> For contest applications, 2 or 4 dB are indeed, night and
day. I perhaps
> should have mentioned that K4JA's 9-circle was on 80m,
where the additional
> couple of dB meant a couple of layers of workable DX, as
well as better
> receive performance due to greater directivity.
I'm not sure how much difference it makes on transmitting.
99% of the transmitting here in 160 contests is done on an
omni-directional antenna that is 6-7dB down from my four
square and we never seem to notice. As a matter of fact the
loss of signal in other directions is a hardship, allowing
other people to encroach and ruin receiving. All that aside,
I'm also impressed with what can be worked on a dipole 1/8th
wl above earth.
I'm sure when signal are right on the very edge of being
readable one dB makes a difference. But that wouldn't be a
run, it would be eking out another few contacts out of every
three hundred or so. In a whole contest with 1500 QSO's,
only a dozen or less are marginal copy.
I've always wanted to do a valid experiment during a contest
and see what happens to rates and multipliers with a few dB
loss in signal strength. I'll bet not as much as people
think.
73 Tom
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