[Elecraft] Legal Limit With FT8

[Richard]

There's a major jerk who lives within about 20 miles of me who runs BIG power with FT8. When he's on the air, he blots out my K3S so his is the only signal on the waterfall, the only signal the decoder sees. When his BIG POWER is on the air, I can't be. And he's made it clear that he doesn't care what he does to anyone else's enjoyment. Power for power's sake is contagious.

On the other hand, I've made several 10,000 to 11,000 mile Australian contacts with 15 watts and a hex beam at 30 feet.

Richard
W4KBX


> On Nov 11, 2021, at 2:17 AM, Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com <mailto:jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>> wrote:
> 
> On 11/10/2021 10:36 PM, Rick Tavan wrote:
>> I must be missing something.
> 
> Hi Rick,
> 
> FT8 and similar modes are weak signal modes, and for difficult paths, it's all about signal to noise, not signal to QRM. For several seasons, I've been running legal limit to fill in DXCC to eastern EU on 160M. During the summer, many of us run legal limit and lots of aluminum on 6M for weak and brief multi-hop Es openings to fill in missing grids in search of the Fred Fish award. We also run power for meteor scatter, and most who do moonbounce run legal limit.
> 
> The fundamental GOOD reason for power is RX noise on the other end of the QSO. I regularly give signal reports 10-15 dB better than I receive, simply because most hams are bathed in electronic noise from their own homes and those of their neighbors. Noise levels have increased drastically over the years. When I first moved to W6 in 2006, I could work EU on CW. Not a lot, but at least 3-4 QSOs per year, sometimes more. In the last six years, I've HEARD 6 CW signals from EU, and only two heard me. And my 160M antenna farm is better today than it was then.
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
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