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[AMPS] Dollars per dB

To: <amps@contesting.com>
Subject: [AMPS] Dollars per dB
From: kf4kl@ipass.net (Doug Hall)
Date: Sun, 03 Jan 1999 03:00:32 GMT

Sometime recently, km1h@juno.com wrote:

>There is
>nothing more aggravating in a pileup than to listen to the 100W wet
>noodle stations causing non stop QRM for hours.

There is ONE thing more aggravating - the QRO lid with piss-poor
antennas who can barely hear the DX and insists on calling and calling
and calling, sometimes on top of the DX... Then he asks the DX station
for his call and a repeat of his report. His low dipole or vertical
with no radials is only making him loud locally. I hear as many
examples of this as I do the peanut whistles.

I've been DX, too. Maybe I'd feel differently if I was DX all the
time, but I quite enjoy digging out the little pistols in a pileup. Of
course, a good strong signal is a pleasure to work, but I often found
myself working the wide, overdriven-amp signals of some stations just
so I could get them out of the way. (I learned early on that these
lids aren't interested in being told that they're taking up half the
band with their dirty signals. Amazing that they'll spend kilobucks
for an amp and then won't buy a scope to monitor it on.) And looking
at the QSL cards I've received from my DX operation (and the station
descriptions on the back) I have to wonder what kind of satisfaction
could be gotten by using excessive (illegal) power levels to garner
any kind of operating award, DXCC or otherwise. I guess I shouldn't
assume the worst about people, but most folks with a pair of 4-1000A's
(or similar) don't run 1500w, do they? Oops, sorry, that's one of
those subjects we don't talk about.

I've got nothing against amps. I use them when I need them. I like
both of mine, and I'm building one right now. But they sometimes seem
to amplify ignorance as well as RF.

Most definitely, life is NOT too short for QRP. At least not QRP as
some define it, ie. anything less than 1500w.

73,
Doug, KF4KL


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