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Comment by SamPatt | Hacker News Reader

I'm a ham.

I communicated with someone 8,000 miles away from me (Midwest US to South Africa) by bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere from an antenna I built myself using as much power as a light bulb.

The hobby is definitely dying, but it still provides some awesome moments. Tons of nerds here would find it time well spent.

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My WSPR beacon is routinely heard at a research base in Antarctica.

Every time I see DP0GVN in my list of received WSPR transmissions on WSPRnet.org, I smile about bothering the penguins.

Incandescent or LED?

Probably the former but possibly the latter. Sometimes "conditions" are such that a tiny amount of power will go a very long way. Right now, near the peak of the solar cycle, 4 watt CB radios are sometimes heard thousands of miles away.

It might be possible those CBs heard that far away are actually 4 watts - but it's much more likely they're illegally boosting their output.

Still, you're totally right that in ideal conditions propagation can be astounding.

Incandescent :)

It was FT8, which is a weak signal data mode. Very often you can make contacts hundreds of miles away using less than 20 watts.

However, I was probably using between 40-100 watts for that contact - you can't get much further apart on earth than we were!

I've done both. If you and your remote station have good antennas, a low local noise floor, and the right atmospheric conditions, a little power can take you to the other side of the planet.

I regularly contact Europe from the Chicago area with a very modest antenna using five watts

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