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Do you QRP?

Moleculo

Moleculo

Ham Radio Nerd
Apr 14, 2002
9,200
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I'll be honest; I've never much been into QRP. Obviously that is going to change now that I've purchased an Elecraft KX3 portable HF rig. Are you into QRP? If so, tell me what you like about it and about your operating style. Do you mostly do this while doing outdoors activities (camping, hiking, park, etc.)? Or, do you just do it at home for the sake of doing it? What about operating QRP is appealing to you?
 

well, before the rules change, a lot of us did QRP on channel 3 60 meters.

actually, most of us still work QRP and follow the greyline.

miles per watt is about 4-5k to 1**Jump_im**
 
On occasions I will work QRP. If the band conditions are good and I am copying the DX station solid 5-9 or better I will go to 5 or 10 watts just to see if I can make the contact.

Maybe not true QRP considering I use a yagi 40 meters and up so the ERP is not QRP watts but the output of the rig is QRP power.
 
Actually I'm QRP right now. Sold of the IC 707 and SB200 and am running a IC 703+ right now. Primarly on 80 metres and some 40 / 20. At first I would get frustrated when I could not make a contact but now, oh well. My plan is to set up a station at Ontario's high point in the winter. It will be about a 12-14 hour snowshoe trek 1 way so light is good. I'll have 2 batteries for it and plan to camp for a day or two.
 
Captain Kilowatt said:
I never actually worked QRP but I have claimed to do so when the other station was having difficulty coping me. :whistle:
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Actually I have worked QRP on several occassions. I was just being a smart ass above. While maybe not abiding by the strict QRP rules of power output I have used a home made CW transmitter with 7 watts from a 6L6GC, and a mere 12 watts of carrier on AM from a DX-60B, and 12 watts pep waaaaaay back in the 11m DX days. I also used 10-12 watts pep on 6m when I first got on that band using a Ten Tec 1208 transverter kit.


wavrider said:
On occasions I will work QRP. If the band conditions are good and I am copying the DX station solid 5-9 or better I will go to 5 or 10 watts just to see if I can make the contact.

Maybe not true QRP considering I use a yagi 40 meters and up so the ERP is not QRP watts but the output of the rig is QRP power.
Click to expand...


QRP is simply defined as the RF power output. You could be running QRP with 5 watts and a 18 dB of antenna gain if you wanted. (Wouldn't we all).
 
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i have a broken AM+SSB new Texas ranger cb and since one final blew out...(not sure why or care) it does a max 1w.....it used to do 22w! It still sounds good and can work stations far on the upper channels when nature permits it:)
 
I did qrp after some Chinese food. It embarrassed my wife. . .

I don't suppose low wattage CB counts, but "barefoot" DX was a way of life for me until the last couple of years.
Some of the radios were capable of significant PEP, but not all of them.
Frankly, nothing appealed to me about being stepped on and ignored on 11 meters. However, it was always a big kick getting that contact on 3 - 5 watts.
 
I used to do mobile QRP (1w) with a buddy 15 miles away and another guy down in south florida on 3.965 until the local radio police (self proclaimed radio god about 50 miles away) told me that I needed to run more power so he could hear me.
I couldn't resist baiting him so I turned up to 3 watts and waited until I thought he would have his volume cranked, then I turned up the mic gain and compressor and threw 600 watts to the bugcatcher and asked him if he could hear me now :D
Needless to say he hasn't ever said anything else about my low power mobile
 
I used to enjoy this... using small transmitter designs from old ARRL handbooks, or Motorola books using the AN's from them (application notes). You can make simple AM or CW transmitters or receivers for next to nothing.

For nostalgia, HF designs using tubes are not picky when it comes to placement of components and it is fun sometimes to go out in the middle of nowhere, camp, hike, whatever and bring a home made contraption, light up the tubes, and see what you can do.

I don't really enjoy using a modern, solid state radio though and turning down the power, to me that's not really all that exciting.
 
I earned my WAS QRP CW. It was challenging but most of the credit must go to the ops with the great ears who copied my 4.5W sig. I used an Elecraft K1 for the majority of the QSO's and a mix of my K2, Ten-Tec Argo V, and Palstar PC-500 for the final few.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2
 
Moleculo said:
I'll be honest; I've never much been into QRP. Obviously that is going to change now that I've purchased an Elecraft KX3 portable HF rig. Are you into QRP? If so, tell me what you like about it and about your operating style. Do you mostly do this while doing outdoors activities (camping, hiking, park, etc.)? Or, do you just do it at home for the sake of doing it? What about operating QRP is appealing to you?
Click to expand...

I'm putting to gether a portable station so I hope to start this summer
 
I take my FT817 with me when working overseas, I had a great time in Crete (SV9) last year on 10m using a miracle whip, over 400 QSOs and still managed to work Canada and USA with 500mW SSB, 10m was in great shape.

I'm currently in NE Spain (EA3) and whilst 10m isn't in such good shape, 20m is, and I've managed to work VK a few times with 5W and my homebrew six foot whip, my best being VK6 / Perth, long path, on Sunday morning, which is around 16,000 miles from here, I've also worked VK6 with 500mW SSB from near my home QTH.

QRP for me is almost always portable, although I quite often reduce the power at home to the minimum required to work the DX, but I also have an amp at home for when the going gets tough (y)
 
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For me, QRP is.......

Turning the AL-1500 down to a kW.
A 7el monobander MIGHT make QRP fun.
I type QRP so read carefully.
Compared to my XYL's voice, I speak QRP.
When working a QRP station, my 4/1 report is not an invitation to recite your righteousness for working QRP.

Actually, I work QRP everyday. On 6 meters AM to locals. I can comfortably work 50 miles using my Gonset and Mosely tribander (20-15-10+tuner).


I much prefer shooting fish in a barrel.
 

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