perhaps I can volunteer some specifics
> from my own QRP station.  I live in a townhouse in NY state opposite a
> 1500 foot mountain a half mile away and I'm about 200 feet MSL.  My
> antenna is an East/West 44' nonresonant doublet in my attic which  loads
> up on 80 through 6 through an SGC-237 autocoupler.  However, I presently
> choose to only work 40, 30, and 20.  I built and use all the Elecraft
> transceivers.  I generally use only 5 watts and I only operate CW. I am
> a QRP fanatic.  I've worked 83 countries on 5 watts or less and nearly
> all states with this antenna and my K2 and K3 within the last year.
> I'm a ragchewer, not a paper-chaser so these numbers do not represent
> any kind of concentrated effort.  My other antennas are equally
> non-awe-inspiring.  A 28 foot wire thrown into a tree, with a 33'
> counterpoise on the ground, regularly gets my K1 signal into Europe and
> South America from my back deck with 559 average reports.  A homemade
> magnetic loop sitting in my driveway and 900 milliwatts out of my KX1
> got to UA1CE in St. Petersburgh on two different occasions. That's
> better than 5000 miles per watt.
>
> QRP is responsible for bringing me back into ham radio.  I left the
> hobby for many years after becoming rather bored with how easy it was to
> push the button, aim the tribander on the tower attached to the side of
> my house, toss my 180 watts into the ether and get a reply 99% of the
> time.
>
> For me, QRP became one of those niche areas in ham radio referred to by
> another lister.  Every contact is a 'big deal' and when I reach for the
> power knob on my rig its usually to turn it *down* even further just to
> see how low I can go.  I've been milliwatting recently.  I also go CW
> mobile on 40, 30, and 20 with hamsticks.
>
> In the end, it all comes down to the gods of propagation.  But even
> then, I've called CQ on a "dead band" more than once and received a
> surprising reply around 14.060.
>
> Anyway, for what it's worth.....
>
>
> 73, Stan WB2LQF
> KX1 #2411    K1#2994    K2# 6980    K3#5244     K9 #1 (Cocoa the
> Chihuahua)
> Everything is QRP, even the dog.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 8:41 AM, Sam Morgan wrote:
>
>> All these QRP/QRO contacts stories,
>> are pretty meaningless to me,
>> *UNLESS*
>> they have antenna, band, and qth information included.
>>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 

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Re: DX on 15 watts

w1pns
In reply to this post by stan levandowski
On Mon, 2011-08-01 at 09:50 -0400, stan levandowski wrote:
> Sam, I clearly see your point.  

>snip<

Oh, all right, another testimonial, sort of.

I run 5w through an attic (two-story house) dipole cut for 20m and fed
with ladder line, at least to the attic floor. Then it goes to coax --
the cheap, lossy RG58 kind, which doesn't require as large a hole in my
ceiling!  ;-)

No DXCC yet, but I've got about 40 countries with this set-up, and I'm
South Dakota-shy of a WAS (domestic DX?). I do a mix of rag-chewing,
light contesting, and light paper-chasing.

I never believe a 599 report, or even a 559 report, from a DX station,
only because I suspect those are the two reports programmed into their
memory keyers for contest ops -- one for "you're readable," the other
for "I can barely hear you." I'm only now discovering the reverse-beacon
sites, which may provide a better sense of what my signal is like when
it lands somewhere. The only reports above 559 I believe are those where
the other station comes back with something like: Only 5 watts? You're
kidding!

QRP is not everyone's cup of tea, any more than fly fishing is. But
taken in whatever amounts you find tolerable, it can add a sense of
challenge to one's operations.

As for effective-radiated power, no question that plays a key role in
how hard the other station has to work to pull out a QRP signal -- as,
one might add, does the amount of incoming signal at whatever ERP the
recipient's antenna and feedline will deliver to that ham's xcvr.

But even my modest antenna -- with a radiation pattern that must look
like a Gordian knot and with an ERP that is probably laughable -- can
yield a significant number of enjoyable contacts.

I do keep a 45-watt amp on hand for emergency communications or when I
serve as a special-event station for club activities. Since most of the
members during these SEs are QRO, I want to give them something closer
to a signal they are used to pulling in.

Power output may seem anachronistic as a gauge of what a station is
capable of delivering, but that is just as true for running 1.5kw
through a four element beam up 100 feet as it is for 5 watts through the
same antenna. Since antennas vary so widely, based on an op's QTH and
pocketbook, power out seems to this non-specialist as about the only
consistent baseline one can use, however imperfect. But I can be
educated otherwise!  ;-) As the Genie shouted in "Aladdin": "He *can* be
taught!"

And then there's OM Propagation and path losses each end of the QSO
experiences! But that's another story...

With best regards,

Pete

--
Peter N. Spotts -- W1PNS
http://www.w1pns.net 
Email: [hidden email] | Skype: pspotts
QCWA #34679 | SKCC #4853T | QRP-ARCI #4174
NEQRP #714 | NAQCC #2446 | GQRP #13202

"Amateur radio is a contact sport.
Get on the air and make a contact!"
       -- Lyle Amundson, K0LFV


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Re: DX on 15 watts

Gary D Krause
In reply to this post by g3ymc
I'm just curious, Dave, but, what type of antenna are you using?

Gary, N7HTS


On Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:48:07 +0100
  "Dave Sergeant" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On 31 Jul 2011 at 22:07, vicki glover wrote:
>
>> Until I built my K2 (7186) I had no idea that dx on 15 watts was even
>> possible.  I have been running QRO for a couple of years and making the
>> contacts, but getting alot of these same contacts (Sweeden, Hungary,
>> Lithuania) on 15 watts with a radio I built is hard to top.  Only been
>> running this rig for a week or two now, but am extreamly well pleased
>> with it. Just wanted to share the joy. 73 mike-kb3qja __
>
> 15 Watts is decidedly QRO, I have never run more than 5 Watts from my
> K2 in the past 9 years and have 231 DXCC. Last month I worked in the
> Club 72 Marathon (http://club72.su/marathon.html) with just 1 Watt for
> most of my QSOs and found stations came back just as easily with that
> power as they did with 5. Conditions have been pretty dire recently but
> nevertheless had quite a few nice QSOs including some in PY and LU.
> Give it a go, you will be surprised.
>
> 73 Dave G3YMC
>
> http://www.davesergeant.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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Re: DX on 15 watts

AC7AC
In reply to this post by k5oai
CONTENTS DELETED
The author has deleted this message.
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Re: DX on 15 watts

Gary D Krause
In reply to this post by Tony Castellano
Hi Tony, I agree with Stan and you also.  However, you live in NY.  The east
coast seems to have an easier time of it.  I live in Wyoming and I work QRP
also with a elevated vertical, an assortment of magnetic loops and a K2.  It's
not as easy here as it is for you guys on the east coast. ;-)

Gary, N7HTS


On Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:01:30 -0400
  Tony Castellano <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I totally agree with Stan. I built my K2 less than 2 months ago and have
> worked 32 countries with 5 Watts so far.
> I also don't have a beam with 10 db gain; I use a plain old dipole, and like
> Stan, my average reports are 559.
> I have even made a DX contact through a pileup.
> I operate only CW and don't even own a mike. Try it, you may like it.
>
> Tony Castellano W1ZMB
> [hidden email]
> Hopewell Junction, NY
> RV-6
> N401TC
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "stan levandowski" <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>
> Cc: <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011 9:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] DX on 15 watts
>
>
>>
>> Sam, I clearly see your point.  Perhaps I can volunteer some specifics
>> from my own QRP station.  I live in a townhouse in NY state opposite a
>> 1500 foot mountain a half mile away and I'm about 200 feet MSL.  My
>> antenna is an East/West 44' nonresonant doublet in my attic which  loads
>> up on 80 through 6 through an SGC-237 autocoupler.  However, I presently
>> choose to only work 40, 30, and 20.  I built and use all the Elecraft
>> transceivers.  I generally use only 5 watts and I only operate CW. I am
>> a QRP fanatic.  I've worked 83 countries on 5 watts or less and nearly
>> all states with this antenna and my K2 and K3 within the last year.
>> I'm a ragchewer, not a paper-chaser so these numbers do not represent
>> any kind of concentrated effort.  My other antennas are equally
>> non-awe-inspiring.  A 28 foot wire thrown into a tree, with a 33'
>> counterpoise on the ground, regularly gets my K1 signal into Europe and
>> South America from my back deck with 559 average reports.  A homemade
>> magnetic loop sitting in my driveway and 900 milliwatts out of my KX1
>> got to UA1CE in St. Petersburgh on two different occasions. That's
>> better than 5000 miles per watt.
>>
>> QRP is responsible for bringing me back into ham radio.  I left the
>> hobby for many years after becoming rather bored with how easy it was to
>> push the button, aim the tribander on the tower attached to the side of
>> my house, toss my 180 watts into the ether and get a reply 99% of the
>> time.
>>
>> For me, QRP became one of those niche areas in ham radio referred to by
>> another lister.  Every contact is a 'big deal' and when I reach for the
>> power knob on my rig its usually to turn it *down* even further just to
>> see how low I can go.  I've been milliwatting recently.  I also go CW
>> mobile on 40, 30, and 20 with hamsticks.
>>
>> In the end, it all comes down to the gods of propagation.  But even
>> then, I've called CQ on a "dead band" more than once and received a
>> surprising reply around 14.060.
>>
>> Anyway, for what it's worth.....
>>
>>
>> 73, Stan WB2LQF
>> KX1 #2411    K1#2994    K2# 6980    K3#5244     K9 #1 (Cocoa the
>> Chihuahua)
>> Everything is QRP, even the dog.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 8:41 AM, Sam Morgan wrote:
>>
>>> All these QRP/QRO contacts stories,
>>> are pretty meaningless to me,
>>> *UNLESS*
>>> they have antenna, band, and qth information included.
>>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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Re: DX on 15 watts

Tony Estep
In reply to this post by AC7AC
On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Ron D'Eau Claire <[hidden email]> wrote:

> You are trying to make too much sense out of it...

============
I think Ron sums it up very neatly. If you examine any kind of DXing too
closely it probably doesn't make much sense. Nonetheless, it's fun and can
be compelling -- the pictures of stations and antennas in ON4UN's books
reveal that all over the world hams go to extreme lengths to work DX.

I'm a half-hearted QRP op myself. I've worked DXCC twice with QRP, once with
my K2 and once with a Flex-1500. The first 100 are easy, because there  are
about that many countries on the air all the time with good signals into
Missouri, but after that it gets kinda sticky, and I lose interest. Dave
G3YMC has stuck with it, using only a 60-foot wire in his yard to work more
than 200, so he's one of the QRP DX heroes. At another extreme, I remember
seeing a web page about a ham who had over 300 with 5 watts; he had a huge
antenna setup worthy of a multi-contest station. So it all depends on one's
own inexplicable proclivities.

73, Tony KT0NY

--
http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352
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Re: DX on 15 watts

Kurt Cramer-2


I don't chime in on many of these threads, but this one got me thinking. I was first licensed as a Novice in 1951. As a General in 1952. I worked mostly 10 meters with a Harvey Wells TBS-50d. That had an 807 in the final, so ran 50 watts on AM. So that's about what a K2 runs on SSB. 12 watts on one sideband! I worked the world. Well, the world was smaller then, a lot fewer Hams and I worked mostly a north south path. So my world was central and south America. Once a VK or ZL.  Every day I'd come home from school, turn on the rig and talk to DX stations. NOW if we can just get 10 meters to be wide open! Sunspot count is 2128 today. There's hope yet.
73, Kurt, W7QHD
     
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Re: DX on 15 watts

Kurt Cramer-2

That sunspot count is 128. Sorry.

From: [hidden email]
To: [hidden email]
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] DX on 15 watts
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 09:41:54 -0700









I don't chime in on many of these threads, but this one got me thinking. I was first licensed as a Novice in 1951. As a General in 1952. I worked mostly 10 meters with a Harvey Wells TBS-50d. That had an 807 in the final, so ran 50 watts on AM. So that's about what a K2 runs on SSB. 12 watts on one sideband! I worked the world. Well, the world was smaller then, a lot fewer Hams and I worked mostly a north south path. So my world was central and south America. Once a VK or ZL.  Every day I'd come home from school, turn on the rig and talk to DX stations. NOW if we can just get 10 meters to be wide open! Sunspot count is 2128 today. There's hope yet.
73, Kurt, W7QHD
         
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Re: DX on 15 watts

John Harper AE5X
In reply to this post by glover3149@comcast.net
>Agree.  They also don't report how the guy they worked had to struggle
>to pull them out or what his equipment was.

Brain, I beleive you're speaking from the wrong orifice:

A DX station working a pile-up isn't trying to "pull out the QRPer" - he's just trying to work those he hears. The fact that he hears (and then works) the QRPer is a simply function of his having heard the QRPer rather than the others calling him. This is because the QRPer called where the DX is listening at a time when the others didn't. By virtue of calling off-freq (outside the passband), the QRO ops make themselves "virtual QRPpers" who are too weak to be heard.

Technique and skill of the QRPer are at work here - a fact that is worth dB on the rx end every bit as real as that gained from an antenna or an amp.


John AE5X
Radio: http://www.ae5x.com/blog


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Re: DX on 15 watts

k6dgw
In reply to this post by Kurt Cramer-2
Don't we all wish it was 2128! :-)

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011
- www.cqp.org

On 8/1/2011 9:41 AM, Kurt Cramer wrote:

> Sunspot count is 2128 today. There's hope yet. 73, Kurt, W7QHD
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Re: DX on 15 watts

AC7AC
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Re: DX on 15 watts

Edward R Cole
In reply to this post by glover3149@comcast.net
Performance is all about SNR and your patience quotient.

I have checked into the Elecrafter 20m SSB Net many times now running
my K3/10 with about 16w output.  I never calibrated the transmitter
output and that was what its max output is on 20m.  It drops to 8w on 10m & 6m.

I'm sure others were stronger than me but I have always gotten in
(even when N7SP has his antennas pointed east).  I believe it does
not take lots of power to work on HF quite a bit of the time.  I mean
when a signal is coming in S9++ I can also copy the station just as
easily at S3-4.  That is over 30-dB in signal strength
difference.  500w vs 0.5w?

Note that I did not say working DX or CW or FD.  My suspicion is that
if the FCC restricted power output to 100w it would not make much
difference as the band would not be filled with QRO QRM noise.  But
as long as one guy has to run 10kW ERP then all the others must to keep up!

How I come by this is I live where there is a small ham radio density
so the band is fairly quiet.  Noise without the PRE on 20m runs S3,
so all you need to have a decent SNR is to produce a S3 signal in my
receiver.  S5 signals are arm-chair copy.  I do know that the noise
floor is more like S9 in the cities (sorry but you chose to live
there).  I left LA in 1979 for rural Alaska and never had a
regret.  My first few years I lived in a wall tent 2-miles off the
grid and enjoyed S-0 noise on 80m.  Once power was wired to the
neighborhood that went up to S4-5.  I now live in a buried utility
neighborhood and that results in a couple s-units lower noise.  I
just checked 80m and it is S3.

I will say having the best antenna one can manage is a "big
equalizer".  I use to run a 20m dipole and now have a $75 30-year old
Hygain 3-element tribander (no great shakes but probably an honest
5-6 dB gain).  So my ERP = 16*4 = 64w (wow)

When I was a Novice in 1958 running 75w to my 6146 (DX-35) on 40m CW
I never felt disadvantaged.  But I sure would love to see the
propagation of those years.  I listened to guys running 50w AM on 10m
working the world.

Of course conditions can change and then having a bit more ERP makes
the contact.  That is why I am building a 300w HF PA.

PS: if you really want to run QRP, try 10mw on 10-GHz!  One can do a
couple hundred miles with only that on 10-GHz using a small horn
antenna with 17-dB gain (EIRP = 10*50= 500mw).


73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45
======================================
BP40IQ   500 KHz - 10-GHz   www.kl7uw.com
EME: 50-1.1kw?, 144-1.4kw, 432-100w, 1296-60w, 3400-?
DUBUS Magazine USA Rep [hidden email]
======================================

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