[Elecraft] SSB - Fooie!

[bejones@hursley.ibm.com]

On 9 Oct 2002 at 8:38, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
> Maybe the K2 and the other QRP SSB rigs will change that.

Don't forget that here in the UK we have a new licence class - 
Foundation. This has a 10W power limit on all bands (except 10m) 
upto 433MHz. 

It is intended for newcomers and family members of higher classed 
amateurs and only requires 10 hours of tuition (I just taught a class last 
weekend where 13 new folks all passed). It really only covers very 
basic theory and some operating practical. To allow folks to get on HF 
there is a Morse 'Assessment' in which folks get sent a 20 char QSO. 
The write down what they heard - i.e they write ./ -..-/ .-/ --/ .--./ .-.././
and after the QSO has been sent they get a morse crib sheet and look 
up the letters (kinda like kids playing morse). If they get any wrong it 
gets resent until they pass. They have to do sending to, again they 
manually code their message into .s and -s and then send. My friend 
who does the morse assessment is blessed with a great ear for pulling 
out terrible code!!

The morse assessment is also available to B class licencees (our 
equiv of the old US no-code Tech - dunno the US licencing structure 
these days). They can then also apply for a Foundation licence and get 
on HF with 10W

So far (IIRC) at least 2500 new 10W licencees are out there, nearly all 
of whom have non-code so will be on SSB. 

Of course there's no way of actually policing the 10W power limit but I 
do encourage all my pupils to enjoy the challenge of 10W. I know a few 
have got FT817's - sadly the K2 is going to be daunting to most. I use 
my K2 for the classes and a couple have shown interest.

So if you work anyone with an M3xxx (or MW3, MD3, MI3, MM3, MU3, 
MJ3) callsign they are in theory running only 10W max.

Brian G0UKB
K2 #1115