28 Dec 2022

8m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

 At the moment (1000z) I am on 40.680 MHz FT8 with 2.5W to the low wire dipole. No spots yet.

UPDATE 1022z:  Still no spots. One thing is clear from my experiments: running QRP ERP I do lose out on a lot both on TX and RX. Compared with a station with a modest beam at several metres, I am probably 6-10dB down, possibly more. Running just 2.5W on TX is probably 10dB down on many stations, if not more. This means I could be at least 16dB weaker than many stations. Despite this I have still been copied in 16 countries and 3 continents on TX. Moral? I have learnt something!

UPDATE 1228z:  No spots today.

UPDATE 1755z:  2 stations have spotted my 2.5W 8m FT8 to a low wire dipole.  Nobody spotted on RX.

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