on 12/8/00 1:47 PM, J. Bradshaw at ac6tk@cybertime.net wrote:
> This may or may not help, but you really don't need an amp on 10 meters
> at all. Five or 10 watts is sufficient with the band opened, but you just
> can't get anywhere with any amount of power if the ionesphere won't give
> you a path. For local communication, VHF/UHF is quite a bit more
> efficient because ground absorption is much less severe.
Hey Jim,
I can't resist this one! :-)
The common mode of thought is that on 10 meters if the band is open, you
don't need an amplifier. In fact, you can easily work the world on 1 or 2
watts. And as a rule, this is a correct statement. If the band is open to
a specific place, it is certainly open! And not a lot of power is needed.
However, when running a contest (such as I was this past weekend), you want
to work stations everywhere, not just to where the band is open. "How can
you do that if the band isn't open?", some may ask. Well, the ionosphere is
not a digital entity. That is it's not just open or closed. The band can
be somewhat open to a particular area, but not fully open. Additionally, as
the condx of the band change, you'll get lots of QSB. You also want to work
ground wave stations near by. Lastly, sporadic-E and aurora scatter modes
come into play as well.
All of these can require that more than 100 Watts be run on 10 meters. You
can have minimal propagation and still make a QSO on high power that would
not take place on low power.
Of course, during a contest, you want some "muscle" too.
This is the whole reason why I was frantic to get the RFI problem fixed last
week. And it was fixed good enough by my experimenting. My wife didn't
complain all weekend. Now I just have to make it permanent!
So for the rag-chewer who just wants casual QSOs and doesn't care from where
they are, power is not needed. The rest of us have to do lots of work to
clean things up! :-)
73,
Jon
NA9D
ps: Oh yes, was wiping out the TV at just 100 Watts as well prior to the
torroid installs.
-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
NA9D (ex: KE9NA)
Member: ARRL, AMSAT, DXCC, NRA
http://www.qsl.net/ke9na
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/rfi
Submissions: rfi@contesting.com
Administrative requests: rfi-REQUEST@contesting.com
Questions: owner-rfi@contesting.com
|