[CQ-Contest] History of Low Power Category

[Edward Sawyer]

As someone who has spent the past 10 years competitively low power
contesting at 100 and 150W depending on the contest, I can tell you that it
does make a difference.  I have routinely experimented in contests that I am
not competing in or DXing.  Its that marginal time of the station saying
"the N1 station?" and then sometimes the next time says "the W1?" and you
think "oh no - he was getting it".  Right there, at that instant, I have
found that about 1/3 of the time, the 1.7dB can complete the still marginal
Q, pretty much immediately when its going to work.

 

So as I layout thousands of feet of radial wire for 160 even though the text
book says that the last 50% of the work might only add 2dB, you know why you
are doing it.  Or countless other projects that add 1db or 0.5dB at a time.

 

For the record, I have 2 x FT1000MP Mk Vs and one of the reasons was to have
the 150W capability for the ARRL contests.

 

73  

 

Ed  N1UR