"Leroy" wrote in message
news
I was under the impression that CW would get through under worse
conditions and/or with lower power requirements than other modes.

Various digital modes do better under low SNR conditions than CW, but they do
require a computer at both ends to perform the encoding and decoding -- some
people don't like that fact, that you seemingly need "more equipment" to work
such modes than you do with CW. It's a bit of a red herring, however, in that
these days pretty much every single amateur radio being sold commercially has
a processor (computer) in it anyway, and while some are strictly for "control"
(not modulation/demodulation), the percentage that does have raw number
crunching power increases every day, and within a decade it's a fair bet that
over 90% of all commerical amateur radios will use DSP techniques for
modulation and demodulation. (Cell phone went to DSPs somewhere between 5-10
years ago now...)

Does no one run "flea power" anymore?

Absolutely they do, and it's a really cool part of the hobby... but for every
100 amateurs, I would guess that the number running QRP on a regular basis is
about 1.

---Joel

"Joel Kolstad" wrote in message
...
"Leroy" wrote in message
news Absolutely they do, and it's a really cool part of the hobby... but for
every 100 amateurs, I would guess that the number running QRP on a regular
basis is about 1.

---Joel


My sole experience with QRP was accidental. I had reduced power to 5 watts
to tune to a different band (17 meters) and forgot to turn the power back
up. As a result I found myself speaking to a Swiss ham form my southern
Oklahoma shack with 5 watts and getting a reasonably good signal report. I
realize that for real QRPers 5 watts is high power, but for me it was an
unusual pleasure. Moreso because bad weather had me using an indoor dipole
mounted on the wifes sewing room ceiling (about nine feet above the earth).

Harold
KD5SAK