That question popped up in my email box a few hours after I posted a notice of the QRP transmitter going on line from here in Uganda. My Facebook post began with the preface “To all you techies out there.” It was of course inevitable that even non-techies would read it.

To the uninitiated, ham radio activities and terminology is esoteric. Asking what would be the purpose of a QRP beacon is both logical and understandable.

Here was my reply:

There is an informal network (meaning non-governmental, privately funded) of beacons on every continent. There are also grabbers, sensitive receivers on every continent as well who monitor the performance of the transmitters like mine.

High power transmitters get signals through by sheer force. Low power transmitters (in amateur parlance called QRP transmitters) get signals through because propagation is right.

We study the effectiveness of QRP transmissions to gain deeper understanding to the conditions - atmospheric, solar, magnetic, and the like - that permit long-distance radio communication. And, radio operators monitor propagation through grabbers to determine which ranges of frequencies (called bands) are working best so as to know where to aim broadcasts.

This is an oversimplified explanation but it gets the idea across. Amateur radio rules specify that only enough power shall be used that is necessary to get a signal through. QRP aficionados

like myself see "how low can you go" and still get a signal through. There is a QRP transmitter in Rome using 200 milliwatts,that is 1/5 of a watt.

So here are my questions to you. Was my answer correct? Did I supply enough information for the uninitiated to gain a basic understanding of QRP beacons? What more should I have added?