[CQ-Contest] CQ-Contest] Impressive demonstration of one dB of signal strength improvement

[Edward Sawyer]

Thanks for that reminder Doug.  That was a good project and opportunity.

I was "all in" both years.  And the only difference to any of the antennas was changes to some localized feedlines and matching networks that had not been designed for 1.5kW.  

I will never forget calling for an LU - Zone 13 double mult on 80M around 06Z and busting the KC1XX and WX3B W3LPL pile.  I did not tell anyone that I had jumped to HP after about a decade of LP contesting.  I announced it in my 3830 posting.  I later got email from half a dozen contesters who had heard me break that pile and were relieved to hear that there wasn't something fishy going on in Vermont.

73

Ed  N1UR

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Doug Grant
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2019 1:03 PM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] CQ-Contest] Impressive demonstration of one dB of signal strength improvement

On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 4:00 PM W3LPL wrote:

These recordings are an impressive demonstration of the benefit of
> one dB of signal strength improvement in a weak signal situation.
> Click on the links on this website:
>
> www.ab7e.com/weak_signal/mdd.html
>
>
Many years ago, Clarke Greene, K1JX, casually mentioned that he had determined adding 1dB to your signal strength would result in a 6% increase in your contest score (mostly applied to DX contests). I filed that away for future reference.

Test cases are hard to find, but I found one in 2014 when N1UR switched from Low Power to High Power in the CQWW. Same op, same QTH, same antennas, and very comparable propagation near the top of the cycle.

My conclusion: the K1JX "6% per dB" rule was about right.

The exercise for the reader is to figure out how to add dB at the best "dB per dollar" ratio. Not all dB cost the same!

You can find some hints in a presentation I did a while back at CTU:

https://www.contestuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/K1DG_CTU_2015_Ten_Ways_to_Improve_your_Contest_Score.pptx

Slides 5-22 cover this topic.

73,

Doug K1DG

.
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