W2LJ's Blog - QRP - Do More With Less.

///////////////////////////////////////////
A popular misconception

Posted: 03 Apr 2016 01:32 PM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/feedb...mediu m=email

I saw this on Facebook:
Along with this comment:

"Why do we always congratulate the QRP operators...?!?! The ones who REALLY
need congratulating are the guys/gals who smash the headphones to their
head, desperately trying to make sense out of the distant RF they're
hearing to make the QSO. The "skill" in QRP operation is not so much the
operator employing it, but the operator trying to pull it out of the mud!"

So let's examine this for a bit ..... is this true?

A lot of times ..... yes. A lot of time the credit should go to the
stations that pull out our sometimes weak signals. And for these times, we
offer a hearty "Thank You!"

However, there's a popular and stubborn misconception, or premise here at
work here, if you will:


"QRP = Weak Signal"
Many times, this IS the case, but many times IT IS NOT.
This is where propagation and band conditions come into play, my friends.
And if you've spent any time at all on the HF bands, you would know better
than to make the above statement, because a weak signal can be produced by
any station. It's not necessarily an indicator of how much power they're
running.
Many have been the times when I've had problems pulling a 100 Watt or
better signal out of the muck. This could be due to the fact that the
station I was trying to work was in the skip zone, the band on which we
were working was only "so-so" that day, or for a plethora of other reasons.
Many have been the times when other QRPers have literally blown the cans
off my ears with their 5 Watt signals (N9NE comes to mind, on a regular
basis). So in the end, you really can't "'judge the book by its cover", nor
make assumptions about the station based on the loudness of its signal.
The station that's pinning your needle just might be a QRPer, while the
station that you can barely hear may be running a kilowatt. It's all in
the antenna, the band, and the ionosphere, and how all these elements are
interacting at the moment.
So what's the lesson to be learned?
1) Don't be afraid to try and work the weak ones. I have been guilty of
this myself. There have been instances where I thought "Oh, this guy is
never going to hear my 5 Watts!", only to find out that he was running 100
Watts, or better ........ but for whatever reason, he was hearing me much
better than I was hearing him.
2) Propagation is not always reciprocal. Just because the station you are
hearing is 20 dB over 9 doesn't necessarily mean you will be heard equally
as well at their end. There may be a high background noise level on their
end that you don't know about. Yes, it IS frustrating as all get out, but
don't beat yourself up because the "loud one" didn't hear you. Sometimes,
it just works out that way.
3) Power is relative, but it's not an absolute. So as I've said so many
times before, you should just forget that you're a QRPer. You're just
another fish in the Amateur Radio sea. A smaller fish for sure, but just
another fish. And sometimes, just sometimes, the smaller fish gets away
with snagging the bait and swimming away to play another day, while the big
fish gets snagged by the hook and ends up on the dinner plate.
72 de Larry W2LJQRP - When you care to send the very least!