11/26/2003 | W0EB Started out using my Small Wonder Labs DSW-II-20 at 3 watts on 20 meters. Used my Yaesu FT-847 turned down to 3 watts out on the other bands. Propagation was pretty good, and I ran mostly "Search and Pounce" though I even managed to command a frequency for a while with the DSW-II.

I was pleased that even most of the "Big Guns" answered on the first call. I never did sign /QRP except when calling CQ and had only 1 station fail to be able to copy me. That was on 40 meters and He must have been running a KW because he was loud here in KS. He made a couple of attempts to pull me out, but couldn't get the call right, so missed that section.

All-in-all it was a fun contest even though I wasn't seriously attempting to win anything. Made around 150 Q's and about 17000 claimed score. Sent the log as a check log.

Browsing the submitted log list, I was very pleased to see quite a few QRP ONLY stations in there. If everyone would run 5 watts or less, it would really be fun and a heck of a lot better challenge hi hi. Look at power density/bandwidth, and you'll see that a 5 watt CW station is roughly equivalent of 100 watts on SSB. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why CW needs to be retained as an operating mode.

Jim, W0EB -- W0EB