[SCCC] Is 50 watts enough?

[Wolf Leverich, WA6I]

On Tue, Dec 04, 2018 at 03:06:23AM +0000, Wayne Overbeck via SCCC wrote:

> On this reflector I suspect both of those viewpoints would have defenders.


And it may be changing with time.

Almost a year and 10,000 QSOs ago, I could do a *lot* with QRP power
or a bit more.  It was unusual for me to operate with more than 35W.

Last summer and 5,000 QSOs ago, I could do a *lot* with 80W.

Right now, I'm shifting to my "usual power" being 200-400W on 20 and
below during "peak hours".

And propagation really isn't the problem -- it's too much success with
a nonscalable solution.  There are 50 gazillion people doing FT8 these
days, which means there are about 5 gazillion alligators and straight-up
LIDs or worse.

And they are all packed within less than 3 KHz of spectrum on each band.
When bands are crowded, you have to be loud these days or a ustabe CBer
with a linear will plop right on top of you, either because he can't hear
worth beans or he just doesn't care.

Dunno what the wSJT team is doing right now -- I'm behind the times --
but one of the screaming silly problems that needs to be addressed is
having more FT8 spectrum space even if many rigs aren't going to be
able to see more than 2.7 KHz or some such at a time.

Otherwise, a really great mode for little pistols is going to get so
crowded that only the guys with a lot of often-otherwise-unnecessary 
decibels from their amps and yagis are gonna get heard.

73 de Wolf WA6I