What is enough?

OK, so if you are chasing that last remaining DXCC entity I can imagine a big beam on a high tower and plenty of power might help. However, recently I have been wondering what constitutes "enough" for mere mortals.

As you will probably have read in earlier blog posts, I use about 10W and often far less. On HF I have no external antennas, so have had to make do with a tiny magnetic loop antenna on 20m, 17m, and 15m. I am sure it would be better on higher bands, but these have seemed dead when I tried. On 630m, 160m and 80m, I have used the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. On 6m, 2m and 70cm I frequently use the V2000 omni vertical. On 2m and 70cm, I sometimes use the big-wheel horizontal omni. I have no beams on HF, VHF or UHF.

What the last few days have taught me is simple, compromise, antennas and low power are perfectly fine most of the time. Yes, I am sure more power and better antennas would give better results, but simple antennas and low power will give you lots of fun.