I greatly enjoy QRP, but in this post I will add another angle to the
arguments in favor of QRO.
It seems that most of the people on the reflector are spending their time
seriously contesting or working pileups. Under those conditions your
transmission will invariably harm someone else if ever so slightly. If
desired, one can reduce the impact by relying more on skill or by contesting
in a lower power class. Personally I seldom bother with contests anymore,
except for FD, and if I work a DX I don't care what my DXCC standing is.
When I operate, it is not the best time of day but when I feel like it. With
this attitude I see a lot of almost dead bands. At some point sunspots will
be numerous enough to change this, but for the last several years a lot of
operators just don't seem to bother using a given band unless that band is
really working well, or there is a contest on. I do a lot of tuning around a
"dead" band looking for a signal. In this situation a wide RX bandwidth is
helpful. If there is a station calling CQ, it really helps if he is QRO.
Even key clicks are helpful in that situation. (Hmmm, should I beg the
Elecraft developers to add a K3 function to generate clicks for those
special times only???) Sometimes I use QRO myself to call CQ. Then, when I
get a QSO, I may or may not reduce power. I think the FCC rule is to use no
more power than needed for the desired communication. QSB sometimes leads to
a need for extra power, but also if I use high power for the current QSO,
then I know that there is a much better chance of someone else calling me
after the current QSO ends. Thus I am *now* using the power required for the
desired communication which happens *later*. This may seem like stretching
the rules, but from a rational perspective, is it any worse than having to
call CQ again at high power?
In summary, sometimes there is too much RF on the bands, and one has to
think about whether one can justify adding to it at QRO level. At other
times one can do fellow hams a favor by making a quiet band become more
lively and inviting. Every transmission then has a secondary mission as a
beacon.
73,
Erik K7TV
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