[Elecraft] FD Battery rules (was QRP Power Level?)

[BMW]

cbw at io.com writes:
>
>> While the Battery subclass is limited to 5W, the Alternative Power Bonus
>> is not.  We were running 100W on Battery for one of our stations using
>> Solar Panels as the power source.

Hope you don't think that the alternative power bonus can be made with a
higher power level and you can still use a 5x power multiplier. The rules
are very clear: the highest power used for ANY contact is what you use to
determine your power multiplier. If you do 1000 contacts  at 5W and do ten
alternative power contacts at 100W, your power multiplier is 2. There is no
special exemption for alternative power; in fact it even qualifies as a
transmitter for purposes of establishing class.

Good luck proposing changes to the rules. I have not had much luck getting
Dan Henderson to fix the inconsistencies in the FD rules. He has been
totally unwilling to change them. I think he just took a new job though, so
perhaps the new FD person will fix the morass he created.

For example, I pointed out to him that everyone who operates class A and AB
gets to claim the emergency power bonus, because a requirement of class A is
that all contacts are made independent of commercial mains. His answer was
that that's true unless you use commercial mains anyway, which puts you in
class A-commercial...say what!?!. Before about 1992, the emergency power
bonus was a true bonus, applied only when everything at the site
(coffeepots, lights, etc.) was run off generator or batteries. They changed
that rule to accommodate groups who wanted to use incidental light because
of where they set up (e.g., a park with lights, or a building where they
could use existing lights). I pointed out that a simple allowance for the
use of incidental light in the FAQ would have fixed this. But Dan stubbornly
refused to fix this - or that nonsensical "Class A Commercial" subgroup.

In recent years, ARRL has tried to remove the "contest" aspect from FD. Even
in my local club, some members griped that FD was meant to be "fun" and not
a contest. That trivializes a serious effort to do well AND have fun. If
they turn FD into a "fun event" and eliminate scoring, this FD regular in 4A
will quit.

73,

Brian, W0DZ

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Karl Larsen
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 6:29 AM
To: N2EY at aol.com
Cc: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net; Leigh at WA5ZNU.org
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] FD Battery rules (was QRP Power Level?)


    I am with you Jim. Field Day rules should change to allow a CW
station to operate QRP and get the added score for being QRP, with
another station working SSB at 1500 watts who get the usual 1 point,
per contact.

    Not sure who to write and ask for the change. But this last FD QRP
SSB was just not practical.

73 Karl




N2EY at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 7/7/06 3:16:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time, cbw at io.com
> writes:
>
>> While the Battery subclass is limited to 5W, the Alternative Power Bonus
>> is not.  We were running 100W on Battery for one of our stations using
>> Solar Panels as the power source.
>>
>> I also agree that the Battery subclass should allow more power.  There
>> would still be the QRP power multiplier to account for the power level.
>> My club might be willing to go to all battery, but would not be willing
to
>> give up 13db.
>>
>>
>
> I think there are a couple different issues here.
>
> First off, the power levels aren't equally spaced. 5 W to 150 W is almost
15
> dB, but 150 W to 1500 W is only 10 dB.
>
> Second, a multitransmitter setup has to use the power of the highest-power
> station in the setup. IOW, if it's not all QRP, it's not QRP at all. It
didn't
> used to be that way - until 1971, a multitransmitter setup could have
multiple
> power categories and multipliers. I think we should go back to the way it
was
> before 1971.
>
> 73 de Jim, N2EY
> _______________________________________________
>