Topband: Getting started on 160

[Carl Clawson]

> I have never used more than 100 
> watts and never will. I do not own an amplifier.

Oh yes you do. At 100 watts you are running several stages of power
amplifiers. They just happen to be built into the same box as the rest of
your transceiver. If you really had no amplifier you'd be running 10
milliwatts.

OK, OK, I'm nitpicking, and I agree you can have a lot of fun with 100 W on
any band. Or 10 W. Or 1 W. Or 1500 W. I know what you meant but I do have a
point: There's nothing sacred about that 100 W figure. It just happens to be
what the transceivers of the last couple decades have been conventionally
designed for. Some of the high end rigs nowadays produce 200 W. As power
FETs improve and become cheaper, perhaps 200 W will become the new standard
and everyone will be running 200 W "barefoot." The point is to run the
appropriate power for your operating conditions and personal preference
rather than to embrace a particular performance level that was decided by
marketing and engineering managers 30 years ago at YaeComWood.

73, Carl WS7L