Loyd, What I seem to be reading in your message is that digital modes are somehow different than other modes and do not follow the laws of physics.
While the digital text modes can often get through under what seems nearly miraculous conditions, they can also go from solid print at one moment to nearly nothing if the signal to noise ratio drops even 1 dB. Lifting your signal up a few dB's will make all the difference. If you double your power, your signal should increase by a factor of 3 dB, which is significant. If you increase 10 times, you can expect a 10 dB increase which is a very large difference. Usually, if you are on the edge, the doubling can really help unless the band is going out or going long or the receiving station has some QRM or increased QRN such as you will experience in the evenings on the lower bands. I generally run my ICOM 756 Pro 2 at around 25 watts on the meter when running most digital modes. I can run much higher power without triggering ALC if I carefully control the audio drive level from the computer. In fact, I use the lowest possible drive level possible that does not trigger the ALC when running near full power of 100 watts. Then I typically back down to the 25 watts. I have found during some of my NVIS tests with a local ham, that when 25 watts just won't make it, 50 watts results in 100% print. As long as you are not improperly modulating your signal it makes no difference whether your signal is digital or analog. 73, Rick, KV9U Loyd Headrick wrote: > I work mostly digital and have had this problem with the "BIG" boys > running enough power to light up half the town. I've made contacts > with 10 watts. if I can't work a station at 10 watts 100 isn't going > to help much more except to prove that I can't operate properly with > band conditions. In an emergency i could see using 15 to 20 watts > power to get the message delivered > I think common sense and courtesy was overloaded by their egos and all > the RF in their shacks > guess just have to live with it and hope they learn to control their > stations better (my 2 cents) > > > *//*
