It is pretty widely accepted in contesting that an improvement in *either* receive or transmit capability of 1 dB will yield a useful increase in the number of QSOs over a 48-hour contest, even if it has an indiscernible effect on 99.5 percent of your contacts.
73, Pete N4ZR The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com, spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 On 6/7/2011 8:23 AM, drewko wrote: > There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts > would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db? > > I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in > astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also > measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude > representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or > preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear > very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter > can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect > might pertain to radio waves. > > BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content > with 10 watts, same as my K3. > > 73, > Drew > AF2Z > > > On Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:56:48 -0700, Alan N1AL wrote: > >> On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 08:10 -0700, juergen wrote: >> >>> However from a communications effectiveness point of 20 watts is a >>> much more realistic power level, especially for SSB QSO's. >> The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. >> Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you >> would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite >> rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. >> >> Alan N1AL >> > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
