At one time, I got very excited about working new DXCC countries. A 2-way QSO with a DXCC entity with QRP was important to me. In recent years this aspect of our hobby has become far less important. 2-way voice QSOs are hard for me nowadays as my voice is poor following my 2013 stroke.
However, I suspect I am not alone, especially with those of "advancing years". To me, I am far more interested in beaconing using WSPR or FT8 and seeing where my signal is picked up. My favourite bands for this are 10m, 8m, 6m and 2m.
Although I still use FM (for local nets) and SSB (for 2m and 70cm contests) these aspects are now less important to me. I am far more interested in propagation research.
FT8 has offered me the possibility to work several countries in Western Europe and Scandinavia with modest RF power (appr. 15 Watts) and small antennas on VHF and UHF. This was hardly possible in NBFM (or even SSB).
ReplyDeleteFT8 has become a nice part of the radio hobby.
73 Ron, PA2RF