Why you need a PGXL?

Bill-N6RV

Hence the reason for one way propagation. In many cases no amount of power can overcome this.

Work what you can work when you can work them. Become skilled in breaking through a pile up without excess power. DX hear the unusual station not necessarily the loudest. Timing and frequency is everything.

Bill-N6RV

Invest in a good antenna system. You can realize an increase in EIRP greater than or equal the power increase gained by an amplifier with the added benefit of improved G/T (receive SNR), and possibly for less money than the amplifier. In fact, you can homebrew the antennas and, with a used tower, it could be much less than $7,000.

Then if that doesn't work get a used amplifier. Power is power. There are a lot of hams who, after buying these high-end solid state amplifiers, are selling their perfectly good tube amps at a fraction of the cost.

Finally, if that doesn't work consider the $500,000 upgrade and move to a better location. A watt on a hilltop is like a KW in a hole!

BTW, how much money are you willing to pay to work one more DX entity or get to the top of the Honor Roll?  Honestly, we are addicted to new techie stuff and it is a disappointment when it does not work as advertised or is never delivered!!!

There is no indication on a QSL card that you were first in the pile up.

Richard

Just a year????? 

**** - N4RWG

Lee, N2LC

Threads like this always pull out a plethora of cool tidbits, surrounded by verbosity.  For example,

Mainly I need a PGXL because I don't have one already!

@Ed, K6VMV, Thank you for your Service, sir. 
Since 1977 I've used **** for antennae and haphazardness was my trademark.  Much better now, but I won't say how long it was before I realized that throwing up a dipole at 10 feet and direct feeding with coax and trying to work all bands isn't the greatest.  We use what we've got.  It's who we are.   When we can afford it or feel like it, we improve. 

Some people drive around with their foot the brake.  Others have their amp on all the time.

VP6D took some doing from here.  Once or twice barefoot, once 20 calls with 1300w.  All are in the log. 

Good amateur radio practice.  Minimum power to maintain communications.


Like Ria sort of said:  Ya can't turn it on if ya don't got it.


Hey, I like Bill's idea of the QSL cards:  When *I* am the pile-up, I will put on each card what order you were when you got through.  SSDR or one of the 3rd parties should have a feature that automates this.  Click.

Hehe.   Huhhuh. 

Ed, K6VMV

Thanks Lee, It was an honor to serve. I went through the enlisted ranks and retired as a Lieutenant Commander, Unrestricted Line (Mustang).  I have VP6D confirmed on 15, 17, 20, 30, 40 and 80 with my humble station.  500 watts max, homebrew quad, ground plane for 40/30 and inverted V for 80. My info is good on qrz.  73 

Butch

Yep... and seriously debating whether I want to wait another year. 

[Deleted User]

Same here don't think I want to wait

Richard

I am approaching 2 years.  Gave "cash" in February '17.  Still going to wait.  To good of an amp to move to other suppliers.

KF4HR

To good of an amp to move to other suppliers.

I certainly hope you're right Richard.  All we really have to go on so far are Ads, periodic reports from FRS, and reports from Alpha Testers (all of who have probably signed NDA's).  These extremely long wait times have me concerned.

Richard

Obviously if one has doubts please move to the other Amps.  I am part of many of the forums and they too, such as SPE and Elecraft have their issues.  SPE just moved to SPE Version II to handle their issues with 6 meters amoung other issues.  FYI...They are not backwards compatible and can not be implemented into Version I's.  I think I and others have made the right decision.

Michael Coslo

Running 1500 watts or more - lets face it, people who like full legal power often like them their California Kilowatts - you get to meet your neighbors more often. 

KY6LA_Howard

No you don’t. All TV is either cable or Satellite so ur neighbors don’t get interference. However in California we meet our neighbors because their Solar Systems radiate so much RF that they wipe out the bands

Mark K1LSB

Howard,
Michael didn't mention anything about TV...there are a number of other appliances and/or devices that can be affected by amateur power level RF.
My lowly AL-80B will activate my garage door opener whenever I tune up on 80 meters, and it'll knock out my sons' USB gaming headsets and wired keyboards on 20 meters.

KF4HR

Howard - I don't want to rob the topic subject but do you happen to know how (or if) there's a way to RFI proof these solar panel systems?  Reason I ask is, I'm considering putting in a 10kw solar system next year and the last thing I want to do is create a RF noise generator. 

Butch, KF4HR
kf4hr3@yahoo.com

KY6LA_Howard

Actually yes. I have been helping Randy KQ6RS with his study and soon to be published in QST article about RF pollution from solar. Most solar systems on the roof are quiet EXCEPT for those that have Micro Inverters on each panel. IIRC Solar Edge micro inverters are the worst offenders in that they wipe out 40-20M. Since Micro inverters are much more efficient than string inverters most new systems use them. I have a 20.KW system that uses 3 large string inverters which are shielded and grounded. No issues from my system. We try to intercept new local solar edge systems to get them to install ferries and proper grounding. When that fails we file formal complaints with the FCC. Solar Edge and a few other micro inverter companies are quite aware of their RF issue but choose not to fix them unless forced to.

Ria

I held off on getting a power wall for that reason. I had seen videos of where they aren't that good with RFI suppression.

KY6LA_Howard

Ria. Do u get much noise when charging ur tesla My old one was awful. The new one does not seem that bad.

Bill W2PKY

Mark: try bypassing all leads into door opener; a digital version may help as well.

Butch

Thanks Howard.  I look forward to reading the article in QST.

Michael Coslo

Hi Howard,  I've been visited by people who have had problems with stereo systems, I've had CO monitors be tripped. Garage door openers, and other things tripped or triggered. I suspect I've hammered some routers as well, since I had to do a lot of mitigation on my own router and it happened at about 20 watts - and some NetGears are pretty sensitive to 40 meter RF. Seriously, I have no reason to dissemble. 

Mark K1LSB

Bill,
Thanks for the tips.  The problem was the power cord to the garage door opener was absorbing enough RF to somehow trip the opener into operation.  I decided to fashion a big honking choke by winding a number of loops of the power cord through an FT240-31 toroid, but there wasn't any extra length of the power cord to work with, so I ended up purchasing a 10-foot extension cord ($8) and just winding that whole length through the big toroid, then plugging that in between the door opener power cord and the wall socket.  The massive choke on the extension cord effectively killed any RF running along the full length of the opener power cord.  So for 15 bucks, problem solved.
I'm a huge fan of the FT240-31 toroid, it's big enough to wrap a bunch of loops of any cord (wire, coax, etc.) through it, and it makes a heckuva RF choke for whatever is ailing ya.  Less than $7 a pop at Mouser. 
Here's a pic of my garage door opener choke:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Lyd5t_igFxMSQjtyAQ6YIWyMCbV-wHS9
And here's the choke on my mic cable:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b46Kn2WB3RhirIHeIDZWvEP20Z2gxBQ6
Needless to say, I don't have any problems with RF getting into my mic cable, hi hi.
For $100 I bought a bag full of those toroids, and I've got 'em strewn hither and yon all over the homestead, very effectively choking out any RF that may be causing a problem anywhere in the house.  Dunno what I'd do without 'em.

Bill W2PKY

Very cool!

KY6LA_Howard

I probably spent $500 on Ferites over the years and religiously followed the single point ground rule. I have not had a RF ingress issue for years. I am lucky to be Living near the top of a mountain with TV and Radio Towers on top my neighbors realized long ago that they needed to shield everything. To prevent Channel 8 and 10 from wiping out things. In fact the only RFI complaint was when I first put up a tower and did not have anything connected to it or en antenna mounted. I got a great laugh out of it. Our local tin foil pyramid hat crowd is bitching about 5G radiation that does not exist yet.

N8FNR

I am in the same situation as you. Most of us cannot own everything. Right now my station consists of a 6400, Elecraft KPA500 (bought the kit to save money but it was fun to put together!) and a SteppIR BigIR vertical with the 80m coil. Also have an SGC-239 mounted in a box behind my garage tuning an inverted L for 160. It took me years to get this all of this.
Some may think that I have compromised on my station. But for me this is what I can afford and do not feel that I have really compromised in any way. **** for years I ran a TS-850 with the SGC tuner feeding a wire of unknown length and worked a lot of DX with it

Mark WS7M

@Howard...

so whats the problem... 500' towers are pretty cheap.  Just put one up!  :-) <GRIN>

Mark WS7M

Zack,

I hear you.  When I was a novice in 1970ish my father got me a halicrafters receiver and I had a 50 watt tube crystal TX for 40m.  I had 3 crystals in the novice band.

I can't tell you the number of times I got home from school raced over to the radio to work a few stations only to find a LONG LONG QSO in progress at 5 wpm on my three frequencies.

I worked 2 jobs to get to the point where I could purchase a Kenwood transceiver and get my general.   Having more space to work was the best but now I had antenna problems.

I draped a very very long piece of wire on a tall hedge that ran along our house.  I built a tuner for it and I could tune it almost anywhere but it took some time and effort.

I do remember the thrill of working F9RM in France on my "hedge" wire.

N8FNR

Well I still do have dreams...

Mark WS7M

I live 8 miles SW of WWV.  I've been to the site and it is pretty impressive.  Quite a few very nice 400' towers.

When there was talk of it being decommissioned a thought entered my mind of what if I could purchase a small parcel of land with one of those 400' towers on it...

It was a dream... never gonna happen...

the sad thing would be to see our government decommission it and require full disassembly of the site.  There are quite a few hams like myself that would gladly take over a tower for the right price and build a remote station around it.

Pat N6PAT

I'll probably never own a tower or high power amp. I'm having way too much fun with my little 24 foot Hustler 6BTV vertical and 300 watts.

9 band DXCC (10 if you count 60 meters), 9 band WAS (10 if you count 60). WAS Triple Play, 5B WAZ, 1789 band points . etc.

Will I ever win a contest? No. But my fun index is off the chart! - And I'm also enjoying all the cash that I didn't spend on a tower or expensive amp.

N8FNR

I worked the GDR on SSB at the peak of the solar cycle I think in 1989 using an IC-740 and two hamsticks mounted as a dipole on a balcony. Got the card too.