QRP - In question form means, "Shall I decrease power?" In answer, advice or order it means, "decrease your power". This is just one of many "Q" signals that were made for communication over radio using CW both for military and Amateur Radio back in the 1940's. There is no need for the Q signals in the military any more. Due to the sophisticated communication methods technology has brought to us in the last few decades CW and the Q signals are obsolete. Within the amateur radio (or "Ham") community CW is very much alive, and so are the Q signals.

Many Hams, young and old still embrace this method of communication known as CW or continuous wave. It is the di dah di dit di dit dah di dit you may hear if you are a short wave listener or Ham listening in the CW portion of the ham bands. They still use the Q signals there and on all of the voice portions from Amplitude Modulation (AM) to Frequency Modulation (FM) to Singlesideband or SSB. Ham Radio operators are probably the only ones left who employ the Q signals in their daily communications to one another any more. One more thing about CW and then we'll move on. If you are ever in Hollywood, CA and can see the old Capital Records building there, watch the aviation clearance light on top of the building. It is flashing a CW message to any and all who can decode it. I know what the message is, do you?
Now back to QRP.

Our QRP has a compliment Q signal. That signal is QRO, which means in question form "Shall I increase power?" In answer, advice or order it means, "Increase your power". To many Hams, myself included, QRP and QRO have another meaning besides their intended meaning and they are, QRP - "I'm using 5 watts of power or less" and QRO - "I'm using a hell of a lot more power than 5 watts!" More accurately it means simply that this station is using 100 watts of power or more. Most hams are QRO all of the time. But there are a few of us who enjoy using minimal power to make our contacts with others across town, across the state, across the country or around the world.

Sound amazing? Actually it is. Using 5 watts of power to transmit your signal be it in CW or SSB or any other mode is using the equivalent amount of energy it takes to light just one of your typical out door Christmas lights. That's amazing! When the band conditions are just right your QRP signal can be heard by a listening station on the other side of the world.

At this point you may be asking yourself, if 5 watts of power can be heard round the world, why would anyone want to waste power using 20, 50, 100, 500 watts or more to do the same thing? Well there are many reasons like, I want to cut through that pile up like a warm knife through butter or maybe because I just HAVE to be the loudest station on the air. Perhaps it is just simply because band conditions will not permit low power operation at this time and the station you want to call just can not hear you. Sadly, another reason is the fact that many hams will not talk to QRP stations.
The last reason is actually a really stupid reason but these are the facts. It has happened to me on a few occasions. Please do not let a reason like this get you discouraged.
There are literally tens of thousands of hams that will gladly talk to you and your low power station and actually tell the QRO stations to stand by so that you may complete your QSO. (There is another "Q" signal. It means conversation or contact).

For the last few decades QRP stations have been commercially built by many manufacturers but before that, up to and since then many hams prefer to build their QRP stations. Actually they build their transmitters, there is no such thing as a QRP receiver, however hams like to build receivers too. Often the average QRP enthusiast will listen with a commercial receiver and send with their QRP transmitter. There is a great feeling of accomplishment and pride that a Ham has when his "homebrew" equipment works and works well. Often these home made transmitters are so small that they can be fit into small containers like an Altoids candy tin or a tunafish can. I have even seen a transmitter that is so small that its 9-volt transistor battery is bigger than it is. How is that for amazing?

As of lately or within the last few years there have been some amazing radios built by QRP clubs and companies like Wilderness radio, Kanga products, Oak Hills Research, Emtech and Ramsey. Other companies are MFJ, Elecraft, and even Yaesu or Vertex Standard. An article in QST magazine (March 2000 - Product Review) actually states that the receiver in the Elecraft K2 QRP transceiver compares favorably with most of the commercially available high end QRO radios on the market today. Now that's amazing! Keep in mind that the Elecraft K2 is a kit with NO surface mount technology. Besides the aforementioned companies or groups there are many individual hams that can be found on the web that produce kits at very reasonable prices. Whether you build your own or buy a ready-made transceiver there is a lot of fun just waiting for you in the low power world of amateur radio.

Now on to some QRP fun. I have been an active QRP'er now for less than a year. In fact my Icom IC756 is seeing very little use these days, as I am almost exclusively running QRP. I bought the Yaesu FT-817 for its amazing versatility and solid construction not to mention Yaesu's marvelous track and service records. My little radio measures only 5.31"wide by 1.5" high by 6.5" deep and it packs an incredible 180 through 10 meters plus 6 meters, 2 meters and 70 cm as well as a general coverage receiver from 100 kHz to 54MHz. It also includes FM broadcast, aircraft coverage and a few other VHF/UHF bands to listen to also. Please keep in mind that this is an all mode transceiver including AM, FM, CW, USB, LSB, Digital and Packet. The FT-817 has a maximum output of 5 watts on all bands and all modes except AM which is a 1.5 watt maximum carrier. Pretty amazing.

Now up to the time of this writing I have made only a few CW contacts with the FT-817, which I should mention is the primary mode for normal QRP communications among most QRP enthusiasts. However, I have made some remarkable contacts using upper side band (USB), including H44RD (Solomon Island), G0CMK (U.K.), AH6OP (Maui, Hawaii), K2LEH (Buffalo, NY) and nearly all points between. By using some wonderful digital modes including PSK31 and Slow Scan TV I have worked the U.K., Japan, Canada, Argentina, and a few other South American countries. The fun seems to never end and there is a whole world out there still to work. There are two SSTV pictures of mine that may be viewed at Gene, WA5ETK's SSTV web site at: http://treblevoices.com/SSTV/sstv.htm . Here Gene has many fine examples of slow scan TV images received at his station in Amarillo TX. Thanks Gene.

Other great digital modes that work well with QRP operation are Hellschreiber, packet, rtty, amtor and of course CW.

I can honestly say that I have had more fun using QRP operation than I have with my IC756 transceiver because QRP is much more challenging than QRO. You have to work at it longer than when you were using higher output power but, when you do make the contact and complete the QSO, the satisfaction is immense!
Just knowing that you communicated hundreds if not thousands of miles or more on no more power than that of a single outdoor Christmas light is as incredible as it is amazing.

On a final note, I have recently been using my little QRP radio and an amplifier (no longer QRP), to work an old mode of communication with a new twist. Back in the 50's some bright Hams discovered that meteors or shooting stars leave a trail of ionized gas in the upper atmosphere. Between 65 and 100 miles above the surface of the earth is where these little meteors (some no bigger than a marble) burn. The trail they leave will allow VHF and UHF signals to bounce off and back down to earth. Often times these bounces are as far as 1000 miles away. This phenomenon is known as Meteor Scatter. If the meteor trail is long and lasts awhile, you can actually talk in a normal voice mode to another Ham 500, 800 even 1000 miles away.

The new twist I spoke of earlier is using a digital mode called PSK441 which sends your digital information at a greatly compressed speed. What this means is that your information is being sent at 147 letters per second or about 1000 words a minute. To keep this in perspective, the current requirement of the FCC for a Ham to use the bands below 50 MHz is that they show their proficiency in Morse code by being able to copy at least 5 words per minute. That is certainly quite a difference.

Using the technology of five decades ago the hams spoke of earlier would record a Morse code message into a tape recorder then speed up the tape to compress the Morse code data and transmit. If they were lucky a meteor would burn somewhere half way between the two participants. The other Ham listening would record the compressed data and then slow the tape to copy the message. This method worked but it was tedious and a lengthy process. With the advent of the microcomputer this can be done very simply and easily. Usually an average QSO will take only 5 or 10 minutes to complete using PSK441, or high speed CW. These types of meteor scatter communications are done every day, day or night because meteors streak through our skies day and night 365 days a year.

Whether you use QRP for conventional communication or use the new exotic digital modes (some of which are tailor made for QRP), a ton of fun can be had. So try cranking down the power on your radio and calling CQ QRP next time you operate and have some fun. You will find that your QSO's often are fewer and further between but they are a kick just the same and quite rewarding. Most of all have fun and be sure to promote Amateur Radio when and wherever you can.

This article has been modified from it's original form at the request of John Wendt, WA6BFH for publication on the Tech Bench Elmers Amateur Radio Society web site.

You can contact the author, FSKarasek - KF6HQC on the web at: kf6hqc@yahoo.com
Material copyright © 2001 by FSKarasek - KF6HQC