Dave;
I completely agree. I have found a magic mountaintop location in Nevada where
my KT34A works far beyond any expectations. I even got an e-mail from a DL a
couple of weeks ago saying that I was the only signal on 20CW at his QTH one
evening. That's random propagation anomales.
Where the rub comes is those who are 20-30 db louder than anyone else in their
part of the country. The other "indicator" is the aligators on 160 who are
S6-S8 and cannot hear anyone calling them.
In the NAQP, there will always be casual ops who get on and get caught up in
the contest and never read the rules. There's no sense worrying about them and
if they are running an amp. For the competitors who know better, there is only
half an S unit difference between 100 and 200 watts, so who cares if you have
a TS450 or an FT1000D. For those who are competing and running an amp, 20 to
30 db louder than your neighbors is noticeable!
NAQP was designed for fun. Let's keep it that way.
Tom, K5RC (K7GJ)
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