With my 8m station using only a low dipole, I suspect that stations need to be quite strong to be spotted here on FT8. Compared with the better stations with beams and more height, I guess I am probably 10dB down. On FT8 this means they will often spot stations I cannot.
Also, with the same power on 6m (2.5W), I can usually be spotted across England on 6m, whereas I struggle on 8m. One of the issues is there are too few people monitoring on 8m compared with 6m.
Nonetheless, I intend to experiment with 10mW ERP 8m WSPR this Es season as this will (hopefully!) show what is possible with a very simple system.
10mW ERP could be generated by a Raspberry PI, I think. It probably needs additional low pass filters to ensure compliance with IR2030. At this power everyone in the UK could have a go without a TX permit as long as ISM rules are followed. I cannot comment on the rules within the EU or elsewhere.
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