[Yesterday’s run: 12 miles, Today’s run: 5.5 miles with wife (left dog at home)]
I was on the radio a bit today, doing some CW (morse code). I heard a guy calling CQ so I answered him. He gave me a 589 report.
On my turn I gave him a 589 report also. And I told him that I was running QRP (low power) at 5 watts output.
On his next turn, he said something like: I’ll let you have fun with your qrp, 73.
(73 means “Best regards”. It is the generally used “goodbye” with CW. It has a polite/positive meaning.)
I answered with “73” and we parted ways. He moved down about 5 kc and started calling CQ again.
Usually people are neutral or interested in other stations running QRP. QRP often means that the station is homebrew or built from a kit. I my case this radio was built from a bag-of-parts kit and I’m really happy how well it works. (It’s a Willamette, designed by Jason NT7S.) But that is neither here nor there.
This guy was the other way; he had a negative reaction to my being QRP. I don’t know why it would matter. If he really was hearing me that well (589 is pretty good!) why would he care?
I’ve had one other case that I remember of someone shutting me down because of being QRP. The guy in that case wasn’t even polite about it, he just quit the conversation and started calling for someone else to reply.
I do have non-QRP radios. When I heard this guy calling again I was tempted to fire up one of those and try again. But why be a pest. If he wanted to talk to me we could have done just fine the first time.