[TowerTalk] 5 db required to see?

[Pete Smith]

[I wrote]

>> Perhaps I should have said, "All other factors being equal..."  Of course,
>> a good op will get more out of both the X-level and the X+1 dB level
>> station over the course of a contest, and the 1 dB will bring him or her
>> more gain than it would for a less-skilled operator.
>

[Tom Rauch replied]

>and we know this because......?????
>
>I suspect propagation, and who else is active, has a lot more to do 
>with winning than a single dB in station parameters.
>
>There is such a large "alphabet soup" going on, a soup that 
>includes:
>
>1.) Your skill
>
>2.) Other's skill
>
>3.) Propagation
>
>4.) Noise
>
>5.) Your mood and other's mood
>
>6.) Blind luck of stumbling across a needed station that is on for 
>limited time. 
>
>...that we surely over-rate the advantage of a dB or two. If a 
>significant number of stations are unworkable to you that are 
>workable to others with one dB less signal level, that's one thing. 
>But I doubt that happens very much above 1.8 or 3.5 MHz. 

Repeat after me ... "all other things being equal..."  But Tom's point is a
good one, of course -- there are a lot of factors that go into a contest
success, however one defines that.  I don't doubt that each of the factors
he mentions could be more important to the outcome than whether your system
has 1 dB more or less gain.  Some you can do something about, and some you
can't.  The 1 dB gain can be found, at a price.  So can a 1 dB better
signal-to-noise ratio.  Some improvements -- like a better understanding of
propagation, or improved operator skills -- cost nothing.  

73, Pete Smith N4ZR
n4zr@contesting.com 



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