[Elecraft] SSB - Fooie!

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Brian G0UKB wrote

QRP SSB works very well in contests when the other guy will make the 
effort for the extra point. It is much harder to have casual QSOs 
though, as Larry points out some folks often don't want to be bothered 
with much less than 59 copy.

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Maybe the K2 and the other QRP SSB rigs will change that. I recall in
decades past that a LOT of CW ops scoffed at anyone who didn't have an
S-9 signal. Oh, most ops tolerated a low powered signal at least long
enough to swap signal reports - I think that we were considered
"refugees" from the Novice bands who hadn't bought a "real rig" yet in
their opinion. But it was often hard to have a rag chew with some of
those ops. I don't think that is quite so true to day. The reason, I
suspect, is the popularity of QRP and the sheer number of  QRP rigs on
the bands. I'm using QRP in it's generic meaning of "low power" and
including all of us running 10 or 20 watts with various rigs as well as
the QRP ARCI enthusiasts. 

At the same time there haven't been all that many QRP rigs readily
available to the bulk of the SSB ops - at least not since the 20A and a
few other 10 and 20 watt PEP rigs disappeared from the market in the
early 1960's. Back then what "sold" the "Donald Duck modulation" to the
mainstream was the fact that 10 or 20 watts PEP got out just as well as
the bulk of the 50 to 150 watt (d-c input) AM stations on the air. And
that was what the vast majority of the "phone operators" were running in
those days. 

But since the advent of the 'factory built' 100 watt output SSB rigs,
low powered SSB has been a bit like AM on the phone bands from what I
understand. A few dedicated enthusiasts but not much more. 

Now when more and more QRO ops hear QRP ops having nice rag chews on
SSB, perhaps they'll begin to think a little differently about the need
for a "20 over 9" signal to have a nice QSO.

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289