[Elecraft] just 500W ?

[k6rb at baymoon.com]

To Nelson's point about the antenna, if you want accurate gain figures,
you really should look at gain comparisons between a gain antenna at, say,
75 feet and a dipole at the same height. Using dBi figures is
fantasy-land. Have you ever used an isotopic dipole?

The Force 12 figures for antennas, such as the C31-XR, show dBd figures of
maybe 7 dB gain. That's just a bit more than an S-unit better than a
dipole at the same height. Those claims of 9 to 11 dBi are nonsense
claims.

Now, if you're using a stealth antenna, you are probably not coming close
to a dipole at 75 feet. So, the difference between your wet noodle and a
3-element yagi at 60 feet will be quite noticeable.

One advantage to using a gain antenna over an amplifier is that the gain
is both ways - TX and RX. I know quite a few mobile ops who run 500 watts
into a screwdriver antenna and are loud compared to mobile ops running 100
w into their screwdrivers. But, they don't hear one iota better (hi).

Last point, as someone mentioned, the heavy lifting in QRP QSOs is the guy
on the other hand. One contest that takes that into consideration is the
Stew Perry. Both ops get extra credit for the QRP QSO. I think that's the
most fair.

Rob K6RB

> Interesting that little has been said about the ANTENNA. Power is only
> part
> of the equation, and I suspect that there is more dB gain from upgrading
> your antenna than upgrading your amplifier from 100 to 500 or 500 to 1500
> watts. I've never operated with more than 600 watts power output, but I
> sure
> noticed the improvement when I switched from a HF6V to a TH-11. That
> station
> improvement took me from 305 confirmed to No. 1 Honor Roll. Yes, 1500
> watts
> may get you there faster, but 500 watts is all you really need to do the
> job.
>
> Nelson, KU0A
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Hector Padron
> Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 3:37 PM
> To: Wayne Burdick
> Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] just 500W ?
>
>
> Yeah,yeah,yeah, I know all about qrp,I started in hamradio when I was 13
> years old,I am 62 now,you figure how long ago,my first QRP was a 6V6 tube
> oscilating with a xtal on 7005 and that thing made barely 2W and with a
> dipole I worked in less than a year more than 100 countries in CW from my
> CO
> land BUT those were years where the bands were not so crowded and they
> were
> not so noisy and the solar cycles were great BUT today with the hundred
> thousand stations filling the bands,the high band noise,the terrible
> propagation,QRP working is not the same,besides the courtesy of those old
> times its gone forever,bands are plagued by guys using full legal power OR
> MORE who has no respect for anybody and the actual rules is have power or
> not make a contact,most of the times unless you have a great beam antenna
> on
> 40M you won't do much with a QRP,you need to have those 500W from your amp
> or more.Its tough today to survive in the bands jungle sorrounded by lions
> who  want to smash your poor signal and you only have a razor blade to
> defend yourself. "Life is too short for QRP ! "
>  
>  
> AD4C
>
> "If freedom means something,it is the right to tell others what they don't
> want to hear" –George Orwell
>
> --- On Tue, 1/25/11, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com>
> Subject: Re: just 500W ?
> To: "Hector Padron" <ad4c2008 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 8:10 PM
>
>
>> The shirt I wear sometimes in the hamfests says up front : "Life is
>> too short for QRP"
>
> In stark contrast, the first "rig" I built, when I was 13, was a
> 200-milliwatt-output crystal oscillator that used half a dozen parts with
> their leads twisted together. No PCB, no solder, no box. It was ugly. But
> it
> worked.
>
> I connected a hand key and a battery in series, paid out a roll of guy
> wire
> and tossed it on the roof, then started listening around the rig's 40-m
> frequency with my Hallicrafters SX101. A guy up in Los Angeles was calling
> CQ, and when he came back to me, I nearly fell off my chair. 200 miles on
> 200 mW, with an unmatched wire laying on the roof and a 9-V battery!
>
> A few months later someone gave me an HT37 transmitter (100 W). First
> thing
> I did was turn the drive down to nearly zero, measured my output at 200
> mW,
> and worked New York (2500 miles) on 20 m.
>
> Life's not too short for *that* :)
>
> OTOH, I'm quite proud of our engineering staff's achievement with the
> KPA500.
>
> Wayne
> N6KR
>
>
>
>
>
>
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