The Lightbulb QSO Party
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For many years OzarkCon has been the host of the famous Dummy Load Antenna QSOs. An example is at Terry's WA0ITP website..... Now we have another challenge.....The Lightbulb QSO Party....... Have not tried the lightbulb in a long time but they do work, and be careful because you may see the SWR gradually jumping High! Old school filament lightbulbs are used! 73, ......... St Louis QRP Society .......
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Dale Putnam
this should be great fun.
Short story. Going to college, on the third floor of the dorm, with a Swan 350c and a light bulb dummy load, from Ft.Collins Colorado,
on 75m to Dallas Tx. Had a 15 min Qso, and drove my roommate nutz with the blinking light.
That was the best two inverted vees in phase antenna.
Have a great day,
Dale - WC7S in Wy
"Actions speak louder than words"
From: main@4SQRP.groups.io <main@4SQRP.groups.io> on behalf of Walter - K5EST <walter.k5est@...>
Sent: Friday, August 9, 2019 4:23 PM To: 4SQRP@groups.io <4SQRP@groups.io> Subject: [4SQRP] The Lightbulb QSO Party For many years OzarkCon has been the host of the famous Dummy Load Antenna QSOs. An example is at Terry's WA0ITP website.....
Now we have another challenge.....The Lightbulb QSO Party.......
Have not tried the lightbulb in a long time but they do work, and be careful because you may see the SWR gradually jumping High! Old school filament lightbulbs are used!
73,
......... St Louis QRP Society .......
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Michael Fletcher
When I was a Novice I didn’t have a code oscillator so I used a incandescent lightbulb as a dummy load on my 1 watt 80 meter CW transmitter to practice sending. Then one day I got a return call on my ARC-5 receiver giving me a 559 report from about 20 miles away. Oops!
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
73, Mike kL7IXI
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Paul Smith
Sounds good to me. I have used a 6 watt exit light bulb and socket as a dummy load and it worked fine. I used it once with a home brewed tuner and tuned for full brilliance hi hi de Paul
Sent from
Outlook
From: main@4SQRP.groups.io <main@4SQRP.groups.io> on behalf of Walter - K5EST <walter.k5est@...>
Sent: Friday, August 9, 2019 10:23 PM To: 4SQRP@groups.io <4SQRP@groups.io> Subject: [4SQRP] The Lightbulb QSO Party For many years OzarkCon has been the host of the famous Dummy Load Antenna QSOs. An example is at Terry's WA0ITP website.....
Now we have another challenge.....The Lightbulb QSO Party.......
Have not tried the lightbulb in a long time but they do work, and be careful because you may see the SWR gradually jumping High! Old school filament lightbulbs are used!
73,
......... St Louis QRP Society .......
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Gary E. Kohtala
If one uses a 100w bulb instead of a 6w bulb will the resulting signal be significantly stronger? 😉🙈
Best regards,
Gary, K7EK
Sent from BlueMail
On Aug 9, 2019, at 19:20, Paul Smith <n0nbd@...> wrote:
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Frank Perkins
If you go to Lowe's or Home Depot, check out their illuminated bulb display. They have a "vintage" bulb that has a standard size screw-in base, is about 4" tall, and emits an "Amber tint" illumination that looks like a lantern if installed in a "carrage-like" porch light housing. The bulb filament is strung zigzag up and down the length several times in the globe. Long filament. Should be a good antenna. Check it out. 72s Frank N6CES
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W6BOW
Gary,
I haven't a final solution to your interesting question. My guess is that efficiency would increase with increased bulb wattage rating due to less energy loss in heating the filament assuming that the "bulb" is a filament type?
I happened upon the following conversion table most "illuminating" while pondering your query …
How to convert watts to lumens
https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/how-watt-to-lumen.html
73
Don Buckter - W6BOW
San Francisco CA USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Kohtala via Groups.Io <gary.k7ek@...> To: main <main@4sqrp.groups.io> Sent: Mon, Aug 12, 2019 9:18 pm Subject: Re: [4SQRP] The Lightbulb QSO Party If one uses a 100w bulb instead of a 6w bulb will the resulting signal be significantly stronger? 😉🙈
Best regards,
Gary, K7EK
Sent from BlueMail
On Aug 9, 2019, at 19:20, Paul Smith <n0nbd@...> wrote:
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J.K. Wright
I suspect larger bulb = more filament length and better transmission, just like "the more wire in the air, the better" Jerry, NK2C
On Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 12:05 PM W6BOW via Groups.Io <DBuckter=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:
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WD5GLO Lou
I guess feeding it with a hundred feet of ladder-line is out of the question...HI
On Aug 13, 2019, at 11:15 AM, J.K. Wright <wrightjk@...> wrote:
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John T. Fitzer
Please be careful using higher wattage bulbs for dummy loads. I fear someone’s hearing may be damaged if you were to use a 1KW projection lamp with a 1 watt transmitter, not to mention the possible damage to one’s eyes from looking at the extremely bright light. Ah yes I think we may have figured out the answer to the worlds energy, just use a bigger load. 73. 1415926535
From: main@4SQRP.groups.io [mailto:main@4SQRP.groups.io]
On Behalf Of W6BOW via Groups.Io
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2019 11:06 AM To: main@4SQRP.groups.io Subject: Re: [4SQRP] The Lightbulb QSO Party
Gary,
I haven't a final solution to your interesting question. My guess is that efficiency would increase with increased bulb wattage rating due to less energy loss in heating the filament assuming that the "bulb" is a filament type?
I happened upon the following conversion table most "illuminating" while pondering your query …
How to convert watts to lumens
73
Don Buckter - W6BOW San Francisco CA USA
-----Original Message----- If one uses a 100w bulb instead of a 6w bulb will the resulting signal be significantly stronger? 😉🙈 Best regards, Gary, K7EK Sent from BlueMail On Aug 9, 2019, at 19:20, Paul Smith <n0nbd@...> wrote: Sounds good to me. I have used a 6 watt exit light bulb and socket as a dummy load and it worked fine. I used it once with a home brewed tuner and tuned for full brilliance hi hi de Paul
Sent from Outlook From: main@4SQRP.groups.io <main@4SQRP.groups.io> on behalf of Walter - K5EST <walter.k5est@...>
For many years OzarkCon has been the host of the famous Dummy Load Antenna QSOs. An example is at Terry's WA0ITP website.....
Now we have another challenge.....The Lightbulb QSO Party.......
Have not tried the lightbulb in a long time but they do work, and be careful because you may see the SWR gradually jumping High! Old school filament lightbulbs are used!
73,
Walter Dufrain - K5EST - QRPcw ..... Four St@te QRP Group .... .... Navy Amateur Radio Club ..... ......... St Louis QRP Society ....... . Community Service Radio Club .
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Try to use a bulb that will be near 50 ohms resistance under load.
On Aug 13, 2019, at 12:18 AM, "Gary Kohtala via Groups.Io" <yahoo.com@groups.io target=_blank>gary.k7ek=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:
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Nick Kennedy <kennnick@...>
I always figured that with the light bulb thing, most of the radiation would be from the coax. But maybe not. There was an article in QST years ago (July 2000) called "Everything Works" where a guy made QSOs using a light bulb for a load. It was a much better period for propagation though. I found it on line here: At OzarkCon this year I used a 50 ohm resistor inserted into a small loop of wire for the in-hotel QSO party. I was amazed to work a station in an adjacent state on that arrangement. 73- Nick, WA5BDU
On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 2:50 PM Duane Brayton <dwbrayton@...> wrote:
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All -
Take your ohm meter and measure the filament resistance at room temperature, with no power applied. Now, assuming you are using a standard incandescent light bulb (say somewhere around 50 to 100 watts), look what happens to the power consumed at the moment the bulb is first powered up and the power that is consumed after the filament heats up. P=E*E/R The wattage rating of a light bulb is measured at full rated voltage in steady state conditions. That means a 100 W bulb pulls quite a bit more than 100W at the instant it's turned on. You know how it seems that an incandescent light bulb always burns out when you flip the switch to turn it on. So, the result is that as you are keying your light bulb filament (dummy load), the actual load seen by your transmitter rapidly varies. It starts low and goes to a higher value with each dit and dah. The old tube rigs didn't much care – they were tough. But your output transistors are a bit more finicky in their diet. Oops! There goes that magic smoke again. But for QRPer's - not to worry too much. At 5 watts (figure your voltage into 50 ohms), a 50 to 100 watt light bulb probably won't undergo too much heating. If you have enough power to make the filament glow (even dimly), that load resistance is already on the way up. What it might do, though is contribute to a “yooupy” signal, if your rig is sensitive to a changing load. Remember how the changing load presented by a blowing wind on a wire antenna could affect the old single tube MOPA transmitters and regin receivers back in the days of yore? Oh, well... Enjoy! That's what ham radio is all about, anyway.
Bruce – KK0S
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Dick Hammond
Good reading Bruce. Dick, notgr
On Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 10:26 PM KK0S <bbarley48@...> wrote:
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What a great improvement, Yahoo just didn't work for me. Dick, n0tgr
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Dave Belville <davebelville@...>
HA!
73 de Dave, NI9M
From: main@4SQRP.groups.io <main@4SQRP.groups.io> On Behalf Of Gary Kohtala via Groups.Io
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2019 11:18 PM To: main@4sqrp.groups.io Subject: Re: [4SQRP] The Lightbulb QSO Party
If one uses a 100w bulb instead of a 6w bulb will the resulting signal be significantly stronger? 😉🙈 Best regards, Gary, K7EK Sent from BlueMail On Aug 9, 2019, at 19:20, Paul Smith <n0nbd@...> wrote:
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