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Milliwatts and Pedestrian Mobile in the 2012 John Moyle Field Day

4,113 views · Published 18 March 2012 · 8:50 · Indexed 1 October 2026

Channel: Amateur Radio VK3YE · 2012 · Science & Technology

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Milliwatts and contests may seem a crazy combination; much like Vegemite on ice cream.  

Band crowding may mask all but the strongest stations.  And major international contests can spoil domestic QRP contacts on some bands.  

The flip side is that contests means more stations on the air.  Which means more people have a chance of hearing you.  Especially field days, where stations go portable to RF quiet locations.  Which may make field days the best times of all to try milliwatts. 

This video puts this theory to the test.  Taken to the beach on the field day afternoon is an FT-817, L-match antenna coupler, batteries, and, most importantly, a step attenuator.  

Hardest was choosing the output power to use. It needed to be low enough to be a challenge but high enough to be heard.  I did not want to admit defeat by being forced to lift power part way during the contest.  

Buoyed by the success of 500mW last year, I went for 9dB (or 1.5 S-points) below that or 62 milliwatts.  In other words a penalty of 32dB (or 5 S-points) compared to the average 100 watt station.  As a testament to the quality of sites, antennas, equipment and operators,  62mW proved enough to make 20 contacts in 4 hours operating (split evenly between 40 and 20m).

The following morning was still field day, so a different style of QRP was chosen.  Instead of milliwatts to an average antenna in a good location, I chose 5 watts to a mediocre antenna in a good location. More precisely to a pedestrian mobile magnetic loop walking along the beach.  

This gave 3 contacts in the first 40 minutes, the best being VK4 on 40 metres. That time might still had been too early for some and there was still DX QRM. Part way along the walk was a pier, and it is there that the majority of contacts were made, staying there for over 2 hours.   18 contacts were made in 3 hours, ie  a similar contact rate to the 62 milliwatts.  20 metres was the most productive, due to the loop's higher efficiency.

Thanks to the following fine HF stations who were worked: VK2s AZD DAG KDP  VK3s ER ANR AWS DOG FRC HJA  VK4s IZ KRX MON WID XQA VK5s CZ DG LZ  PAS VK6s ARG

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