Power Genius XL

Eric Gruff

Yeah, and it's always from someone who lives in the northeastern US who thinks "it's so easy to work DX with 100 Watts". It's sure easy when you're only 2500 miles from about 150 different DXCC entities.

Come on out to the southwestern US where you're 5000 miles plus from Europe and let's see how many decades it takes you to repeat that feat with "no more than 300 Watts and a little vertical". 

Eric Gruff

That's because you live in the northeast. Come out to San Diego with 300 Watts and a small vertical and let's see how long it takes you to duplicate the feat. I have 10BWAS, 7BDXCC (and 96 worked on 160 M), and I routinely run a kW plus to get many of these stations that are 5000+ miles from here. No way does this happen running 300 W.

Pat N6PAT

Bill -VA3WTB

Eric, when all the stars are lined up and conditions are perfect you can contact anywere on this planet with lower power, that is what QRP is.
I talk in a group every night, unless we all run 500w at a min many of us can't hear each other very well, working bare foot never cuts it.
But yes for contacting stations at random, there is alway someone that will hear you.

KY6LA_Howard

I agree 100% with Eric. LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR QRP If You live in Southern California you need every watt and ERP you can put out to get through the wall of the East Coast By the way I’m really tired of hearing from East Coasters That they work the world with a wet noodle and one watt With my Monstir beam and 2kfa amp I have an ERP around 12,000 W And it’s still hard to work a lot of places

Pat N6PAT

Tim VE6SH

Patrick

I did it with a vertical and 50 watts using jt65/9. FT8. Requires more power, but I run based upon what is needed at the moment. Biggest problem is high power stations and lack of knowledge and technique.

mikeatthebeach .

Agree , going NW it gets harder !! Try Alaska or Antártica QRP , gets worse and bad compared To Florida and Caribbean!!! Maybe that why California is known as the Land of California Kilowatts Most QRO kW stations on HF are in California

Ned K1NJ

    You won't hear it from this "East Coaster".  We examine gray-line for Japan
on 40 to get a few hours of exposure per year.  A few dB. here or there makes
a huge difference.  On 6m during the Es season, an antenna with surgical
precision usually counts for more than pure high power.  If the other station
is running 100w, chances are that's all you will need as well.  You use what
it takes to get the job done.   I've never given someone the signal report
"too loud".
                             Ned,  K1NJ

mikeatthebeach .

http://www.ominous-valve.com/images/cal-kw2.jpg

Clay N9IO

"LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR QRP !"
The motto of ALL of my friends here in the black hole of RF! Illinois

Pat N6PAT

300 watts is certainly not QRP

Burt Fisher

VK7WH Winston

I agree Eric. It becomes even harder if you live where I do!

Pat N6PAT

Difficulty is relative. While some on the West Coast lament the consequences of their QTH location they fail to appreciate the vast Asian areas and OC opportunities available to them that can be very challenging  in the NE.

It took me a very long time to snag JA's on 80 meters

The grass is always greener seems applicable

KF4HR

ctate243

ctate243

mikeatthebeach .

Soon to be released at Dayton The California Kilowatt !!!

Patrick

So tuff to make contacts running 2 KW’s.

Patrick

Yes there is and it’s electric......

Pat N6PAT

Burt Fisher

What person/company would charge less than what they could get for amateur gear? 

KY6LA_Howard

Another east coaster spewing nonsense. For the rest of.us living in with difficult propagation big towers and high power are necessary for the DX to hear you. For contesting you need it to bust pileups. (I do very well in JA,Asia Pacific contests) For DXing life is far too short to waste your time waiting for them to hear you. I personally like to be the first station to bust the pileup. By the way worked 201 countries in FT8 in less than a year before I stopped counting -@200 many while traveling. In I suspect 1/10th the time it takes a wet noodle. Finally most of us have a life outside of ham radio so we optimize our.stations to be as product as possible in the limited time we have available. Just because you obviously can’t afford a real tower, beam and amp does not give you license to rationalize your limited station as appropriate for everyone. I apologize in advance to the readers of this thread for Feeding this Obvious Troll.

KY6LA_Howard

KF4HR

Burch - K4QXX

dlwarnberg

Thanks... so what are you using for a tuner with your amp?

dlwarnberg