[TowerTalk] 5 db required to see?

[Ian White, G3SEK]

Guy Olinger, K2AV wrote:

>He did refer in another part of the presentation to 2 dB as making a
>difference. (This is refreshing compared to some posts here back a ways
>which were trying to tout 0.2 and 0.3 as "significant".) 

I don't think anybody really meant that 0.2-0.3dB was "significant" on
its own (if they had, it would have been me talking about moonbounce).
The point is that in order to pick up say 2dB overall, you do find
yourself chasing down much smaller losses. If you can find several of
these, and eliminate them, that's how it can add up to something
significant.

>And I can see 2
>dB making a difference on a band with "flat noise" and a marginal path
>with respect to the powers/antennas involved. If the propagation is
>"in", though, I don't think it will be perceptible.

Everybody agrees with that.

However, contesters like Pete also point out that over several thousand
QSOs with a large range of signal strengths and condx, even a small
advantage must pay off statistically in terms of rates, QSO totals and
multipliers. It may not be a decisive edge, but the contest mentality is
that you gotta try for it.

73 from Ian G3SEK          Editor, 'The VHF/UHF DX Book'
                          'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
                           http://www.ifwtech.com/g3sek

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