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3 1/2 watt contact
- Thread starter Eastside
- Start date
Shows quite well that you don't need insane levels of power to get the DX! Nice job!
One-half watt home brew CW on 15M with a dipole got me FB8XX back in 1960. 500 milliwatts! He was really QRO: 100 watts and a 3-element monobander. Kerguelen is pretty close to as far as you can get from Las Vegas and still be on dry land.
One-half watt home brew CW on 15M with a dipole got me FB8XX back in 1960. 500 milliwatts! He was really QRO: 100 watts and a 3-element monobander. Kerguelen is pretty close to as far as you can get from Las Vegas and still be on dry land.
No secret here but this is another why I prefer SSB over AM any hour of any day of any week. You don't have to overcome the massive amounts of noise and carriers on the frequency. Many years ago on evening I worked all over Ireland and the British Isles with just 1/2 watt and a Wilson Shooting Star which is the same basically as a Moonraker 4. That was as low as my rig would go so I have no idea what it would really take before I dropped out altogether. Contacts like that have the words "feel good written all over them. 
Without a doubt the superior mode for voice transmit but a lot of CBers prefer AM.
However I don't think the OP used SSB mode since he didn't mention it and also 3 1/2 watts is typical deadkey on AM mode for these radio's and up to 18 watts peak if not over tweaked. Of course as most of us know, on SSB, no voice transmit power is wasted on a carrier so full power transmit should be up to 18 watts.
To add and concur what Beetle said, it goes to show for many who think it takes big power to make contacts, it really only takes a good antenna with DB gain so now even 3.5 watts can be multiplied up to 16x with a big antenna like that and being directional, low power DX and ground wave contacts are quite easy compared to using a vertical antenna.
However with a big antenna, does it make "running QRP" sound hypocritical?
Maybe, only if QRP was 5 watts with antenna gain calculated.
I actually did assume the OP was using AM since his contact had a "handle" rather than numbers. I was just stating that the reason i prefer SSB over AM was that low power is more successful and less of a WOW!! factor. QRP is QRP is QRP and antennas don't matter when making that claim. That is part of the fun, seeing how effective of a station you can create. Anyone can run a kilowatt and a half into a yagi or even a dipole and have a decent signal but try one watt or less into a typical three or four element yagi and you still only have about 10-15 watts ERP.
That's correct. I just wanted to point out to some who may not be familiar with QRP ( low power 5 watts or less ) that it is in fact QRP even with a huge antenna the calculated antenna gain may well be 100 watts or more with less than 5 watts transmitter power. So it can sound hypocritical sort of speak, but regardless it is the transmitter power that determines QRP or QRO.
I have made many contacts with WA2TPU on 40 meters who is a dedicated QRP station only and his reports are honest. Even with my mobile station, I give him 5/8 to 5/9 plus signal reports as far away as 2000 miles away and I get 5/9 to 5/9 plus reports back from my mobile with 400 watts. His old antenna was a large Bruce array but now he is using 3 phased delta loops.
Look him up and you will find he is very interesting and truly a dedicated QRP of the finest kind!
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me and a group that used to hang out on channel 1 years ago,, early in the evening starting hearing what we first thought was a canadian talking,,, we just heard one side of conversation,,but sounded like they were adjusting an antenna,, so called out to see if i could make it to canada,,,, but when he answered me he said he was in south africa and was on top of tv tower outside capetown,,,i told him that antenna they were working on was getting out good to florida,,, that was when he said they were workiing on the tv antenna and he was using a portable cb radio to talk to the ground tech,,,yep skip talking with a portable on top af a tv tower,,,,had a few more words about the weather there,, he said it had been cold all day and was way past sunset,,then he faded out of course the other 2 on channel started calling but didnt make it,,, at the time i had a hygain clr2 up 40 feet in the air and talking on cobra 148gtl,,,,
Qrp makes you feel warm and fuzzy! Worked a few members of this site with 10 watts pep from Brisbane Australia on 11m. Hawaii with 1/2w.and A cal station with 5 watts with a 53 sig report then again with 300w and a 5 9 report.(the low power contact is more memorable).
It's not that uncommon for those of us who have been around for a few decades I remember in the 70s sitting on my porch working thousands of miles with a 1 watt handheld
less common these days, this cycle was not a good one, and is about to go dead for a few years..
It's not that uncommon for those of us who have been around for a few decades I remember in the 70s sitting on my porch working thousands of miles with a 1 watt handheld
less common these days, this cycle was not a good one, and is about to go dead for a few years..
Yep many hams have Achieved DXCC with 5w and a wire.Ant gain helps a lot, and it's reciprocal you get gain on rx and tx