[UK-CONTEST] Quest for QRO

[David, G3YYD]

What a chain of "reflections", which is, of course, what a reflector is 
about.

I also take into account Don's. G3XTT, comments under the Mega Station 
subject line. The difference between 1500w and 2Kw is not much unlike 
the difference between 400 to 1500. As I see that Lynch, Vine Antenna et 
al do a good trade in 1500 watt amplifiers I am sure there are many 
stations this weekend sending 5NN4TT who are understating the situation. 
Of course we may be in a situation that comes under the heading of: "You 
do not say and we will not ask". Most of the 1500 watt amplifier are key 
down for ever types so the old excuse of running at 25% output does not 
wash with me.

The problem comes to those who generally want to abide by the licence 
but at the same time do not want to be at a competitive disadvantage. 
They have an ethical dilemma, to run 400 and be at a competitive 
disadvantage or run 1500 and operate outside the licence conditions. If 
you are highly competitive then the decision is obvious, if on the other 
hand you believe in the rule of law then you run at a competitive 
disadvantage. Why should we put people in this position? They could 
avoid it by going to the lower power categories but there is something 
compelling about going for the "top" category especially for those who 
are highly competitive.

I and many others on this reflector will remember the time we had 
150watt DC input restrictions except top band with 10watts DC input. I 
can remember competing in RTTY contests in the early 70s when that meant 
no more than 100 watts output or may be 110 watts if the PA was very 
efficient. Then some one came up with the idea that 100% modulated AM 
with 150w DC input became an output of 400 watts of Peak Envelope Power 
so we could run that on SSB and then a bit later all modes became 400 
watts PEP. Technically a falsehood as a 150w DC PA could never give 400w 
PEP output with good IMD performance.  This, in my view, was a 
bureaucrat's face saver and nothing else to enable us to run 400watts 
out rather than 100.

We used to have no alternative to using normal length callsigns and that 
has been changed to allow calls with just 3 or 4 characters for 
contesting. This was done so that contesters were not disadvantaged 
compared to the international competition. So why not 1500 watts of 
legal power as we are not disadvantaged compared to the competition 
unless of course we throw individual's ethics out of the window and 
operate a "You don't say, we won't ask" policy. Unless some one can 
think up another bureaucratic face saver?

David G3YYD