DW and all: A slightly different hunting analogy might be more illuminating. Here in Maine, bear hunting is very popular. There are two ways to go about it. If you're a local, you learn the bears habits and habitats, and you go out and stalk the bear, and if you are very much smarter than the bear (most people are not) you eventually get a clear shot, and BANG! you become the proud owner of a bearskin rug. This is rather difficult to do, and a great sense of accomplishment, prestige and bragging rights that attach to being a genuinely skilled hunter. If you're a city slicker from New York you go about it the other way, hiring a local guide who puts out a big bucket of stale donuts (I'm not kidding, they really do it) in a known bear hangout; then you wait for the bear to come and BANG! that's his last donut. The guide makes a lot of money, the city slicker basks in the illusion that he's "hunted" a bear, and the locals think the city slicker is more to be pitied than despised.
In an age of the Internet, cheap worldwide telephone coverage, et cetera, talking to a person on the other side of the world is no big deal. The reason we take up ham radio is for the thrill of the hunt, and the sense of accomplishment that comes from honing a genuine skill. To those who would say that life is too short for QRP, I would answer that in my experience, life is too boring with QRO. In a typical DX contest, using QRP and a wire antenna, if propagation is minimally decent, I might make 500-600 contacts competing against stations 2-3 S-units stronger than me. This includes breaking pileups for rare multipliers. This suggests to me that the number of contacts unattainable with QRO is very few. The tradeoff is time. In a contest, using 100 Watts and a dipole, I can crack a multiplier pileup on maybe the 4th or 5th call. Using 5 Watts and a dipole, it takes dozens of calls to crack a multiplier pileup. I do crank my K2 all the way up to 100 Watts when the propagation simply will not support a QRP signal. This is a damnably common problem in the current sunspot climate. 73, Steve Kercel AA4AK dw wrote: > A few years back in our little farming community, there was a fellow > whose name was Francis. > Francis was an avid hunter. > At this time, the rumor went around the community that > Francis had been fined for deer jacking. > Out of his truck one night, with a spot light, he took a shot at a > plastic deer planted by game wardens. > Soon it became a joke…….Sir Francis the deer slayer. > > Something within me seemed to understand Francis’ point of view. > He was a pragmatist….. He had little interest in the thrill of the hunt. > He was focused on the efficiency of the catch. > > Although QRO is far from illegal, it does seem to be somewhat more > focused on the efficiency of the catch than the thrill of the hunt. > So there is a certain un-romantic reality to QRO vs. QRP. > > I'm wondering, what percentage of contacts you've made QRO, that you > would estimate as not attainable QRP. > > I hope I didn't break the list rules getting off-topic with the story > :~/ > ______________________________________________________________ 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
