[CQ-Contest] `150 watt limit question

[Keith Dutson]

Few contesters today think about INPUT versus OUTPUT power.  They think
about the manufacturer specification of transmit power.  My first nice rig
was the Yaesu FT-101E, with two 6146 tubes in push-pull operation.  As I
recall, during tune, one may see 160-165 watts on the meter.  Any lower
might be a sign that the tubes were weak.

My current rig for DXpedition is the Kenwood TS-480HX.  It is rated at 200
watts.  It was chosen so that a power amp was not as important during a trip
as with a lower power transmitter.  This has worked well for many DX trips
until the last trip to YN2 last March.  Four of us made  almost 9000
contacts (SSB, CW, RTTY, PSK32) in only 8 days of operation, including 48
hours in the CQ WPX SSB contest.  After the contest, with 2121 contacts and
3,113,250 points, we discovered the transmitter was still set to 200 watts.
So, we had to file the Cabrillo as high power.  What a bummer.

73, Keith NM5G

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
donovanf at starpower.net
Sent: Monday, July 3, 2017 4:40 PM
To: John Geiger <af5cc2 at gmail.com>
Cc: CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] `150 watt limit question

Back in the 1950s and 1960s a pair of 807s or 6146s ran 150 watts INPUT.

73
Frank
W3LPL

----- Original Message -----
From: John Geiger <af5cc2 at gmail.com>
To: CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Mon, 03 Jul 2017 13:19:36 -0400 (EDT)
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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