I should begin this post with a preface like the one from "Dragnet".
"The story you are about to read is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent."
A few years ago, I got into a pretty nasty and heated argument (via e-mail exchanges) with a Ham about QRP. In general, this guy gave me the old "party line".
"The receiving station does all the heavy lifting ......."
"I've never heard a QRP signal that wasn't difficult to copy........."
"Yadda .... yadda .... yadda"
Shortly after our disagreement (maybe a few months later) I happened to come across him on the air. We ragchewed for a bit and lo and behold, he gave me a 599 RST! We're several states apart; and at the very end of the QSO, I let it out that I was QRP and was running 4 Watts (at the time). Needless to say, he was stunned. He didn't think that a QRP signal could EVER be loud, despite all my explanations of propagation and all that good technical sort of stuff.
The next time I heard from him was via an e-mail. He must have become somewhat convinced because he started turning his 100 Watt rig down to 5 Watts and started joining in on the QRP Foxhunts. (OK, I guess I really had him hooked now!)
The coup d' grace came tonight. Another e-mail explained how his QRO rig finally gave up the ghost after umpteen years; and what is my opinion on either the Yaesu FT-817 or the Icom IC-703?
I'm happy that I was able to able to bring excitement and fun back into the life of a Ham who admitted he was beginning to feel rather blase about the hobby. He confided to me that QRP has given him back the excitement and thrills that he experienced back in his days as a Novice.
Now THAT's cool! BTW, we've come to be pretty good friends and we exchange e-mails on a regular basis.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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