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
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