[Elecraft] Practical K2 versus K2/100

Sun Jan 19 01:49:01 2003

Billy G. Echols wrote:

>The attempt here is to examine the 160- and 10-meter claimed scores 
>from the ARRL contests conducted in the fall of year 2002 for how 
>differences in power affected the results. The hypothesis is that 
>higher power is required on the lower frequency bands to overcome 
>the effects of noise and vagaries of propagation.

Thankyou Bill for posting these figures, I will have to have a closer 
look at the ARRL site to find how I really did, but certainly my 
effort in CW ARRL 10m QRP where I put in a claimed score of 119,712 
looks in the upper quartile. In last years results it would have been 
in the top 10 DX.

It is difficult to draw too many conclusions though from the figures 
as the two contests are totally different. Also it doesn't list the 
CW, SSB and mixed sections separately and I am puzzled why there are 
five columns for the quartiles!

The 160m contest is a DX works USA/VE only contest - as such it 
really rules out any QRP participation in Europe as even the well 
equipped stations will only manage a handful of contacts. From my 
postage stamp garden I would be lucky to QSO any USA stations at all, 
although my friend across town has worked W9 with 10W. By contrast 
the 10m contest is an everybody works everybody else contest and 
working USA is pretty straightforward.

I did not even attempt an entry in the top band event, but my results 
in the 10m one show that even a modest QRP entrant can have a 
reasonable bash in this event and the other big contests. I would 
like to encourage more entrants to the QRP sections of these contests 
which seem to be relatively poorly supported. Last time I checked I 
was the only G entrant in the 10m QRP CW section. In CQWW CW there 
are only 5 Gs listed in the QRP all band section. Come on chaps, it 
can be done. Willingness to devote the time and operating skills are 
far more significant than the difference between 5W and 100W, and 
active participation in these events gives excellent publicity for 
Elecraft products.

73s Dave G3YMC

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