Use of more power than necessary is likely to bother someone who is using the same frequency in a different locale. There seems to be a large majority of digital modes operators that object to the use of high power. The reason seems to be that they have been taught to use a wide receiver in combination with a sound card, so as to get a panoramic view including other stations. This lets a strong nearby station control the agc, and affects reception of stations on a range of frequencies. This negates the dearly paid for capability of our Elecraft radios, which we bought in part because they can eliminate the influence of strong nearby signals. Sure, the ease and cheapness of getting on digital modes with just a soundcard and a wide receiver helps bring many into the hobby. The large majority of digital users that use such a setup do benefit if every station is equally strong, so that agc never makes a gain adjustment (or manual rf gain never needs to change). However, that goal will never be reached, as common natural causes will affect signal strength even more than the difference between a a 30W station and a 1500W station. The operator that has a separate panadapter like the P3 that is independent of the radio selectivity and agc system, or an SDR radio that knows to take agc from one station at a time, needs not have any problem with high-powered stations nearby. The many op's that look down on high power operation for certain digital modes are in effect saying: Don't make this hobby into an unfair competition by giving an advantage to those that spend on their setup beyond the cheap, wide ssb rig plus soundcard. This is opposite to what applies to traditional modes. It goes against the natural pursuit of higher performance through improvement of equipment (at a price). Maybe it is wise to let these anti-progress kids have their sandbox undisturbed. There is much to be said for allowing different sub-hobbies for different tastes and pocketbooks. But getting there would be easier accomplished if the proponents would admit their motives and stop implying that communication with certain modes doesn't get better with higher power, like happens with any other modes.
73, Erik K7TV ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
