[CQ-Contest] History of Low Power Category

[donovanf at starpower.net]

Hi Randy, 

Sweepstakes' 150 watt (input power) low power category goes back 
many years, long before I was licensed in 1959. Field Day was the 
same. The ARRL DX contest probably adopted the same traditional 
150 watt low power limit. 


There weren't many 150 watt rigs in 1990, I suspect that swayed 
to power level for CQWW 

73 
Frank 
W3LPL 



----- Original Message -----

From: "Randy Thompson K5ZD" <k5zd at charter.net> 
To: "Contest Reflector" <CQ-Contest at Contesting.COM> 
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 12:38:36 PM 
Subject: [CQ-Contest] History of Low Power Category 

I was recently asked why the CQ Contests use 100W as the limit for low power 
and the ARRL Contests use 150W. I had not really thought about this much 
and wonder if anyone can explain how the limits were chosen. 



The CQWW introduced a low power category in the writeup for the 1990 CQ WW 
SSB Contest (and the rules for 1991). It is assumed that 100W was chosen 
because it was easily accomplished by most barefoot transceivers or radios 
of the time. 



Can anyone explain the history of the ARRL selection of 150W? The slightly 
higher power level can be reached by some radios, but it also encourages 
"low power" stations to run an amplifier to gain that extra db between 100W 
and 150W. 



It would be nice if all contests used the same low power limit. Not because 
one limit is more right than another, but so there would be less confusion. 
Last year there was one entrant that entered CQWW as low power and then 
realized they had exceeded 100W (I think they ran 110W or 120W). They asked 
to have their entry reclassified to high power. Admirable integrity, but 
unfortunately caused by the confusion between ARRL and CQ category limits. 



Randy, K5ZD 







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