Jimmie D wrote:

...
I think I remember a test conducted to see how much power it would take to
communicate across the United States coast to coast. They started out making
the contact at near legal limit and were still able to detect the signal at
just a few milliwatts. As I remember a few was less than 10. I am sure this
was part of a ham magazine article from many years ago. perhaps someone else
here knows the details better than I.


Jimmie

It seems to me, many here have suggested there are "tons" of active hams
out there; some have even went so far as to claim the bands are "crowded."

Surely, taking in to account the above, the few brief milliwatts from an
analyzer are of no real consequence amongst this "rf pollution" ... and
ten milliwatts would never make it across such a country of such active
hams.

Regards,
JS

John Smith writes:

It seems to me, many here have suggested there are "tons" of active
hams out there; some have even went so far as to claim the bands are
"crowded."

How crowded?

CQ WW DX contest 2005 received 4430 logs for SSB, 4100 for CW. We all
agree that these events increase activity on the HF bands many
fold. How many of these are actually transmitting at any given time?
1000? (A few may be transmitting and listening at the same time, but
there are many more who aren't active for the entire permitted period.)

So how many simultaneous transmissions are there on the HF bands when
there isn't a contest going on? Low hundreds seems more likely.

73
Jon (LA4RT)

Jon Kåre Hellan wrote:
John Smith writes:

It seems to me, many here have suggested there are "tons" of active
hams out there; some have even went so far as to claim the bands are
"crowded."

How crowded?

CQ WW DX contest 2005 received 4430 logs for SSB, 4100 for CW. We all
agree that these events increase activity on the HF bands many
fold. How many of these are actually transmitting at any given time?
1000? (A few may be transmitting and listening at the same time, but
there are many more who aren't active for the entire permitted period.)

So how many simultaneous transmissions are there on the HF bands when
there isn't a contest going on? Low hundreds seems more likely.


When I scan the bands, I hear quite a bit of activity. Those who have
problems hearing other folks should first check their antenna system.

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -