The first QRP club I belonged to in the 1950's (I don't know if it was launched by K6JSS) suggested defining 50 watts d-c input as "QRP". It's no coincidence that was about the normal power of most CW/Phone rigs running a 6146 or 807 in the final - both extremely popular in homebrew and commercial rigs. The club was trying to appeal to the mainstream Ham of the day, saying was that the common "barefoot" rig of the day was plenty to work the world with.
The QRP-ARCI set the QRP power at 100 watts in the 1960's - I suspect also to appeal to the "mainstream" Ham operator running the various very popular 100 watt rigs of the day. It was only sometime later that the power level was dropped to its present levels - setting QRP apart from what most Hams were running. Ron AC7AC P.S. Little did we realize back in the late 50's that we were in the middle of the biggest sunspot cycle of the century (and maybe the next). -----Original Message----- I don't chime in on many of these threads, but this one got me thinking. I was first licensed as a Novice in 1951. As a General in 1952. I worked mostly 10 meters with a Harvey Wells TBS-50d. That had an 807 in the final, so ran 50 watts on AM. So that's about what a K2 runs on SSB. 12 watts on one sideband! I worked the world. Well, the world was smaller then, a lot fewer Hams and I worked mostly a north south path. So my world was central and south America. Once a VK or ZL. Every day I'd come home from school, turn on the rig and talk to DX stations. NOW if we can just get 10 meters to be wide open! Sunspot count is 2128 today. There's hope yet. 73, Kurt, W7QHD ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
