Thanks for all of the clarifications about this rule, and it does seem to
be rather unique to the ARRL as the lower power limit for CQ contests is
100 watts. I am sure someone has entered low power running 101 watts,
though.
73 John AF5CC
On Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 5:21 PM, Ron Notarius W3WN <wn3vaw@verizon.net>
wrote:
> John,
>
> If memory serves, and I well could be wrong, this dates back to the point
> in
> time when we "switched" from measuring DC input power to the finals to
> output power.
>
> Consider that most 'standard' rigs at the time had a pair of 6146 tubes
> running Class B, or functional equivalent thereof, which nominally gives
> the
> transmitter's final amp 100 W output, plus or minus. Minus could be as low
> as 80 Watts, Plus could be in the neighborhood of 120 Watts. (And that is,
> of course, 'out of the box' ie factory settings, before any modifications)
>
> So with that in mind, 150 Watts output seems reasonable, as it is on the
> high side of what a barefoot rig could put out.
>
> Using most any decent to well designed amp with a 100 W Out rig, or even a
> 50 W out rig, would most likely give you a power output well above the 150
> W
> out line. And yes, I know there are amps for QRP rigs (or rigs running up
> to 25 W out) that would not... But I'd suspect that in a contest
> environment, they would be few.
>
> As I said, I could be wrong on this.
>
> Regardless of the reasoning, the power output line is arbitrary. One could
> make the argument (I wouldn't, by the way) that considering there are
> several 200 W output rigs on the market, they line could be raised to, say,
> 225 to 250 Watts to include these rigs, barefoot, in the "low power"
> category.
>
> If you feel strongly about this, why not put together a case promoting it,
> and submit it both to the contest committee(s)/organizer(s), and for peer
> review, to this group? If you can make a good enough case, I'm sure it
> would be given due consideration. (That doesn't mean it would happen, but
> it would be considered)
>
> 73, ron w3wn
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
> John Geiger
> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2017 1:20 PM
> To: CQ-Contest Reflector
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] `150 watt limit question
>
> It appears that for the ARRL contest, and maybe for CQ contest, 150 watts
> is
> the break point between high and low power. Does anyone know why that
> limit
> was set? It would seem that changing it to 200 watts would make more
> sense,
> in that low power would be barefoot, and high power would be with an amp
> (or
> with a Yaesu FTDX9000MP barefoot).
>
> It seems that there are 3 radios that doe 150 watts barefoot-the Kenwood
> TS950, the Icom 781, and the JRC JST-245.
>
> There are quite a few radios that do 200 watts barefoot-Yaesu FT1000D,
> Yaesu
> FT1000MP MK5, Yaesu FT2000D, Yaesu FTDX9000D, Yaesu FTDX9000C, Yaesu
> FTDX5000, Icom 775, Icom 7800, Icom 7700, Icom 7851, Kenwood TS990.
>
> That is one reason why 200 watts seems to be a more logical dividing point,
> but what do I know?
>
> 73 John AF5CC
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