Topband: ARRL 160CW Contest QRP Portable Op

[Jim Brown]

On Fri,12/25/2015 8:39 AM, kolson at rcn.com wrote:
> What would be much more fair is to go by ERP. 5 watts from one of tho se sophisticated antenna farms may very well be stronger than 100w or even 600w from, let's say, a Butte rnut with a vestigial radial field.

As a guy who worked 160M from a Chicago city lot, I feel your pain. BUT 
-- QRP is about operating skill and antenna farms, both TX and RX. The 
Stew Perry rules reward the TX station for his TX antenna and skills, 
and the RX station for his RX antenna and skills.

And I can tell you that 160M contesting with a mediocre antenna and/or 
QRP is MUCH easier from Chicago than from W6, because the distances to 
areas of high ham population density are so much shorter. And for the 
same reason, it's even easier from W1/2/3.

73, Jim K9YC