On QRP operation

Tom, W0EA, raised a question in the reflector of CWops. His question is explained in detail in his blog. He wonders if QRP operators could not go QRQ. He seems a young CW lover operating only QRP. I have replied to him in this way shown below.

QRP singnals are always weak in DX. Their signals could be buried in noise. The dots are especially vunerable to static noise. QRS enables the receiver to copy those signals since the dots won't synchronize with the pulsatile noise. The same thing occurs in the low band DXing where signals are not very loud while the noise level is pretty high. With the long span QSB, QRQ is beneficial to be copied. But it is an exceptional situation.

Tom's will to learn QRQ is very precious. He might be a leader in CW communication in the world in the future. I would like to recommend him to listen to QSOs in QRQ. It is not a fun at all in the beginning. But listening actual operation in QRQ is the most fundamental and effective to learn copying QRQ. Reception ability is much more important for CW communication than transmission. If one can't receive and understand the message from the sender, there won't be any communication. Listening actual QSOs in QRQ may be tough due to QRN or QRM but could be the only place one could be accoustomed with the real QRQ. The PC program or the other modern methods of learning code won't give this kind of chance to learners.

In addition, I would emphasize that QRP operation requires much knowledge of operation, for example, the band conditions, the way to get through the noise, the simplest way to give the necessary info to the station being worked with  and so forth. It might be the ultimate technique of operation on CW. Rather few QRP operators, I guess, realize this fact. Signing /QRP after own call might be an example that the operator is not aware of this. For receivers, this excess of info is quite a trouble to copy the call of QRP operator. QRP operators should imagine how their signals go through to the other side. The relationship between them is not even but much biased.

I always feel thrilled to work with QRP guys and would like to seek Tom somewhere.