[Elecraft] Why QRPers should HATE clicky rigs.

[Guy Olinger, K2AV]

I just finished doing the ARRL DX CW contest at NY4A. I had the good
fortune to use their monster antenna on 40 meters. It's a five element
wide spaced quad that spans 168 feet, fixed on Europe, strung from a
catenary between two towers.

You know WHY they built a monster antenna on 40 meters? So they'd be
real loud in Europe, right?

Nope. Being real loud in Europe is nice, a side bonus, but not the
real KILLER benefit.

They built a monster 40 meter antenna so they could HEAR really WEAK
European stations. Like hearing 100 watt stations with lossy basement
antennas (really). Like hearing any QRP rig. Like hearing QRP rigs
using a 5 foot whip with a loading coil fed against an apartment
balcony rail for a ground. Like... But you get the picture.

It's not that we're being so magnanimous to listen for QRP. Not at
all. We know that many of these EU stations will be inaudible to
ordinary USA stations, no chance of being heard. We will do everything
possible to hear these stations, including listen to 40 in the middle
of the evening opening with the RF gain full up and the AGC off, with
only a limiter to prevent blowing our eardrums out our nose.

Anybody and everybody can work the strong guys. The good stations can
work all the mediocre stations. But it takes the monster antennas and
stainless steel eardrums to work the QRP layer of signals. The monster
is up there MAINLY to work the ENTIRE QRP/disadvantaged layer. Knowing
that if the competing monster antenna is not there, and/or the
competition is not willing to sacrifice their eardrums, we're going to
beat them on 40. We work the QRP layer and they don't. Shows up big
time in the score.

Now we've got motives straight, on to Sunday Night.

For a while we had a wonderful run frequency because the stations .5,
1.0, and 1.5 kHz above and below did NOT have any of those ~##!$%%!!*
@$%%^&##*! on their signals. Alas, our 40 meter logging PC suffered a
brain seizure, and by the time we got everything back on line, the run
frequency was gone, occupied by a serendipitous S51 station who by now
clearly had established squatter's rights on the frequency.

We found another run frequency at 7000.75 kHz. Normally prime real
estate and highly sought after. The reason why it was vacant was that
at 7001.25 was K*2** with clicks so loud at our place, you could hear
them well outside the band. Now he was squarely in the gun sights of
the monster 40 antenna, so he was really loud. QRO minus his
front-to-back PLUS our antenna forward gain. The clicks, in our
cascaded 400 Hz INRAD filters centered on 7000.75, were S8.

We worked most (read strong enough) signals through the clicks for the
last hour or so of the contest. But there were about a dozen weak
signals that WE COULD TELL WERE THERE, which we would have worked
easily on the other frequency, but could not work through the clicks,
even with RF gain up full and AGC off, and pain.

For a lot of QRP stations, working a well equipped station in a
contest is a way to pick up countries, states, counties.

A clicky station up or down from your intended target is the same
thing as putting an attenuator between your QRP rig and the antenna.

You should HATE clicky stations.

And if you're going to hate THEM, then would be a good thing not to be
clicky YOURSELF, even if you're QRP. There is this hypocrisy thing.

An unmodified K2/100 driving an amp would have been only slightly
better than the rig we know K*2** was using, like S7 clicks instead of
S8.

The key click mod is done, it's done right, it's done beautifully. It
sounds great when the mod is done.

Just do it.

73, Guy.