[TowerTalk] perspective

[Guy Olinger, K2AV]

A lot of low band conditions will make the extra db solid gold. One that
comes to mind is when our end is fairly quiet, and it's noisy as all
getout on the other end. Our extra db may be responsible for them
hearing and copying us at all, even if we could put a 30 db attenuator
in our RX line and hear them just fine.

The equipment equivalent of this is an el-stinko receiving setup on
their end, or Rx not hooked to right coax for most of the contest, etc.
Even if their RX setup is toast, they're points. Our dB's trump toast.
And if we're one of the few that they can hear, we're one of the few
that gets the points.

We are just now starting to define directional propagation modes, or
one-way paths, that can make one end barely hearable by the other, with
the reverse path just fine. When the hearer of our transmitter is
disadvantaged by such, our dB's can really count for points. Stuff like
this even happens on 160.

Working EU on 10 meters when the band is only 7% open goes without
speaking.

- - . . .   . . . - -     .   . . .     - - .   . - . .

73, Guy
k2av@contesting.com
Apex, NC, USA

----- Original Message -----
From: <TexasRF@aol.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] perspective


>
> We can estimate the worth of a system db by comparing the top contest
scores
> between the high power and low power categories. I have not done this
for hf
> contests but I would bet the points per db would be pretty well
defined. This
> comparison would basically tell the story as related to how well the
station
> is heard as receive capability between high and low power categories
would be
> similar.
>
> Several years ago I did a study of moonbounce contest scores and
stations to
> determine what kind of antenna system would be needed to give a top
score on
> 2 meters. I found that in that contest 1 db would be worth
approximately 25
> qsos (2 meters only). The formula is still close but varies somewhat
from
> year to year depending on activity level and quality of propagation
> conditions.
>
> The challenges of contesting on 160, 80 and 40 meters are similar to
> moonbounce contesting: You are dealing with quite a few marginal
strength
> signals compared to the higher bands. It would seem that the dbs would
be
> more important on these bands than the higher bands.
>
> 73 de k5gw
>
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>


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