What's a dbworth

[k0od at MO.NET]

Recently I wrote that increasing a station's ERP one db might add 10% to 
its DX contest score. Several replies indicated 10% seemed a bit 
overstated. The last time I looked at this subject was a few years ago. 
Today, I took a look at some recent CQWW CW results by power level. Here 
are scores from the 1993 contest which are fairly typical of CQWW CW 
tests: 

            Highest QRP score (AA2U).................   763,000
            Second highest low power score (K2SG).... 1,845,000
            Third highest high power score (K5ZD/1).. 5,569,000

 Notice the big difference between low power and high power scores. It 
seems the advantage of an extra db actually increases at higher power 
levels. Moral: If you are currently really loud, getting even louder is 
well worth the effort. Or, life is too short for 100 watts, too. 
       -----------------------------
       Jeff K0OD  St. Louis, MO  USA
            e-mail:   k0od at mo.net
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