[Elecraft] Alligators and Bats

[Tom Hammond NØSS]

Hi Guys:

About the ONLY time I sign "/QRP" is when I'm calling ON (or near) one of 
the QRP calling frequencies... OR if I think it might actually help my 
chances of working a station I feel might actually care to listen a bit 
harder for "the QRP station...".

In contests, the only time they find out I'm QRP is if it's part of the 
exchange, otherwise, I'm just one of those midwesterners who hasn't learned 
that a dipole at 10' isn't an 'antenna'.

Tom  N0SS

>Ron D' Eau Claire wrote:
> > But I am always aware that when I work a QRO station while I am running a
> > barefoot K2, I have just 'volunteered' him to make a QRP contact whether he
> > wanted to or not. I try to stay aware of the changing band conditions,
> > realizing that if the band isn't in the very best shape he is likely 
> working
> > much harder to copy me than I am him, and the reason for that is because of
> > my choice to limit myself to low power.

Then, Jim, W4BQP, responded:
>Thanks, Ron, that explains something that I have experienced from time
>to time in the last few months that I have been back on the air.  As
>soon as I would tell the other station I was QRP, they wouldn't come
>back to me.  I couldn't understand why.  Now I do.  As a result, I
>usually don't share that I am QRP until near the end of the QSO.
>
>I suppose that if I identified myself as a QRP station when I answered
>his call (i.e., de W4BQP/QRP) it would give him a choice, but then I
>would have fewer QSOs than I now do. Maybe I will try it and see what
>happens.