Hi All,
I once vowed never to get involved in any e-mail pig pong wars but I wanted
to add my tuppence worth.
Laurie I agree with you and Mal. We need a stipulation of power that is
easily measurable and gives some incentive to improve antennas and equipment and
more activity.
Using a stipulated power, say in the 5 to 10 watts region, would be easy to
measure with simple equipment such as a peak voltmeter and dummy load and those
with the NoV, (or hopefully in the future without), could spend time developing
simple equipment for the band. Who dreamed up these daft ERP and dBw notions
anyway? I can use them but surely rms power into a dummy load or antenna is
a far easier measurement to quantify?
Geoff G3YVF, unfortunately with a poor antenna, has developed two excellent
designs using both valves and semiconductors. I've already learnt something
about antenna losses and measurement over the last few weeks and for me the NoV
has been a breath of fresh air in terms of operating, building antennas and
equipment. Locally G3XAQ and G3UNT have made similar designs - and learnt a lot
on the way.
I've just written to my local Ofcom Field Office letting them know I, (and
G3YVF), intend to operate portable on the marshes in two weeks time, depending
on the winds for our kite antenna.See you there - those left on the band.
I've told them about the NoV and given them my NGR - I wonder if the local
Office will know what I'm talking about?
Like you I think activity is falling off........a great pity. Any CW is
good CW from tapping two wires together to a bug, a pump or an elbug. This could
be a great band for the GQRP club gang with a simple transmitter at 5 watts. You
must know the story........
Back to lawn cutting. See you on 502 after lunch.
73
Colin G3VTT
The
problem with an erp limit as low as 0.1W is that there is no incentive to
develop better antennas.
We can easily develop enough power to drive even
the most inefficient of antennas.
Not like 136 where it needed 1000w to
achieve 1W erp even with quite a large ant. so there was
an incentive and
a challenge to develop better antennas.
Attenuation by trees/buildings etc
can easily be compensated for by more power so long as we
can measure erp
accurately at a suitable distance and direction.
I think this low power
limit may lead to the demise of 500kHz at least among those of us
whose
interest is in design and development
The only compensation is
that this limit has created a level playing field on which everyone can
play, but where is the challenge?
I think that a far better rule would
have been to limit the power to say 10W (if it needs to be this
low,
and I dont think it does , we are all responsible amateurs and should
be trusted more ). Then we could
work on our own designs , so that
developments like Finbars spiral would have a purpose.
It will be
interesting to see how many are operating still in 9 months time, I
think there is already
a falling off in interest and activity.
As far as
Mals comments are concerned no doubt QRSS is not necessesary for
UK and near
European contacts, but it is essential if greater
distance are to be covered so it should be encouraged
not denigrated.
73
Laurie G3AQC
