8/13/2014

QRP Code of Conduct; A Draft

I am often called by QRP guys. Some are very excellent operators while the other are "impossible" operators. Imagine I am making despairing effort to copy what the QRP guy is telling to me. It is a real strain to my ears as well as to my brain. With excellent operators, I am honored to make a QSO. What should I say for those impossible ones? From my experience, I have made a draft of QRP Code of Conduct.

QRP Code of Conduct;
Send message in as simple and short manner as possible.
Imagine how your signal reaches the other side. You should grasp the cindition and the difference of set ups between yours and the others. Imagine and concentrate on what the other expects you to send.
Omit /QRP in your identification. /QRP is only your self satisfaction.

8 comments:

  1. I agree with you Shin. I operated QRP for many years and always kept my transmissions brief unless someone gave me a 599. I still enjoy QRP out in the field with my KX3. I always avoided QRP on the lower bands due to the QRN. Lately it is W1AW/% on 40M, they usually hang out by the QRP calling frequency and make it useless.

    Copying the weaker signals remind me of the old days when that was the norm :-)

    73...Bill

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    1. Bill,

      Yes, I also started with a 6AQ5 transmitter, so that I could imagine how excited the operators with QRP are. But some of them may need some training and discipline.

      Shin

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  2. Shin, I am sitting here smiling in agreement. I have often said that QRP awards should go to the stations on the receiving end.

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    1. Dan,

      Such an award is not bad. I am always trying to be as patient for QRP operations as possible. I could fully understand them getting fun with their tiny set up. But, as I told in my reply to Bill, if some of them are trained a bit more, the QSOs might be much more smoother and more pleasant.

      Shin

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  3. Spot on with this write-up, I really think
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    ReplyDelete
  4. Shin, I will use your blog to thank you for the several QRP contacts you have provided me while I was operating from campsites as well as my home QTH. It is a BIG deal to work JA with 4 watts and a longwire antenna from next to a camp fire. I smiled to myself when I worked you a week ago on 20..remembering you were my only JA I worked several years ago during a previous hike. And, YES: you (and the others) are right; the OTHER station do all the work. I usually don't sign /QRP, but sometimes, after >10 minutes of calling a DX station, I will toss in "/QRP" in out of desperation. I might have been guilty of a too long qso last week, since it seemed you copied me ok; you joked about my "strong" sig and I replied that I had no luck working EUs during the WAE contest (I made hundreds of calls and worked ONE Italian station, HI HI). Being alone for 5 days tends to make me "talkative as well...".
    You are a great operator with great equipment, and I am very grateful for all your hard work pulling me out of the noise. I am appending a youtube link to a short video clip of my /QRP "shack"
    VY 73,
    John, K7HV/qrp :)
    http://youtu.be/YylF8HS4OGI

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    1. John,

      It was a pleasure for me to work you running 4w. I don't want to make you, QRP operators, feel owed to me or the others with bigger set up. I just let you know if a QRP operator would iomagine how his/her signal comes here, he/she could enjoy more ralaxing as well as challenging QSO. I used to start radio with a 6AQ5 QRP TX in 1963, so that I could fully understand what an excitement a QRP operator feels. Unfortunately, some QRP operators mistake the condition as if it were much better for them. You were not such a case at all. Very concise and proficient operation, John. See you again soon. Thanks for the comment.

      Shin

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    2. NOW that I know you have a blog Shin, I will save my long, boring comments for here instead of my QRP QSOs! - Having participated in many QRP only contests (ARCI and NAQP) I DO understand how difficult it is to copy low power stations. It is MUCH more fun to search and pounce on you QRO guys! HI HI
      I started out with a 6L6 TX and Hallicrafters S38E in 1962 (15 W to a folded 40 meter dipole tuned with a light bulb!). When I worked my 1st DX (KM6CE on Midway Island), I was in Heaven ...I have been trying to recapture that feeling ever since; the closest I get to that state of Joy is working DX via QRP. The NEXT time I hear you from my home QTH, I promise to use 100 Watts to my 3 el Quad. TU AGN!
      -John

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