A perennially interesting topic. I hope the more experienced operators here aren't sick to death of discussing it yet, and are willing to give me some guidance.
> >Absolutely spot on Erick. That is one reason that we try to tell new >people, on the digital bands, to start with as few watts as they can. > Agreed. One should ALWAYS use as few watts as possible to establish reliable communications. > >There is just no reason to run 100 watts ( and I expect some run more) on the >PSK, etc. digital modes. Everytime I say that though, someone jumps in the > Weeeelllll.... I'm far from an expert, OK? I've only a few months and a few hundred QSOs experience in digital modes. And I realize that there are lots of folks who've gotten DXCC running QRP to a wire hanging out their window (I just read about a JA ham who works 500 milliwatts to a dipole on his 11th floor balcony). BUT... I can tell you from experience that when I'm in a contest, or trying to crack a DX pileup, putting 40W into my dipole often just doesn't "do it". Often I can hear the DX, but they can't hear ME. Or I get repeated "QRZ de..." replies. Even on PSK31. OTOH, if I crank to 85W or 100W or so, the DX can hear me, I get the QSO, and my IMD meter still reads around -30db. Say "it's only 3dB difference" if you like, but I've repeatedly seen better results in contests and pileups with 80W than 40W. This is PARTICULARLY true with RTTY, where I've cranked it up to a couple of hundred watts when necessary. Let me hasten to add: I certainly DO NOT want to be an discourteous operator, and I ONLY wish to operate my station in accordance with best practices. Seriously. So, how does one reconcile the oft-repeated mantra "only run 25W or 40W" with my experience? Am I *really* bothering my fellow hams, or operating outside the bounds of acceptable practice, if I crank my PSK31 output to 85W to get a "new one", when my signal is clean and my measured IMD is low? If my (strong but clean) signal captures somebody's AGC should they not simply narrow/change their IF bandwidth to eliminate the strong signal (heck, when in a PSK31 QSO I often narrow down to 50Hz just for this purpose). If they see sidebands due to receiver overload or lack of sound card dynamic range, is that a problem with MY station? I'm not trying to be argumentative here, rather I'm curious about other people's experiences and advice. de Peter K1PGV
