AmateurRadio.com

Combined result RTX Saturday

I left WSPR running at 10m this weekend. Although there was a huge difference between propagation at Saturday and Sunday. Since my computer chrashed a couple of months ago this was the first time that I installed WSPR again and Saturday around 10:00 UTC I was finally on air with my usual 1W. A little late as I already heard several Japanese stations with big signals on both 10m and 12m. Anyway, my WSPR signal was heard from Australia to Africa and North and South America. I could note several new DXCC and I count 18 till now on 10m WSPR that received met 1W signal. As always I received a lot more, and there was something that was conspicuous. There were stations that transmit with 50W and stations that transmit with only 0,1W. I did remember what Paul PC4T wrote about the QRO stations that appear on JT65A as well. Then I thought why? Why is someone using that much power on QRP modes like WSPR and JT65 or even PSK? I think it is a matter of confidence. Confidence in your station and in your antenna system or even the propagation. Probabely someone that has no confidence in it will use more power so he is certain to be heard. It could also be something else, like a wall of QRM/QRN in very populated or industrial areas. Imagine you always have to struggle with S7-9 QRM on all bands and you occasionally spot something on WSPR or JT65? Using QRO could be a scream for others to do the same so it’s finally possible to QSO or spot a WSPR signal. I don’t know, I hope someone that use more then 5W on WSPR or JT65 can tell his story why? Most confident station this weekend on 10m was N4AU with 0,1W over 7337km (4559mls) my report -6dB. No confidence at all had DF4PV who was transmitting 50W and had a signal of +2dB. Later he switched to 10-1 and 5W, probabely gained some confidence after all.