[Elecraft] Changes from 100 watts to 10 watts

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Frank, W6NEK, added some very useful facts about the propagation
beacons. It's worthwhile checking those beacons across  the 20-10 meter
bands to see how conditions are. The beacons all use identical vertical
antennas too, so their signals are omni directional and have the same
effective radiated power.  If you missed Frank's post, go to:
http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon.htm for all the dope! 

Software is available that will run on your computer and show you a
world map with the daylight and night areas indicated and which will
identify the location of the beacon transmitting at any moment. You can
sit back on one band, listen and watch the beacons come on and off
around the world on the map. At least one version is shareware that you
can try for free at http://www.taborsoft.com/abw/.

My decision to be able to run 100 watts is based on what I hear from
those beacons, among other things. I hope that no one ever had the idea
that the difference between 10 watts and 100 watts was more than 10 dB!
(That's an easy one to remember when doing "dB" in your head. 2:1 power
difference = 3 dB and 10:1 = 10 dB). So it's about an S-unit, maybe two,
of signal difference, depending upon the "S-meter", and it is often the
difference between copy and no copy, depending upon the band conditions.


Certainly, when conditions are good it is astonishing how loud that 1
watt or even the 100 milliwatt Beacon signal can be! But then, any QRP
operator knows how that works. 

To me, the K2/100 has two great features. 100 watts peak output and a
POWER control! 

I love working QRP, BTW. I receive it a lot. I always listen for the
weak signals. And if they are running 1 watt or 5 watts I'll crank down
the power if the other guy gave me a pretty strong signal report and see
if he can still copy. Maybe my antenna is not as good. Maybe his
receiver isn't as good. Maybe a lot of things. But if he can't copy me
and I can copy him, I'm happy to crank up the power as needed to make a
good QSO. 

It seems to the that the "skill" in a successful QRP contact is mostly
in RECEIVING the QRP signal, not in sending it! 

Sure, there is a lot of pride in having an efficient station setup.
That's how good QRP ops get the milliwatts launched from a tiny
transmitter. I wonder, sometimes, just how many ops out there are
running 100 watts but who are actually radiating a QRP signal without
realizing it! 

Along the same lines, when working a QRO station I tend to run the same
power he is, within the capabilities of the K2/100. That way I'm not
asking him to dig for me harder than I'm digging for him if the signals
aren't all that good. I think that's just polite.

... and no, I don't extend the value of "being polite" to the cost of a
"legal limit" amplifier <G>. But some do, and sometimes I can take the
cans off of my head and sit back and copy just fine with them sitting on
the desk and wonder if it's just my imagination or is the streetlight
outside really blinking slightly in time with his signal?...

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289