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Power

Subject: Power
From: KWIDELITZ@delphi.com (KWIDELITZ@delphi.com)
Date: Fri Jul 15 16:37:50 1994
Maybe I'm naive and live under a rock, but I've never thought that a loud
signal meant running illegal power. 

I sure would like to know the calls of stations rumored to be running illegal 
power. Please send your rumors to me direct. I promise I will NOT post any info
on the reflector.

Kudos to Garry, NI6T, on his post.

73, Ken, AB6FO KWIDELITZ@DELPHI.COM

>From John D. Allen" <jallen@nectech.com  Fri Jul 15 20:36:52 1994
From: John D. Allen" <jallen@nectech.com (John D. Allen)
Subject: Gas and humor
Message-ID: <s029+6Ni7ia@cs004.nectech.com>

Well, most amps (I do not know about alpha's, I don't 
own one) have only about 10 DB gain so 150 watts would 
be required for 1500 out.

I have a lot of money in steel and aluminum and even so, an alpha would 
cost almost as much as the entire station is worth!  I am much happier 
(and probably louder) with the steel and aluminum.

John, K1FWF,  jallen@nectech.com

NF8R@delphi.com Wrote:
| 
| Without accusing anybody of anything !
| I wondered why the FT1000 had 200 watts output when 100 is 
| fine to drive
| most any amplifier to 1500 watts out. Then I saw the ad 
| for Alpha
| that inferred using an Alpha on each of the antennas of a 
| stack.
| Of course this same ad had a FT1000 as an exciter.
| So assuming a 2 stack on the band in question.
| Gee, each Alpha fed with 100 watts (I'd say at least 2kw 
| each)
| Whom are we kidding here ?

>From H. Ward Silver" <hwardsil@seattleu.edu  Fri Jul 15 20:48:27 1994
From: H. Ward Silver" <hwardsil@seattleu.edu (H. Ward Silver)
Subject: gas smokeys
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9407151227.B14459-a100000@bach>

Well, we had this little debate about a year ago, I believe, and everyone
roundly condemned using gas, cheaters, etc. until the proposal to actually
go out and take measurements was made and then it basically dried up. 
Although there are certain cases that really get my goat, I don't see it
as a sport-wide problem.  If we weren't such a litigious society, a few
well-place disqualifications for "poor sportsmanship" would go a long,
long way.

It must be summer, or we'd be on the air!
73, Ward N0AX

I inhale the rosin smoke when I solder <:-O



>From Jay Townsend" <jayt@comtch.iea.com  Fri Jul 15 21:12:30 1994
From: Jay Townsend" <jayt@comtch.iea.com (Jay Townsend)
Subject: Gas and humor
Message-ID: <m0qOtcU-0003VPC@comtch.iea.com>

> I wondered why the FT1000 had 200 watts output when 100 is fine to drive
> most any amplifier to 1500 watts out. Then I saw the ad for Alpha
> that inferred using an Alpha on each of the antennas of a stack.

I thought the ad was a FT1000 feeding an Alpha feeding another for each
antenna in the stack (-:

> Whom are we kidding here ?

Course the winner of the contest was using a Drake L7 which is max at about
1200 watts out and that particular one was just about a 1000. HC8A still
smoked him.  But I thought the ad was interesting but doubt that anyone
would run that much gas.


-- 
Jay Townsend, Ws7i  < jayt@comtch.iea.com >


>From alan@dsd.es.com (Alan Brubaker)  Fri Jul 15 21:38:58 1994
From: alan@dsd.es.com (Alan Brubaker) (Alan Brubaker)
Subject: GAS
Message-ID: <9407152038.AA12713@dsd.ES.COM>

Bill, N6CQ/3, wrote:

...

5. Special Note to W0UN: Since you're S9 +30 with only 1W into all that
aluminum can we expect to see your amplifiers offered for sale? <g>
Are we complying with the intent of the current regulation requiring
the use of the "minimum power necessary to communicate" <Hmmm>.

...

Let me say this about that...

>From a practical standpoint, as contesters and competitors, it makes no
sense to attempt to follow the "minimum power necessary to communicate"
rule. Usually, when you call CQ, you are attempting to reach out as far
as you can, even if you are not in a competitive mode, if that is what 
you desire to do, that is. Say if I call CQ contest in the SS, and some
W9 calls me and gives me an exchange and says, "by the way, you are 40
over 9 here in Chicago", I am not going to turn my power down until I
finish working him and then turn it back up again. Just because I am 40
over 9 in Chicago doesn't mean that I am 40 over 9 everywhere else. I
may only be S 6 in the receiver of the guy in Florida with the indoor
dipole. If he calls me, and I can hear him, I will work him. Without
the amp, I may be down in his noise level and he would just pass me by
and call someone else. That is one lost QSO. So if I am interested in
competing at that level, I want to run the amp all the time, not just
when I think that I need it, or when someone else thinks that I need it.

It is only logical that if you are in contact with someone across town 
who could easily hear you if you are running 5 watts, that you go ahead 
and turn the power down. The only problem with doing that (particularly 
on 20 meters on SSB) is that someone may come along and say, "Is the 
frequency in use?". If the propagation is marginal, he may not hear you 
say yes, and he may call CQ right on top of you (I have had this happen 
to me, by the way). I have had people call me on numerous occasions, 
during contests and otherwise, who I know would have never heard me if I 
had not had the amplifier on. Some paths can be marginal enough that it 
takes the extra db to get out of the noise at the other end, and even then,
sometimes it is not enough. This was certainly the case last weekend on 
15 and 10 meters. You can bet whatever you will that George, W0UA, likely
would not have set those new records from John's (W0UN) station if he had 
been running 100 watts, even though he had all that aluminum up in the air.

I mis-spent my youth in Southern California many years ago, and I had
heard rumors of stations running high power. As a teenager who did not
know much about these things, I heard many references to people running
GAS, and no references to people running SOUP, so maybe that is regional
vernacular. For what it is worth, another 2 sheckles worth of drivel.

Alan, K6XO

alan@dsd.es.com

"Life's too short to run QRP." - N6TU, et al.
 

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