10mW 10m FT8 (Thursday)

My gear was turned on at about 0915z. I am using the IC-705 at 3.2% power with a 15dB commercial RF pad right on the output. No spots yet although I am copying plenty of Far East stations on 10m FT8 RX despite the 15dB pad inline. I suspect with QRP you are more likely to be in the (local) noise or underneath a stronger station, so chances go way down. Given a low noise floor and a clear channel I am sure it would be possible at 10mW. As a reminder, my antenna is a low end-fed about 3m above ground. With the antenna higher and/or with a beam better results are assured.

UPDATE 1209z:  Still no spots on 10mW 10m FT8 TX, so I have QSYed in case I am being clobbered. On the evidence so far, 10mW FT8 is just too little. 100mW was fine. As the sunspots decline I think I will use 2-3W FT8 from the QDX on most occasions. It would seem the 10dB more reduction on FT8 TX power makes it hugely harder. I guess WSPR is better as it takes up less bandwidth (less chance of being clobbered) and works with signals far weaker. Maybe I should try 10m WSPR TX tomorrow at 10mW?

UPDATE 1440z:  Spotted by 2 stations when running 10mW 10m FT8. It is much harder at very low power. I suspect it would be far easier on 10m WSPR with its much smaller bandwidth (about 6 Hz rather than about 50 Hz) and far better sensitivity. WSPR can decode signals probably about 10dB weaker than those on FT8.

UPDATE 2144z:   QRT. 10mW 10m WSPR tomorrow.