QRP Operation

QRP is an example of an amateur radio 'Q Code'. It means Low power. Defined on the Radio Society of Great Britain web site as using five Watts of power when using Morse Code or ten Watts of power using a voice mode, ie talking on the radio. It is considered to be a discipline and a skill. With the right conditions and a good antenna you can get a signal to travel a good distance. With support of a friend asking the other station to listen for me, my most distant QRP contact to date was with a fella in Brazil, South America from Birmingham. So how much power do you need? :)

Well, if I can get into Brazil on ten Watts I would say I need about er ..... ten Watts. There are situations where a bit more power can be helpful, if the atmospheric conditions are poor or there are lots of people calling one station (Called a pile-up), a bit more power can be a help. My hf (Shortwave) radio can transmit as much as one hundred Watts. I generally work with genuine QRP (ten Watts) but have been known to ramp the power up to whopping forty or sixty Watts! I am licenced to use one thousand Watts (Sometimes calle a kilowatt), so I am using about one to six percent of what I am allowed to!

It started when I first got on the Shortwave bands. My first proper hf radio had a maximum output of ten Watts. QRP was the only option, not a choice. It became normal. It was sometimes frustrating and sometimes awesome. Due to terrain, antenna's and other factors I found I was making good contacts in eastern and southern Europe. Places like Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkan countries and Italy. And good strong contacts too.

In October 2023 I was given a superb Radio from friends in MARS, the local Radio club. Initially I did play with higher power (one hundred Watts, bye bye ice caps) and FT8 (Dont ask). By this time I had moved my Antennas and I found that using QRP I could still do well in Europe and Scandinavia. I have had a lot of contacts over time and you can see these on my radio log, a link is on the left.

Another reason I like to keep power down is the issue that I sit here very near the antennas. One side of my triangle shaped antenna (Delta loop) is about a meter and a half from me. One end of my other antenna is about three meteres from my head. I think it seems sensible to keep the power down when the effect of radio waves on the human Brain and soft tissue is still largely unknown.

I Never hold my mobile phone near my head, always using the speakerphone instead. If a device can put out a signal that can be picked up by a cell tower several miles away, you probably don't want it near your noggin! There were surveys that said EMF emissions from cellphones were safe, but would they have said otherwise and killed their mega-billion dollar industry?