Hi Rick, That's a very good question indeed!
If we would go back through the Topband archives, I think that a major factor in this is the CW skill of the operator. Some are not so good (and we should not berate them for their lack of ability!); and those fellows will benefit more from the digital modes. Some folks are simply better at pulling out a very weak CW signal buried in the noise. I think Tom Rauch, W8JI had something to say about that here in the past. In any case, I can testify that he can hear weaker CW signals than I can. In the ARRL 160 (1980?) both of us had cans on connected to his R-4C in Ohio. And Tom heard the JA from NW Ohio several minutes before I did! I am 98% certain that Tom --and others-- can hear weak CW signals between their two ears below what any digital mode could display on a monitor. For those naysayers, go search back through the Topband archives here, before you take issue with that. Bottom line: whether any digital mode is better than CW depends on the brain of the operator. :-) 73, Mike www.w0btu.com On Sat, May 20, 2017 at 1:58 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist < rich...@karlquist.com> wrote: > I've never operated JT65, so maybe some of you experts can answer a > beginner's question. > Searching on line, it is difficult to get a definitive answer to how much > advantage it has over CW, but the number seems to be around 10 dB. Maybe > not even that much if the receiving station is using an SDR with very > narrow CW bandwidth. So a CW station with a legal limit amplifier gets out > better than a JT65 station without an amplifier. > > But I keep hearing about JT65 stations running low power, not even 100W > barefoot. It seems like if we could get antenna challenged stations to run > high power on CW, > there would be no need for JT65 in the first place. > > Do any significant number of 160 meter QSO's occur on JT65 at legal limit > power levels, like they routinely do on EME? > > Rick N6RK > _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband