[RTTY] My FT-950's RTTY power level admonition

[John Barber]

Michael,

You would probably be OK running the 100W when S&P as that's low duty cycle.
When running it depends on your rate. If you are busy it's not so bad on the
radio, but things get hot when you are sending CQ continuously with only
short intervals. I would stick to 60-70W all the time to be safe.

6 seconds between CQs is a long time. 2.5 to 3 seconds is plenty. In a big
contest you could lose your run frequency in 6 seconds !!!!!!!!!!

John GW4SKA

-----Original Message-----
From: RTTY [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim W7RY
Sent: 16 February 2016 13:59
To: Michael Rapp <mdrapp at gmail.com>; rtty at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RTTY] My FT-950's RTTY power level admonition

S&P hardly sounds like a "data transmission of several minuets". 


I would run 100 watts.


73
Jim W7RY


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Rapp
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2016 7:48 PM
To: rtty at contesting.com
Subject: [RTTY] My FT-950's RTTY power level admonition 

Hi all,

I had a blast during this past weekend's contest.

I'd like yall's opinion on a power level warning in my Yaesu FT-950 manual.
Under FSK RTTY operation, it warns:  "If you anticipate making data
transmissions longer than a few minutes, we recommend that you reduce the
transmitter power to 1/3 to 1/2 of normal maximum."

Valuing my rig, historically I've run RTTY contests at 50 watts.  Still, the
urge to go to 100 watts is strong, especially if a station isn't decoding me
well.  (Academically, I understand that doubling my power is 3 dB or only
roughly half an S-unit, but my inexperience is clamoring to the "any little
bit helps" notion.)

To me the admonition is slightly unclear.  Are they referring to many
minutes of key-down transmission, such as in a RTTY ragchew or do they also
mean brief but repeated key-downs over many minutes, such as in contesting?

Obviously, I'm mostly S&P, but every contest I am trying to run more and
more (it's fun!) with six seconds between CQs macros if no one is calling
me.

How would you characterize the risk to my rig if I ran 100 watts during a
contest?

(Let's assume I've done all I can to get my antennas as high as possible, of
course, as a first priority.)

73,

--
/*/-=[Michael / KT5MR]-=/*/
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