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Author Topic: Field Day limit of 150 watts?  (Read 645 times)

WB8LBZ

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #15 on: June 29, 2021, 12:26:21 PM »

I understand the intent was to keep the honest home stations inline. But if it is a home station, how will anyone know it it was a 100 watt station with a good antenna or a 600 watt station with a mediocre antenna? The club did OK with a 100 watt radio and antenna tuner. How does anyone know if you made the natural power contacts? Its on the honor system. Hopefully the Class D exemption will be gone next year and class D stations can run what ever they want. The club will still run barefoot rigs and antenna tuners not worrying about power levels.

73, Larry WB8LBZ
El Paso, TX
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N8AUC

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #16 on: June 29, 2021, 07:28:47 PM »

How does anyone know if you made the natural power contacts?

Well, I don't know for sure what anyone else does. But we enclose photos as proof of the use of solar panels
when we send the scoring package to ARRL. All the FD contacts I've made since 2018 were powered exclusively
by solar power, even when I operated from the back yard last year.

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AF5CC

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #17 on: July 02, 2021, 12:56:42 PM »

If your life was on the line someday and there was health and welfare traffic that had to get through to save it, would you want the transmitting station limited to 150 watts, or able to run 1500 watts if necessary?

73 John AF5CC
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K0RS

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #18 on: July 05, 2021, 12:31:49 PM »

This was my first big field day as I just received my license late last year.

My favorite was a fellow that sounded to be very old and hard of hearing. His radio was on 40 meters and instead of .00 or .50, his frequency he was .25 or somewhere close.

Ahh, the CB mentality.  Is it more difficult to tune to a station on 7.157.83 than on 7.157.5?  Use the big knob on the radio.  Good thing you weren't a ham when VFOs were external and the dial was marked off every 5 kHz.  (kcs in those days).  Perhaps some more experience on your part would be in order before you become too critical.  In a contest the priority is to find a frequency where there is minimal QRM, whatever that happens to be.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2021, 12:33:54 PM by K0RS »
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"90% of the people in a pile-up have no idea what's going on.  It's up to you to be in the remaining 10%."  *W9KNI*

W9FIB

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #19 on: July 06, 2021, 04:19:26 AM »

This was my first big field day as I just received my license late last year.

My favorite was a fellow that sounded to be very old and hard of hearing. His radio was on 40 meters and instead of .00 or .50, his frequency he was .25 or somewhere close.

Ahh, the CB mentality.  Is it more difficult to tune to a station on 7.157.83 than on 7.157.5?  Use the big knob on the radio.  Good thing you weren't a ham when VFOs were external and the dial was marked off every 5 kHz.  (kcs in those days).  Perhaps some more experience on your part would be in order before you become too critical.  In a contest the priority is to find a frequency where there is minimal QRM, whatever that happens to be.

I tend to agree...If you are going to respond to a CQ, then it is up to you to tune to the same freq as the CQer is using. If it is within your license class, and follow that simple instruction, you will never be off frequency.

The smaller knob (based on my FT-897) that moves you in steps is great for looking around the band. But then you need to use the big knob to zero in on the OP you want to answer. You do realize that if you stick to X.XXX.00 or X.XXX.50 you are wasting a huge amount of usable band space. And when it gets crowded, it is the best practice to spread out. Otherwise you just become part of the QRM.
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73, Stan
Travelling the world one signal at a time.

K3XR

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #20 on: July 06, 2021, 04:43:44 AM »

It's always been my understanding that one of the main purposes of Field Day was to test emergency communications capability.  In a true emergency why would you limit your power to 150 watts if more power were needed to complete the desired communication?
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WB8VLC

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #21 on: July 06, 2021, 05:52:59 PM »

This was my first big field day as I just received my license late last year.

A couple of thing I observed. The 150 limit was not always self imposed. There were more than a few stations still blowing right along at high power.
There was so many people participating that
1. You did not need a lot of watts to get contacts, and
2. The high power folks were bleeding over and making it hard on other contestants.
3. When the waterfall is white, high power just tends to add to the problems.

My favorite was a fellow that sounded to be very old and hard of hearing. His radio was on 40 meters and instead of .00 or .50, his frequency he was .25 or somewhere close.
He told everyone they were off frequency again and again. Finally some gentleman in an east Texas accent fired up his cloud warmer and told the fellow, "Hoss, you are the one off frequency."

I heard more that one person mention they felt that 150 watts was QRP to them.
But really, there were so many folks in so many pileups I can't imagine someone not getting contacts. Maybe they felt it was not fast or easy enough to get contacts.

And if the other hams did not tune to his frequency then yes they were off frequency frequency, they were off of his rightfully chosen frequency even if he was actually on 7.222436MHz and you wanted him to be on 7.2225MHz, that is his chosen frequency.

 Also how can one be off frequency if they are operating within the ham bands, this comment makes no sense because any selected frequency within your license class and mode of operation is valid as long as you consider out of band spurious and such?

I can go to what some people may define as the 10 meter FM simplex calling frequency of 29.600 MHz and call CQ if I desire on 29.60125 MHz FM and still be on a good frequency.

 I am on my chosen desired operating frequency, and nobody should  tell me that I am on the wrong frequency either.

You don't need to be on an even 1 kHz integer or a 500Hz increment such as 7.222 MHz or 7.2225 MHz either and being on a frequency such as 7.222257 or 7.222194 MHz etc, are also perfectly good and legal frequencies to operate on so I do not  understand this statement about chastising the other ham as to his frequency choice?

If someone has an issue with a ham being on a non 1 kHz integer or not on a  half kHz increment that the other ops radio is set to tune to then as the two knowledgable hams who posted ahead of me suggested use your radios thing called a VFO/fine tuning adjustment and get on the other guys frequency, modern radios can typically tune in 10 Hz or better steps.

You need to consider that the older ham was also using an older radio such as a 60 year old Collins model that sounds just as good, and probably has a better receiver by the way, than any of the new radios.

Although it doesn't have a 10 or 5 hz accurate frequency display and typically an old analog dial many hams still use these older analog dial radios are still on the ham bands in operation by seasoned hams.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2021, 06:02:20 PM by WB8VLC »
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KO4JPZ

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2021, 02:09:52 PM »

This was my first big field day as I just received my license late last year.

My favorite was a fellow that sounded to be very old and hard of hearing. His radio was on 40 meters and instead of .00 or .50, his frequency he was .25 or somewhere close.

Ahh, the CB mentality.  Is it more difficult to tune to a station on 7.157.83 than on 7.157.5?  Use the big knob on the radio.  Good thing you weren't a ham when VFOs were external and the dial was marked off every 5 kHz.  (kcs in those days).  Perhaps some more experience on your part would be in order before you become too critical.  In a contest the priority is to find a frequency where there is minimal QRM, whatever that happens to be.

I mentioned that traffic on the radio and thought it was humorous, never said it was correct or incorrect.  I  did not even remotely intend to be critical.
As for the CB remark, never owned one nor wanted one.
My previous radio experience is 15 years as a fireman and 12 years as a deputy.

Sorry to send this thread off in a different direction. I believe it was about the watt limit.
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AF5CC

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Re: Field Day limit of 150 watts?
« Reply #23 on: July 08, 2021, 01:08:54 PM »

It's always been my understanding that one of the main purposes of Field Day was to test emergency communications capability.  In a true emergency why would you limit your power to 150 watts if more power were needed to complete the desired communication?

Stop confusing this issue with facts!

73 John AF5CC
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