My expericnce, I run any where from 15 to 45 watts on psk31 about 85%
of the time and when the bands are poor or the dx seems to be pointed
the wrong direction I crank my power in about 5 to 10 watts steps
untill they either hear me or I run out of power lol. I have peaked
150 watts psk31 on 20 m at 4 am central time trying to work a dx that
was 10 over 9 here but i was 22 to 33 at his qth, after i raised
power, he didn't hear me at all untill i broke 100 watts and got 50%
copy after 150 watts.
--
Matthew A. Chambers, W1JEQ
ARES Official Emergency Station
NEMO ARC Activities Director
Macon ARC and ARRL Member since 2003
Quoting "Peter G. Viscarola" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
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
