Amateur Radio (also affectionately known as ham radio) is many things to many
people. The reason is that there are so many sub-hobbies within the hobby. Some hams focus on
satellite operation, others on CW, some are into nets, while many enjoy contesting or collecting
awards. The list goes on and on.
One aspect of ham radio that many of us enjoy is QRP, which means low power, Now,
low power is relevant and means different things to different hams, especially since we're permitted
to use up to 1,500 watts output. In the QRP world, it means five watts or less on CW and 10 watts PEP or
less on phone. The radio on the left is one of the QRP transceivers I've built. It's the DSW-30, a
30-meter rig manufactured by Small Wonder Labs. I also built the look-alike DSW-40. It puts out
about 2.5 watts.
QRP aficionados are fortunate today because there are many manufacturers and QRP clubs who are making
QRP kits available. The 400-milliwatt Tuna Tin II I built (pictured on the right) is another example. So is the
NorCal 38 Special shown below. I ended up mounting that one on a dust cover for Bencher CW
paddles. It fits quite nicely. Unfortunately, I no longer have the Bencher paddles or I would have taken
a picture of them together.
Not only are there lots of QRP kits available today, but there are several
magazines that are devoted entirely to QRP (e.g., QRPARCI's QRP Quarterly and AmQRP's
Homebrewer) and nearly every major ham magazine now has a QRP section.
I first got into QRP back in 1980 when I built a Heathkit HW-8 and my first contact--with 2 watts--was
with DK4KK in Germany. In the late 90s, I built a couple of NorCal 38 Specials (described above) for
30 meters. One I kept at the 300mw out level and the other I beefed up to 5 watts. The best QRP transceiver I own
is the Icom IC-703 you see at the top of the page. It's a super little radio with DSP,
a memory keyer and auto antenna tuner.
If you haven't discovered the thrill of QRP yet, I encourage you
to give it a try soon. It's challenging, rewarding, and just plain fun!
