[Elecraft] SSB QRP

[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Ron,

After buying my K2/100 about ten years ago, first commercial rig owned since 
being first licensed in 1946, I did not start to build the KPA100 amplifier 
until a year had passed because I was having too much fun using the K2 
barefoot both on SSB and CW.  The great majority of my SSB contacts with the 
K2 were with DX stations outside of Europe, on both 40m and 15m, with the K2 
usually running 5 watts.

With the K2 I use its internal speech compressor set to 3-1.  The mike which 
I use is part of a Heil Prost Plus headset, and I prefer to use the 
"ragchewing" mike element not the "DX" element.   For me a 2.1 kHz bandwidth 
crystal filter in a transmitter is more useful than a wider filter for 
working SSB DX.

My first 6m SSB QSO in the 1950s (from VE2) was an sporadic E contact, using 
the output of the final mixer of a 6m exciter which I was building.  Must 
have been only milliwatts :-)

73,
Geoff
LX2AO es GM4ESD


On April 17, 2012, at 21:43 +0200, ron wrote:


> I realize many here are in the QRO group as evident by K3 mail (smile)
> but here's to hoping there are some QRP'ers in the mix.
>
> Can you share your experiences using QRP SSB. Whether they be rag
> chewing, contesting or working a net. Do you use a speech processor or
> specific mikes. Things like that.

<snip>