Just wondering….
Today I saw the QRZ page of a Dutch Novice radio amateur. He had a Youtube movie on his page in which he made a QSO with an American operator in which he told the American OM that he was using 1 Kilowatt of power.
I wonder if the American OM knew than that he was talking to a pirate?!
Let me quickly explain. In the Netherlands where I live you have 2 types of licenses. The Novice (starter) license and the Full (HAREC) license. I started as a Novice some time ago and quickly upgraded to Full.
The maximum legal power of a Full license holder is 400 watt here in the Netherlands, but the Novice license holder can only use 25 watts!
So the Novice guy in the Youtube movie was actually using 40 times more power than he is allowed according to his license. In other words he was acting as a pirate; not operating according to the rules of his license. And he is not the only one.
I don’t think I ever met a Novice operator that was using 25 watt or less. I’m sure it is like this all over the world, not only here in the Netherlands.
I guess it can be compared to driving to fast; if you do have a driving license but you drive to fast it’s not correct but also not the biggest crime in the world. Although if you drive 40 times the speed allowed you have a lot of explaining to do when you finally get caught! 😉
Another thing to think about; what will happen if you made a QSO in a contest with a person that is using to much power? Does the QSO count or is this like talking to a pirate and should the QSO be seen as invalid?
Let me know what you think of all of this. Are the rules there to be followed and obeyed or is this not such a big deal?
The limit is there for a reason and anyone who’s serious with the hobby would get a full license very quickly. But there are plenty who are not serious; perhaps curious enough to get a novice license, and then abandon the hobby after a short while.
And then there are the pirates. I agree with the description in the article.
They exists in the UK as well, have a look at the blog of this ‘ham’: http://mi3tit.blogspot.co.uk/2005/07/it9ryh-bestest-ham-in-hole-europe.html
(first I thought it was a parody, but it appears to be genuine).
And when I hear a PD or M6 station, I expect them to be able to hear me on my FT817 ! (BTW thanks for the mod description:)
I was in the US during the WPX SSB contest and heard a PD6 station who did not hear me, – probably beacuse of the pile up he was working through on 10m. (caused by too much power ?…)
73 Michael M0MPM/PA3BHF
I agree that, if you are serious about the hobby and you want to use more power you should just upgrade your license. It’s not rocket science and if you’re really serious you don’t mind studying for it!
The article you showed really looks like a parody, if it’s genuine the guy sounds like an idiot. The italian guy he talks about by the way is one of the biggest italian QRMers. I don’t understand why the italian Radio Amateur organisation doesn’t do anything about him but thats another story!
I guess most PD stations you hear 6000+ km away with S9++ either have a really good antenna or use more power than they are allowed to, and as I said in the article I don’t know many novice operators that use only the power allowed.
Thanks for your reply, and I’m happy the TX mod worked for you! 🙂
A few bad apples in our QTH- foundation license holders- a smoke screen for their illegal CB operations,Excessive power EU exempt radios out of band transmissions.
M6TDK
M6JUB
It’s a pity that those people can ruin it for everyone!