Brian has some good points. Personally, I think the jump to 400-1000
Watts from 100 is so great that you really need to think of a separate
amplifier. 100 W is clearly enough for 90% of QSOs (that I make,
anyway), and it would be a shame to compromise a good 100 W transceiver
package to allow for an internal QRO amp and/or power supply.
After > 40 years as a ham, I finally broke down and bought a
used/upgraded SB-220 for my station. It has helped on occasion, and
it's kind of an interesting piece of gear in its own right. One thing I
have noticed, though, is that if I call CQ at 100 W, I get nice replies.
If I call CQ at 1000 W, I get lots of very weak replies. That's the
flip side of "reciprocity". Yes, it's good to have a good receiver, but
you may need to strain to work those marginal Q's. (Actually, that's
half the fun, especially if it's Swains Island.)
73 Martin AA6E
Brian Lloyd wrote:
On May 10, 2007, at 10:06 AM, Elliott Lawrence wrote:
One thing that would help would be an additional option for a 200w
capable radio ---- the K3D!!! I wonder if that is a future
possiblity??!!
Do you really think that 3dB will be enough of an advantage? That is all
you will get when you go from 100W to 200W.
It seems to me that one needs at least 6dB to make enough difference to
make the effort worthwhile. 6dB seems to be the difference between, "I
know you are there but I can't quite copy you," and, "QSL." If you
started at 100W then you would need 400W to make that difference.
I tend to think that 10dB is about the right increment and that would be
1000W. That leads me to feel that if you need more power than 100W you
are going to need an external amplifier.
And then there is the issue of path symmetry. Path loss is going to be
the same in both directions. Given that most rigs out there are in the
100W range the signal arriving at each end will be the same. Hmmm.
Oh! The K3 is likely to have a much better receiver than the one the
other guy is using. So if he is using 100W and you have acceptable copy
on him you might need a 3dB-6dB improvement in your signal in order to
deliver an equivalent readability signal to the other end. Interesting
thought. Maybe a 200-300W PA wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.
73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com
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