As we head into solar minimum you will see fewer reports of how well these 'miracle' antennas work. It has been reported in the past that during past solar maximums stations had accidentally made contacts with their coax disconnected , some even running into dummy loads. The variation in propagation between solar minimum and maximum is SOOO great , that it can at one time make a good antenna seem bad , and a trash antenna look good. gregW OH2FFY
Oh wow thanks for that info. I've been operating the JT65A digital mode since 2010, have made 2418 contacts and didn't know the the signal reports were meaningless.
Some people just don't have the patience or the skill to build and operate a QRP transceiver. Doesn't make them less of a ham. Our hobby is very wide and deep so there is something for everyone. I run QRP CW 99% of the time and wouldn't have it any other way. I am also very thankful for those out there that have pulled my signal out for a QSO. BTW my QRP gets as many 599's as it gets 559's. Propagation has a LOT to do with received signal strength. I'm on the air with my HW8 at 2 watts....working on WAS. If you hear me, work me. http://kb9bvn.net 72 es OO
Obviously they have value. The point is these MFSK modes are extremely slow--typically 5 minutes for a minimum contact-- and digital. Reports are almost exclusively '-14 FN42' or 'R 73 GL'. Kind of the worst of all worlds to many: less info content than CW, far less than RTTY, and very slow exchange. There is NOTHING in the JT system that prescribes QRP. It has been a good rule of thumb at HF in the previous, adequate conditions to restrict to less than 20 watts. QRP is --5 watts or less--. Now that conditions are crappy, 100 watts or more is often used at JT65a. More than that tends to mess up the entire 2.7 KHz (or other) passband for others. I like JT65, but haven't found out where it 'plays'. I think the notion that it enables modest QRP stations at HF is silly: the exchange is far too slow and extremely limited with our new, crap conditions. Think twitter at -30 dB less.. You will still have super hard times QRP , even with JT 65, as we further lurch into this emerging era of permanently crap conditions.
JT65 is kind of a joke, to me. I have this vision of hams very slowly screaming their callsigns, one letter at a time, off of their patios, toward other hams doing the same around the world. Entirely too long to send a message, and entirely too short of one. I have a friend who is big on JT65, and he makes FB posts about the contacts he makes. I just roll my eyes, and am happy he is happy, but when I ask him what they talked about, there is nothing to be said.
KJ4YZI, you're right! Who needs science or engineering? Let's just take whatever ignorant thoughts we have and make stuff! See what it does. "Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to your level and beat you with experience" 73 AF4RK
Of the 31 years that I've been licensed my radios have rarely seen transmit power above 5 watts. In the early days of assembling a group of operators for events like FD, or contesting away from home I might use the full output power of the radio. Now, and for the past 20 years, its been my goal to operate at 5 watts or less (I rarely operate HF phone) no matter what atmospheric conditions are. As far as being labeled by some operators, I call them the 'Big Boys' (non-gender intended), if I don't transmit at 1.5k watts then I'm not a real ham. I go back to the rules for operation output (transmit power used is that that is needed to make the contact [or some variation of wording]) and only use what is needed for my contact but with my own stipulation that my transmit power is 5 watts or below. I often begin at 1w or 3w. I've been keen about working QRPp. None of my current equipment will actually transmit lower than 1 watt so I have to use an attenuator. 72 to my fellow QRP OPs es 73 to all others...
Isn't this a hobby? OP's experiment with transmit output power and their homebrew antennas. If the transmission works both ways and the QSO last to obtain the optimal information to validate the contact, great. It doesn't matter that I have the most expensive or best home built transceiver and the most elaborate antenna or a feedline with crocodile (alligator clips in USA) clips to a bed spring. IMO. 72/73
