[CQ-Contest] Question on how transmitter power category is figured

[rjairam at gmail.com]

It’s TPO - power measured at the output terminals of your final amplifier.

Ria
N2RJ

On Wed, Apr 5, 2023 at 10:57 PM <lstoskopf at cox.net> wrote:

> 38.80835593087689, -97.51169124812611  (or so!)
>
> A long question for which I'm afraid I know the answer!
>
> I own 80 acres at the above location known as Iron Mound, near Salina,
> Kansas. I have operated from there for the past 30 plus years.  I'm not a
> rabid contester, but enjoy working the SSB contests as activity events.
> Usually on 20, 15, and 10M as I get tired (at age 84!).  I've used
> everything from dipoles, Moxon's, Inv V, etc at various heights.  My usual
> antenna is a 4 el. SteppIR at 40 ft positioned near the NE edge.  Using
> manual slope measurements, K6TU's info and HFTA it seems that no matter the
> band, about 45 ft height gets me a signal on the far horizon to wherever.
> We're using slope, not height for gain and this gives a single lobe to EU.
>  With 1500 watts I'm almost always able to break a pile first call and hear
> stations early in the openings, sometimes getting a comment like, "Is the
> band open to central US?"  It's usually pretty quiet.  So I've been playing
> the slopes since way back reading Moxon.  I'm able in a few hours to work
> all of the big boys and seldom call CQ a
>  s I'm not good at handling self generated piles.
>
> I have a large antenna junk pile and some resources.  The SteppIR is down
> again after two days of 50+ mph Kansas wind up the slope.  The dog and I
> were hiking the other day and I'm dreaming:  Just for fun, what if I put a
> Moxon on the NE corner to EU, another on the SE corner taking care of SA,
> and a third on the NW corner for JA and VK and things in between.   I work
> them OK from the fixed antenna, but ...   Problem is that those 3 locations
> are all about 250 ft or so from the shack.  Critters eat coax.  Big coax is
> expensive. etc.  I've got two rigs but putting  linears out there brings on
> the power problem.
>
> So what if I run some old RG8 to each, calibrate the loss to each antenna,
> and just run the shack linear with enough power to get 100 watts to the
> selected antenna?  Then I could run in the 100 watt category?  I'm
> splitting hairs and am not going to win anything, but just having fun.  Or
> should  just run wide open and play with the big boys with several hundred
> feet of coax loss in line?  The choice latter makes a difference in which
> coax I choose to sacrifice.
>
> Who knows the REAL rules on power?  Thanks,  N0UU
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