[PaQSO] A QRP Experiment

[Bob Nygren]

Hi All!
    It was indeed a good QSO Party!
    You may remember back a couple of weeks ago, Bill (K3ANS) said in an

post, "I firmly believe that we stations who work QRP stations deserve
bonus points.  We must spend extra time and effort to dig them out of
the mud.They get the thrill, we do not."
    So I decided to see if Bill, and the rest of the operators at W3FRC,
could
earn some QRP Bonus points. When I ran across them on 40 SSB, I dialed
the Yaesu-817 down to a half watt and gave them a call. The QSO was
completed in one exchange. No bonus earned on 40 SSB!
    On 40 CW I was running the Elecraft K2. When I ran across W3FRC I
dialed the K2 down as far as it would go. It took two try's for W3FRC to

get my call, but the exchange only one. After the QSO, I dialed the watt

meter to the 100 miliwatt position, hit Tune, and found the QSO had been

completed with 5 miliwatts!! But again, it wasn't difficult enough to
award any bonus points.
    For my other contacts with W3FRC I ran the full gallon, 5 watts.
Still, no
problem, and thus....no bonus.
    Bill, I guess your operators are too solid.  No QRP bonus for you!


Bob N3RN
(All in the spirit of good fun!)