EMRFD Message Archive 2670

Message Date From Subject
2670 2009-02-04 10:55:55 Rick QRPs
I'd like some comments from the Group: QRP has splintered into so many interesting
topics that I find it difficult to describe how my various projects fit in. "Low Power Radio"
means something different to everyone involved. Long ago some operators who like to use
very low power started using the lower case suffix p, as in QRPp, to denote power levels
below a watt. This is a compact notation.

In my own notebooks, I've been using QRPs when working on low power stations--that is,
when my design and experimental effort is to reduce the total DC input power to the
complete station. The present modest goal is 1000 mile contacts with a complete station
that will run for a weekend on a pair of AAA cells. I've also sketched some sustainable
radio stations that use no commercial power sources at all--Wes Hayward and Bob
Culter's Lemonized QSO worked the transmit end of that problem, but a QRPs contact
would also use a minimum power receiver.

One can immediately come up with other suffix designators: QRPx for contacts made with
experimental radios spread out over the bench, perhaps QRPt for trail friendly radios and
QRPn for minimalist gear like the Pulga, (minimum number N components). ...and of
course QRPc for software stations that require a PC for some radio functions.

Most experimental low-power activities would fall into several overlapping categories, but
at least this would give us a compact way to describe what we are working on--like class
A, class AB, class C, and class E amplifiers.

Finally, there is eQRP, which is discussing this stuff on the web.

Any thoughts?

Best Regards,

Rick KK7B
2674 2009-02-05 09:14:50 timshoppa Re: QRPs
2675 2009-02-05 09:48:10 Chris Trask Re: QRPs
>
> > I'd like some comments from the Group: QRP has splintered into so
> > many interesting topics that I find it difficult to describe how
> > my various projects fit in. "Low Power Radio" means something
> > different to everyone involved. Long ago some operators who like
> > to use very low power started using the lower case suffix p, as
> > in QRPp, to denote power levels below a watt. This is a compact
> > notation.
>
> I'm not sure we need notation that encourages splintering.
>
> I think I saw you with a letter in QST bemoaning the "appliance
> operators" vs "collector" splintering (I think you called
> them "worshipping live radio engineers" vs "worshipping dead radio
> engineers"!) when in reality both attitudes prevent hams from taking
> the best ideas, thinking beyond groups and subgroups, from everywhere
> to put onto their bench and into their shack.
>
> Anything you write will be of great interest to me based on your past
> track record. In fact in the past I once thought to myself "oh,
> that's direct conversion, I don't want to go there" and only later
> did I realize how interesting and applicable what you write is to my
> different activities and even just thinking.
>

Along the lines of this discussion, you may be interested in a new
Yahoo! group that has been formed for Minimalist QRP transceivers:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Minimalist_QRP_Transceivers

Chris

,----------------------. High Performance Mixers and
/ What's all this \ Amplifiers for RF Communications
/ extinct stuff, anyhow? /
\ _______,--------------' Chris Trask / N7ZWY
_
2678 2009-02-06 09:30:49 Rick Re: QRPs
Hi Tim and Chris,

Thank you for your comments, I enjoyed reading them. The last thing I want to do is
encourage splintering. What I'm looking for is compact, precise notation.

For example:

Somewhere between "stuff" and "The Periodic Table of the Elements" are useful terms like
liquid, metal, wood, air etc...

But you can't type "metal" in a search engine and find anything useful. Minimalist doesn't
work in a search engine either, but "minimalist QRP" resulted in 189 hits this morning:
perfect...as long as you are on the web with a keyboard.

However, by the time you tap out "minimalist QRP" with your microswitch straight key on
the air with your 100 mW rig--and then try to explain what that means, the QRM has
clobbered you. Perhaps QRP N20 PARTS would be easier.

On the web this morning, QRPn20 resulted in no hits, so that would be a useful, precise
name for a minimalist qrp rig with 20 parts.

As for splintering--not at all. Compact precise notation allows us to quickly share ideas,
and most of us are interested in everything from vintage equipment (and books) to the
latest DSP concepts. I'm an admirer of everyone else's work, though I've chosen to focus
on a few areas to contribute.

Some of my latest efforts involve sustainable stations--maximizing communications
effectiveness while minimizing the need for commercial sources (including solar panels)
of DC power. To paraphrase the old backpacking rule: "worry about the microamps, and
the milliamps will take care of themselves." It is not minimalist since I'm using a lot of
components--as many passive ones as possible. Even the QRP power level is not a goal,
just a natural consequence of cutting down the DC input power. On top of those particular
notebook pages is the notation QRPs to quickly let me know what I was thinking about
when I came up with the strange ideas on the page. My QRPs 2AAA rig runs for 100 hours
on a pair of AAA alkaline cells...
2679 2009-02-06 22:33:44 glentorr Re: QRPs
Rick and all,

The idea of QRPx to catagorise areas of endevour within QRP sounds
very useful to me both for web searching and for on air use.

As a side issue the delineation of QRP styles was deal with by Bob
Locher in "Musings on an experiment in QRP", the is a group of
paragraphs under the sub heading of "The QRP mindset". (The article
was available for download on the Elecraft web site.

A few years ago I became worried that I did very little operating as
distinct from homebrew and kits, I posted on this worry on QRP-L and
discovered I was far from alone.

I also find powerful motivation in posts like Ricks, comparing boat
building with QRP, I print and put these gems in a ring binder but
how nice to be able to search for QPRm (mindset) or some such.

I have to say I am looking forward to hearing about the evolution of
the QRPs rig Rick.

Cheers

Glen VK1FB

2680 2009-02-07 02:15:29 ha5rxz Re: QRPs
How about QRPc and QRPh so that we can tell the difference between
stations using commercial rigs and homebrew equipment?

QRPA for those using big antennas on a tower and QRPa for the stations
with ten metres of wire thrown over a tree.

QRPm for mains powered stations and QRPb for portable or battery powered.

This is an interesting idea Rick and we can swim in the alphabet soup
for as long as we like but I am not sure if the idea will be popular.
If I have a two-way QRP contact I write it in the logbook in red ink
so that it stands out from the rest, for me this is enough. I do
however admire your goal of 1000 miles (1600Km)
2683 2009-02-07 07:06:16 Chris Trask Re: QRPs
>
> How about QRPc and QRPh so that we can tell the difference between
> stations using commercial rigs and homebrew equipment?
>
> QRPA for those using big antennas on a tower and QRPa for the stations
> with ten metres of wire thrown over a tree.
>
> QRPm for mains powered stations and QRPb for portable or battery powered.
>

I'm in favour of QRPmin to designate those using minimalist equiupment,
such as a 1-transistor transmitter and a 1-transistor regen receiver. Or
even more interesting minimalist equipment such as the SPRAT Flea.

Chris

,----------------------. High Performance Mixers and
/ What's all this \ Amplifiers for RF Communications
/ extinct stuff, anyhow? /
\ _______,--------------' Chris Trask / N7ZWY
_