[Elecraft] Legal Limit With FT8

[Lyn Norstad]

Richard -

As of today, I have worked 40 stations in VK6-land ... the farthest land
mass area, for me, on Earth.

This is with 50 watts (or less) FT8, mostly on 40 meters, mostly 0800 - 1300
UTC and, basically, an oversized dipole at about 35 feet (actually a 3.5 MHz
EDZ - but that's another story).

Included in that bunch is THE station that appears to be the furthest from
me located on land (a MM in the South Indian Ocean might be farther, maybe).

I gave him a -15, and he gave me a -07.  QRZ distance, 11,026 miles.

73
Lyn, W0LEN

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Richard
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2021 7:17 AM
To: Elecraft Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Legal Limit With FT8

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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