Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm going to talk about QRP, a term that's used in various different environments and one that I've used in the past. So, let's start at the beginning. QRP is a three letter code, part of the so-called Q-codes, that can either be a question or an answer. It's used in Morse communications to either ask "Shall I decrease transmitter power?" or to answer "Yes, decrease your transmitter power." It was perfectly valid for a kilowatt station to ask: "QRP?" and for another kilowatt station to answer: "QRP". Language changes over time, meanings get inverted, changed, adopted and transformed. The three letter combination, Q-R-P, is no different. Today in Amateur Radio, the three letters are more like a word, rather than a code and the meaning has changed to indicate that a station is running low power or as an indication to others that they're likely to be a weaker signal that requires a little more effort to pull out of the noise than any other station. As you might know, propaga