While many operators tend to operate using the 100W or 200W their radio provides, and yet others use external amplifiers to run hundreds, even more than 1KW, there are others who operate at the other end of the spectrum, 5-10 Watts.
QRP operation is often practiced by operators participating in Parks On The Air (POTA) or Summits On The Air (SOTA), who are often hiking or backpacking their equipment to the operating location, carrying their power source with them. Naturally, packing a Marine Battery would be a bit of a challenge, so smaller and lighter batteries with lower power capacity are used.
Due to limitations in available power the operators naturally run less power, usually 20W or less. QRP is generally considered 5-10W, but even 20W is possible with more efficient modern equipment and Lithium batteries.
In order to get the most bang for their buck these low power (QRP) operators must be as efficient as possible, running short coax runs and antennas that are well matched for the bands they will operate on. In many cases, because of the efficiency of their equipment, more power is radiated from their antenna than an operator pushing 100W into a less efficient "multi-band" antenna.
The experience gained from operating QRP is very applicable for use in emergency situations, as people in the disaster area may find themselves operating off of battery or other low-power sources.
A recent Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS) test demonstrated how well QRP can work, as stations both nearby and over 150 miles away were able to communicate with every QRP station participating in our test!
Our next NVIS experiment will most definitely include a QRP component to measure our ability to communicate in emergency situations where commercial power may not be available.
