> > On 12/25/2024 12:20 PM, Rick NK7I wrote: > I clearly have little patience for QRP, life is too short for that; loud > is less aggravating. >
Then I must have wasted an entire 11-year solar cycle from about 2011 through 2022 when I operated at a maximum of 5W - into a low dipole. Oh, wait, no I didn't. It was fun. Lots. 73 de Lee, AA4GA On Wed, Dec 25, 2024 at 9:27 PM Rick NK7I <rick.n...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Jim, Merry Christmas, > > One thing most forget; one must overcome the noise floor of the other > station. Since that is an unknown, even on loud stations (some Middle East > entities, all mouth, no ears); power and gain are the simplest solution. > Loud wins. > > For the first 43 years of ham radio I had 100 watts and a low wires. I > caught the DX bug about 15 years ago, taking 5 years to reach 200 entities > (seriously high noise floor). It was basically QRP and taught some > technique as you found. > > I moved to a larger piece of land, lower noise floor (but farther north), > grew a tower, added a large beam (better wires too) and got an amp, 500 > then 1500 (all Elecraft duh). TS-940, then K3 then K4. Those techniques, > still work. > > 200 is now reached easily in a few months without effort every year now; > ATNO of many more entities (Bouvet) were only through max limit power and > the beam gain, some just barely made the log (not possible QRP). DXCC on > 160 (I was bored) took a few months in one winter; because it was a quieter > place, impossible at my former home. > > The lessons of a meager station work still but the world gets larger too > (same game, larger arena). Because the better antennas hear better as > well, so I’m (still) at a point of being able to work most of what I hear > on most bands; I just hear a lot more now (160 needs help, but the cycle > needs to fade too, I have time to set up for that). > > For low bands, raw power rules in DXing; gain is really expensive. > > My operating mode now is be loud, get heard/logged, move on; so LOUD was a > need before my expiration date arrives. > > I’m not bragging or gloating, but after being blind and near mute for > decades, I can now both see and hear, I’m excited and just tickled > (exuberant). > > Now stuck at 323, the last 17 entities I need are unlikely to ever be > heard again. It, like my goal (all entities, all bands, all modes) is > just a target, though improbable. I will continue to build and refine the > station. > > Reducing output power (again, I remember) or ERP caps would cripple most > serious DXing and seriously wound contesters. I was in the dark ages > before as I said and have zero wish to revisit that era. > > My last point is that everyone usually does the best they can with what > they have; with the hope of making improvements over time. Most do. > > I was blessed, could and did. > > 73 > Rick nk7i > > > > On Dec 25, 2024, at 2:12 PM, Jim Brown <j...@audiosystemsgroup.com> > wrote: > > > > On 12/25/2024 12:20 PM, Rick NK7I wrote: > >> I clearly have little patience for QRP, life is too short for that; > loud is less aggravating. > > > > Hi Rick, > > > > I appreciate your desire for a big signal and all that you have done the > achieve it -- I've done something similar here, and do most of my operating > at legal limit, I've also done a lot of QRP, almost exclusively in > contests, some of it with a great QRP operator, W6JTI. > > > > Operating when you're NOT loud presents a very different set of > challenges. We must depend more strongly on propagation, not only between > us, but between the other station and stations from other directions than > mine! We must also be better operators -- there are special skills to > being weak, like timing calls, knowing when and how to repeat, and to send > fills. And there's finding spots in the CW passband where I the other > station is listening and I can squeeze my call in; and how fast to send my > call. > > > > And, even with a big signal, when you live on the west coast and are > trying to work EU, or live on the east coast and want to work Asia, you're > the equivalent of QRP, so you've got to work that DX when the closer > stations don't have great propagation and you do. And all of those things > about being weak! Doing a lot of QRP has made me a much better op in those > conditions! > > > > 73, Jim K9YC > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > > Elecraft mailing list > > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > Message delivered to rick.n...@gmail.com > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to lee.hi...@gmail.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
