Richard - As of today, I have worked 40 stations in VK6-land ... the farthest land mass area, for me, on Earth.
This is with 50 watts (or less) FT8, mostly on 40 meters, mostly 0800 - 1300 UTC and, basically, an oversized dipole at about 35 feet (actually a 3.5 MHz EDZ - but that's another story). Included in that bunch is THE station that appears to be the furthest from me located on land (a MM in the South Indian Ocean might be farther, maybe). I gave him a -15, and he gave me a -07. QRZ distance, 11,026 miles. 73 Lyn, W0LEN -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Richard Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2021 7:17 AM To: Elecraft Mailing List Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Legal Limit With FT8 There's a major jerk who lives within about 20 miles of me who runs BIG power with FT8. When he's on the air, he blots out my K3S so his is the only signal on the waterfall, the only signal the decoder sees. When his BIG POWER is on the air, I can't be. And he's made it clear that he doesn't care what he does to anyone else's enjoyment. Power for power's sake is contagious. On the other hand, I've made several 10,000 to 11,000 mile Australian contacts with 15 watts and a hex beam at 30 feet. Richard W4KBX > On Nov 11, 2021, at 2:17 AM, Jim Brown <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > On 11/10/2021 10:36 PM, Rick Tavan wrote: >> I must be missing something. > > Hi Rick, > > FT8 and similar modes are weak signal modes, and for difficult paths, it's all about signal to noise, not signal to QRM. For several seasons, I've been running legal limit to fill in DXCC to eastern EU on 160M. During the summer, many of us run legal limit and lots of aluminum on 6M for weak and brief multi-hop Es openings to fill in missing grids in search of the Fred Fish award. We also run power for meteor scatter, and most who do moonbounce run legal limit. > > The fundamental GOOD reason for power is RX noise on the other end of the QSO. I regularly give signal reports 10-15 dB better than I receive, simply because most hams are bathed in electronic noise from their own homes and those of their neighbors. Noise levels have increased drastically over the years. When I first moved to W6 in 2006, I could work EU on CW. Not a lot, but at least 3-4 QSOs per year, sometimes more. In the last six years, I've HEARD 6 CW signals from EU, and only two heard me. And my 160M antenna farm is better today than it was then. > > 73, Jim K9YC > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft <http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm <http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm> > Post: mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net <http://www.qsl.net/> > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html <http://www.qsl.net/donate.html> > Message delivered to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
