While this post is slightly off the topic of amps, I can't think of a
better place to post it. I belong to a contest club, and many of our
members worked the ARRL SSB contest this past weekend.
One of the most frustrating things about that contest was the number
of DX stations, mostly in Europe, who had big signals but were deaf.
That is, they had S9 signals, CQ'ed endlessly, and couldn't hear
stations calling. I'm running 1 kW with pretty agressive audio, and I
worked a LOT of 1 kW stations who were on the edge of my noise
(typically S3 or S4), so I don't think it was me. :) And I CAN tell
when I'm getting beat by stronger signals or a pileup, as west coast
stations usually do when trying to work EU. :)
Please don't start a discussion on this, because it IS off topic. But
if you're running power, remember that your amp is only a small part
of a good station, and that receiving is at least equally important.
This includes building receive antennas with better noise immunity,
chasing down and cleaning up noise sources, and using chokes to keep
RF off of your feedlines. One of the things that I'm proudest of is
that I pulled some QRP stations out of the noise, including one JA
running 1 watt!
73,
Jim Brown K9YC
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