+- GBARC Forum (https://www.gbarc.ca/ForumBB)
+-- Forum: Amateur Radio (https://www.gbarc.ca/ForumBB/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: GBARC (https://www.gbarc.ca/ForumBB/forumdisplay.php?fid=17)
+---- Forum: Nets HF , VHF (https://www.gbarc.ca/ForumBB/forumdisplay.php?fid=15)
+---- Thread: HF Net - Barefoot or Put the Boot On? (/showthread.php?tid=255)
HF Net - Barefoot or Put the Boot On? - VA3KOT John - 2020-11-05
It's trucker lingo. "Barefoot" means operating your CB without a "boot" (amplifier). Truckers probably chose that terminology because CB amplifiers are illegal - at least in Canada anyway.
Some among us have a "boot" others don't. I don't. I operate barefoot (while wearing warm woolly socks in the winter). So let's drop the trucker talk and make the point I meant to raise. An amplifier shouldn't be necessary for local communications on HF. Admittedly, some participants in our club nets are DX and an amp may help there. Whenever Bernie VE3BQM comes on the air, from just down the street, I lose a few shingles and my antenna gives off a puff of smoke. I could use my rig's attenuator but then I would have to turn it off when our kilted Celtic friend Colin VE3FJN in the highlands of Hamilton talks.
A friend of mine in Shelburne ON (who is in the Radio Amateur's Hall of Fame) was chatting with me on CW recently. He dropped his power to 45 watts then boosted it to 800 watts and asked me for a signal report for each transmission. He was 20dB over S9 at either power level. I guess my radio's AGC was doing its job.
A general rule of amateur radio is to use the minimum power necessary to make a contact (I think that's in the RAC Operating Manual). So maybe just give that a thought when checking into the net. A very strong signal from a nearby transmitter might even overload the front end of a receiver and cause distortion. In my humble opinion, a good antenna beats more power any day.