[Amps] Grid Vs cathode drive

[Bill Coleman]

On Aug 3, 2006, at 5:56 PM, Tom W8JI wrote:

> As far as I recall the 5 watt QRP thing wasn't popular at
> all on HF until solid state. Like TT says 100W used to be
> considered QRP.

I was just looking at the 160m history information on your own site,  
Tom, and seems like there were plenty of guys in the 30s who ran a  
handful of watts.

And there are certainly a lot of Novice rigs from the 50s and 60s  
that only managed a few watts out. The "Novice Special" comes to  
mind, at about 10-15 watts input.

And what of all those single-tube crystal oscillators? Those could  
only do about 30 watts input or so without blowing the crystal.

All this stuff was QRP -- all homebuilt, too. I think it was just a  
matter of getting on the air with whatever you could managed to use  
at the time.

Running QRO became a lot more affordable in the 60s. Seems like it  
was the early 70s when people started to recognize QRP efforts.  
Perhaps some of it was nostalgia.

> I think the thing that stops QRP rigs is the fact most
> people don't enjoy intentionally making other people
> miserable.

QRP is its own sub-hobby, and can be a lot of fun. Isn't for everyone.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901