[CQ-Contest] History of Low Power Category

[Alan Dewey via CQ-Contest]

I agree with the comment made earlier on this list (by N5DO I believe) that antennas make a much bigger difference than 50 watts of power.
 
I've never been that bothered by the 150W rule for ARRL contests.  If we are not upset by guys who have the space, money, and time to put up
super antenna arrays to gain an edge, why are we so upset by guys who spend a little more and buy a 200 watt radio so that they can run it at 150W in 
an ARRL Contest and maybe get a slight edge over the 100W guys.  I don't get it.
 
Granted - 150W means 150W - not 200 like the radios are capable of.  And for contests that require 100W, the 200W radio guys must dial back to 100W or 
they are cheating.  This goes without saying.

I heard one explantion once about why ARRL keeps the 150W limited.  I don't necessarily agree with the following reasoning but can understand the rationale.
It is known that many guys use 200W radios in the Low Power category.  The expection is that they dial them back to either 150 or 100 watts depending on the contest.
However , if they run the full 200W (either purposely or unintentionally), they are gaining less of an advantage over the 150W guys than they are over the the 100W radio 
guys.  Said another way, they are cheating less in a 150W contest than they are on a 100W contest.  Again, this is no license to do this (i.e. run 200W)  but perhaps acknowledges that
some guys do it anyway.

73,

Al, K0AD
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Edward Sawyer <SawyerEd at Earthlink.net>
To: cq-contest <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 6:10
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] History of Low Power Category


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

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