[CQ-Contest] Photos can lie

[James Cain]

>"Not sure how you catch power cheats, but I do know how you don't catch 
>them by looking for an >amplifier in their website photos.

>"Lots of people have amplifiers and yet legitimately enter low power." --  
>said VE4XT

Kelly,

Thanks for pointing that out. When I bought a little AL-811 amp 18 months 
ago I had no reservations about putting a photo of it on my qrz.com page. 
>From an apartment in New Jersey I turned it on half a dozen times to work 
DXpeditions. And took the telephone off the hook!

Now that I'm in a house where I can use it, I think I'll enter some contests 
this season using it (in fact, already have, in the IARU Radiosport). I'm 
not competing for awards or place or a spot in the WRTC, and a couple more 
dB might help keep me in the chair a little longer.

For sure I'll use it in ARRL DX since my K3 can't put out 150 watts. (The 
rules only say "150 watts" and don't specify input or output. Who knows?)

The Low Power category isn't all that ancient, at least not in the ARRL DX 
Contest. It was instituted in 1994 (rules in QST December 1993, page 125). 
There was a QRP, 5 watt, category for some years before that.

I operated ARRL DX CW -- barefoot -- from Montserrat in 1988 and the Bahamas 
in 1990, made Top Ten both times, but would have won if there had been a LP 
category. But as Hans said, I've never lost a contest.

Would I trade my little amp for a triband beam at 40 feet? You betcha! But 
it can't happen.

Jim Cain
At The K1TN Superstation
North Pole, Wisconsin