On 6/21/2016 1:08 PM, Road Runner wrote:
Have had my KX3 for a couple of weeks and love it. Biggest issue I have is even at 15 watts, unless conditions are right, I am having issues making DX contacts.
CW or SSB? The mode makes a huge difference.
So my question is for those of you that have gone the upgrade path to KXPA100... Did you get enough punch or are you wishing you had gone with more power? I am not really too crazy about going all the way to the KPA500...
With a KX3, and now a K3s, both feeding a Carolina Windom, I have good results working DX with only 5W CW on all bands. I just looked at the contests page on my website, and see that I averaged 23 QSOs per hour over two years operating the ARRL DX Contest at 5W.
100W does make a big difference on CW. In the year between those two ARRL DX contests, I ran 100W CW and averaged 33 Qs/hour -- a 43% better rate.
Now, I am not an uber contester, and I have only the Carolina Windom antenna up about 45'. No beams and no 100'-high antennas.
I found 10W SSB to be difficult and frustrating, both in contests and normal QSOs. OTOH, I _did_ work New Zealand with 10W SSB, and we tested to see how low I could go. He was able to copy me down to 1W.
I experienced difficulties with 10W SSB on a 75M morning net. People just couldn't pull me out of the noise.
Once I bought the KXPA100, SSB operating was much more enjoyable. I often can get a DX station to answer me in a pileup after three to six calls (good timing helps a lot).
So, my bottom line: 100W yields noticeable benefits on CW and SSB, but _especially_ on SSB.
I was never sorry I bought the KXPA100. -- 73, Mike N4CF Louisa County, VA USA Elecraft K3s/100 Carolina Windom up 45' http://n4cf.mdodd.com ______________________________________________________________ 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]
