[CQ-Contest] Radio Laws of Propagation....Have they been re-invented?

[Zack Widup]

Another thing is that I've received all sorts of oddball power levels
from people in the ARRL DX contest over the years. 999, 995, 763, 155,
37 ... I have often had a passing thought about how they measured it
and how accurate they were. But I also thought if anyone really cared
how close they were except for the contesting lawyers. I would think
that if they were within 5% or so, it wouldn't matter. And power out
of an amp varies across a band or from band to band. Someone may be
getting 500 watts out on 80 meters and start saying "500" in the
contest, but then on 10 meters they can only coax 350 out of the amp.
But they've already started using the number "500." You could say they
should have planned beforehand and checked the lowest power they would
get with everything cranked up and then adjust power down on the bands
where they got more. But if your short-term memory is as bad as mine
is getting, it would be easy to make this mistake. I don't even
remember what I did 10 minutes ago. :-)

If someone is reporting a power that is different enough to put them
in a different category in the contest, though, that's a different
story. Saying 100 watts and running 500 or a thousand would be a rules
violation. I guess that's the question at hand.

73, Zack W9SZ

On 2/27/14, Zack Widup <w9sz.zack at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, good point, Paul. I was just indicating that he wasn't sending 42
> in the contest.
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
> On 2/27/14, Paul O'Kane <pokane at ei5di.com> wrote:
>>> I just checked my logs. I worked KP4KE on three bands. On all three
>>> bands he sent me the power level of 100.
>>
>> Hello Zack,
>>
>> Whether he says he was running 42 watts or 100 watts makes
>> no difference.  The charge is that he was louder than other
>> stations running 1500 watts.
>>
>> The issue is - how much power was he actually running and,
>> if it was more than 150 watts, why did he not enter the HP
>> section?
>>
>>> compare, for Saturday February 15,
>>> 2014, the signal levels of KP4KE (42 watts) and NP2P (1.5KW) especially
>>> on the low bands. Antennas on the low band are essentially the same.
>>> KP4KE claims (3830 report) that has a dipole at 60' on 80 and so does
>>> NP2P. (NP2P is 65 feet ABG.  He claims on 40 meters a delta loop at 70'
>>> and NP2P has a dipole at 65 feet.  Now do you know how his claim of 42
>>> watts to these antennas can outperform similar antennas into the
>>> mainland locations against a station that is running (NP2P) 1500 watts?
>>
>> 73,
>> Paul EI5DI
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>