Making a QRP transmitter/receiver can be great fun, even if your signal only travels 5 km and someone picks it up, it’s incredibly satisfying! On VHF/UHF, even making contacts through a repeater counts.
If you build or buy a low power (less than 10W) HF rig and want to reach 400–500 km, it’s a real challenge. You need a good understanding of band conditions, a carefully built antenna (a dipole or inverted-V with low-loss feeder cable will do), and above all — patience. While others are working pileups, you may get only a handful of contacts.
That said, landing one or two stations with QRP is a thrill that 100 easy contacts with a beam and 400 watts can never match.
Here’s my story. When I got my licence on 13th May 1983, 43 years ago, I operated for 5 months on a 3.5W single-crystal TX on 14.044 kHz. I’d call CQ for hours hoping someone would answer.
On the very first day, Ekendra 4S7EF answered me from Intium Road, Dehiwala, I was at Malwatta Road, just 500 metres away! My brother in Piliyandala could hear me too. Kule 4S7KG, Nihal 4S7NS in Rajagiriya, and 4S7VJ in Himbutana would call me out of sympathy almost daily. We had no VHF in those days.
Then, about a month in, a station from Ukraine answered my CQ. Immediately after, a Maritime Mobile ship in the Mediterranean Sea. That was a huge turning point. My 3.5W TX had reached 8,000 km from Sri Lanka under good conditions!
From that moment, instead of calling CQ endlessly, I started planning contacts using my knowledge of radio propagation. Then one day Ron 4S7RO, my brother and an excellent CW operator, came home and made the first Long Path contact to the USA.
In those 5 months, on that single crystal frequency of 14.044 kHz on CW, we contacted 72 countries.
So don’t be disheartened. Don’t think your little TX is all you have. Make the best out of it!
73!
— Victor, 4S7VK
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