[CQ-Contest] Reciprocity in signal strength

[jimk8mr at aol.com]

It depends on what the other guy is hearing. From down here at the snowbird QTH in Florida, I can hear lots of big guys to the north who have obviously their beams pointed west, i.e. for whom I am off the side and down 20 db from what they hear from west. I occasionally get a guy who I can hear but is struggling to hear me. Then suddenly he pops up four S-units and hears me well after he switches antennas.
An optimum antenna system would be multiple beams spraying in relevant directions, while not wasting RF heating VE8 or the Atlantic Ocean (until you need to bust those pileups).

73  -  Jim  K8MR


-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Jacobson <bdj at alum.mit.edu>
To: CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sun, Jan 22, 2023 1:10 am
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Reciprocity in signal strength

Hi guys, it seems that in a contest like NAQP where presumably almost
everyone is running the same 100 W power, you should be able to hear the
other guy at the same level he hears you. Even if the other guy has a
$25,000 dollar beam, and you have a simple 10 foot random wire, the
weakness in your transmission ability will also weaken your received signal
just as much in the other direction. So if you can hear him, it guarantees
he can hear you. (Unless one or both of you has separate receive and
transmit antennas, or the receivers you are using are of very different
quality.) Does that make any sense?

Barry WA2VIU

--
Barry Jacobson
WA2VIU
bdj at alum.mit.edu
@bdj_phd