GAS

[bill.lumnitzer at paonline.com]

 -=> Quoting Gary R. Shapiro, NI6T to us All <=-

 GS> 3. Power beyond that allowed by your country's 
 GS> telecommunications authority is ILLEGAL.

I have the following comments to add:

1. I think a pervasive rationalization is that violating FCC regulations is
NOT a violation of any LAW. Perhaps akin to cheating on your income taxes,
you're not doing anything ILLEGAL since there are no U.S. Public Laws that
I'm aware of that require payment of taxes OR limit maximum power on the
amateur bands. It's true that you can be assessed significant fines or even
jailed for these offenses but I've heard this Regulation vs. Law argument
repeatedly (NOT that I agree!).

2. When I was soliciting comments from users of KT-34XAs a few years ago
I ran across a ham in Virginia (WB4...) who swore by the antenna. Then he
noted that he and several of his friends couldn't understand why some 
people go to all the trouble to put up giant arrays on high towers when
4KW into a good tribander at 50' seemed to do just as good!  He said that
that was the good thing about the KT-34XA, it would take plenty of power...

3. Since amplifiers sold to the Amateur market must now be type-accepted by
the FCC, cannot cover 10,11 meters, etc., why can't they also be required to
be limited in output power? The output power regulation cannot be enforced
by the FCC, so what sense does it make to have such a regulation? I believe
that the availability of fairly reasonably priced amplifiers that are capable
of significantly exceeding 1500w is just too much temptation for some of us.
Years ago, hams were more more technically inclined and tended to build their
own amps. Todays "new breed" (not necessarily young or newly licensed)seems
to be more impatient and wants everything NOW and at any cost! Oh, there've
always been a few with more money than brains that've had to have an amp to
match their egos, but I think that 2.5 to 4kw (and much higher) is much more
common today than in the past. And I don't care to hear how few "db" are
involved - 2.5kw makes a competitive difference in my book. Does anyone know
what amplifiers like the Alpha 87A, AL-1500, Commander 2500, and various
other 3-hole jobs are capable of (low duty-cycle, of course!)

4. There seems to be a thought that we should ignore the use of excessive
power and politely keep our opinions to ourselves, especially when we're
the guests of another. Wouldn't we be more reponsible by trying to demonstate
that we can "keep the rate up" without cheating? It seems inconceiveable that
a station owner would become insulted or be concerned with anything other than 
accumulating points. PEER PRESSURE and ROLE-MODELING are the keys! Teach by
example - We're apparently on our own on this and things won't change if we
stick our heads in the sand. This forum is revolutionary because it allows
us to communicate in a timely fashion on the widest possible scale. I think
the CHALLENGING of stations (like W5WMU recently) is a good trend that I
would like to see continue. I don't know if W5WMU is running "gas" or not but
we now know that he has other reasons to be LOUDER than LOUD! But other 
situations could come out where there is NO other explanation than "gas",
and how else can "peer pressure" be exerted if no one knows? I know (since
it was published in QST many years ago) that W6VSS (now K6UA) lost his
license for a while for running lotsa juice and I have heard rumors that
WA7NIN has BIG amps. But we're not supposed to mention names, right?
I truly believe that most of the better known stations pride themselves in
abiding by the rules, but those that don't deserve to be exposed.

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>.


73 de Bill, N6CQ/3  (n6cq at paonline.com)


>From Skelton, Tom" <TSkelton at engineer.clemsonsc.NCR.COM  Fri Jul 15 21:47:00 1994
From: Skelton, Tom" <TSkelton at engineer.clemsonsc.NCR.COM (Skelton, Tom)
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 94 13:47:00 PDT
Subject: FW: Plasma phase?
Message-ID: <2E26FCE1 at admin.ClemsonSC.NCR.COM>




First of all, let me correct what I see as a mis-labelling of terms.
Namely, the use of GAS for running high power.  As far as I can
recall, people running high power were always accused of running
SOUP, not gas or nitro.  So to balance the discussion, let's call
it SOUP, as has been the tradition.
<rest del.>
de Doug/KR2Q

Thanks Doug for the reminder.  SOUP is what I have always heard
in reference to very high power (not just an Alpha 87A which will
easily exceed 1500 watts output), all the way back to the mid-70's
and my first view of an SB220 driving a pair of 4-1000's.  I had to
sit back and pour another glass of J D .... shocking.

73, Tom WB4iUX (Tom.Skelton at ClemsonSC.NCR.COM)

>From oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills)  Fri Jul 15 20:26:51 1994
From: oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills) (Derek Wills)
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 94 14:26:51 CDT
Subject: power to the people
Message-ID: <9407151926.AA21715 at astro.as.utexas.edu>

At least a year ago, when we were having one of those "equalized
contests" discusssions, a respected contester on here made the
point that you only judge your performance against people in your
class.   He said that from the mid-west, you don't care if you are
beaten in CQWW by a W1, since they have a geographical advantage.
He also said you don't care if you are beaten by W5WMU because he
runs excessive power, and so on.   This person ought to know, and
it didn't really bother him because he knew that WMU had a clear
advantage for an incidental reason.   Well, perhaps WMU has dropped
to legal power now, or the original respected contester lied.

The analogy to cheating on taxes that someone made is appropriate.
I guess it's the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion.
You have a perfect right to reduce your tax bill by legal means,
you plan on it in advance, you hire sharp accountants, whatever.
It's legal, and some people are better at it than others - this is
just the analogy to putting up better antennas.  Tax evasion is
not legal, and although deep down you may envy those who get away
with it, most of us don't do it.

Perhaps we can change the topic and discuss the no-code license
now.  Eek.

Derek AA5BT, G3NMX
oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu