Very true. But even 6 dB would not make a big difference for a rag-chewer or a casual contester. Even for a fairly serious DXer, being in the right place at the right time and having superior operating skills are more important than an S-unit of signal strength.
The place where the best possible signal is really essential is for a world-class contest station. Those guys agonize over every fraction of a dB of feedline loss. Alan N1AL On Tue, 2012-01-17 at 16:20 -0800, Vic K2VCO wrote: > Keep in mind that it all adds up. If you get 2 db more from your beam, and 3 > db from going > from 500 to 1000 watts (say), and maybe a db by replacing your old coax, > etc., that's 6 db > -- a huge advantage. > > On 1/17/2012 4:15 PM, Alan Bloom wrote: > > Interesting experiment Dave. I think that kind of test is valid for VHF > > operation. But on HF it is very rare to hear a signal at a constant > > level like that. > > > > Normally signal strength varies considerably from moment to moment due > > to fading. Even if the average signal level is right at the noise > > level, most of the time it will be well above or well below that level. > > A dB or two increase or decrease will vary the percentage of time the > > signal is copyable, but only a little. The QRM also varies in signal > > strength from moment to moment. > > > > Of course, louder is always better. But unless you are a big-gun > > contester, where winning or losing depends on a few extra contacts over > > the course of the weekend, I think you'd have a hard time noticing a > > couple dB difference in normal operation. > > > > I am just about to order a 2-element SteppIR Yagi. I decided that the > > extra dB or two of the 3-element model is not worth another $450. :=) > > > > Alan N1AL > > > > > > On Tue, 2012-01-17 at 16:52 -0700, David Gilbert wrote: > >> A power ratio of 3 (1500 watts versus 500 watts) is just under 5 db. > >> Check out these audio files (CW, though ... not SSB) I generated to see > >> what kind of impact that can have for readability of signals near the > >> noise threshold. > >> > >> http://www.ab7e.com/weak_signal/mdd.html > >> > >> 73, > >> Dave AB7E > >> ______________________________________________________________ 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
