[CQ-Contest] `150 watt limit question

[Ron Notarius W3WN]

John,

If memory serves, and I well could be wrong, this dates back to the point in
time when we "switched" from measuring DC input power to the finals to
output power.

Consider that most 'standard' rigs at the time had a pair of 6146 tubes
running Class B, or functional equivalent thereof, which nominally gives the
transmitter's final amp 100 W output, plus or minus.  Minus could be as low
as 80 Watts, Plus could be in the neighborhood of 120 Watts.  (And that is,
of course, 'out of the box' ie factory settings, before any modifications)

So with that in mind, 150 Watts output seems reasonable, as it is on the
high side of what a barefoot rig could put out.

Using most any decent to well designed amp with a 100 W Out rig, or even a
50 W out rig, would most likely give you a power output well above the 150 W
out line.  And yes, I know there are amps for QRP rigs (or rigs running up
to 25 W out) that would not... But I'd suspect that in a contest
environment, they would be few.

As I said, I could be wrong on this.

Regardless of the reasoning, the power output line is arbitrary.  One could
make the argument (I wouldn't, by the way) that considering there are
several 200 W output rigs on the market, they line could be raised to, say,
225 to 250 Watts to include these rigs, barefoot, in the "low power"
category.  

If you feel strongly about this, why not put together a case promoting it,
and submit it both to the contest committee(s)/organizer(s), and for peer
review, to this group?  If you can make a good enough case, I'm sure it
would be given due consideration.  (That doesn't mean it would happen, but
it would be considered)

73, ron w3wn

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
John Geiger
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2017 1:20 PM
To: CQ-Contest Reflector
Subject: [CQ-Contest] `150 watt limit question

It appears that for the ARRL contest, and maybe for CQ contest, 150 watts is
the break point between high and low power.  Does anyone know why that limit
was set?  It would seem that changing it to 200 watts would make more sense,
in that low power would be barefoot, and high power would be with an amp (or
with a Yaesu FTDX9000MP barefoot).

It seems that there are 3 radios that doe 150 watts barefoot-the Kenwood
TS950, the Icom 781, and the JRC JST-245.

There are quite a few radios that do 200 watts barefoot-Yaesu FT1000D, Yaesu
FT1000MP MK5, Yaesu FT2000D, Yaesu FTDX9000D, Yaesu FTDX9000C, Yaesu
FTDX5000, Icom 775, Icom 7800, Icom 7700, Icom 7851, Kenwood TS990.

That is one reason why 200 watts seems to be a more logical dividing point,
but what do I know?

73 John AF5CC
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