[TowerTalk] 1 or 2 dB

[turnbull]

Dave,    I value your tupence and have copied a local WhatsAp DX group with your observation.    Thank you.73 Doug EI2CNSent from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: Dave Sublette <k4to.dave at gmail.com> Date: 19/05/2022  01:54  (GMT+00:00) To: kj6y--- via TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com> Subject: [TowerTalk] 1 or 2 dB I've hesitated to chime in here because I thought the problem was beingdiscussed very well and perhaps I don't have anything to add.  But I do.From December 1983 to April 1989 I operated 160 through 6 meters fromKwajalein, Marshall Islands.  The pileups were big and were there everytime I pressed a key or opened a mic.  I made 83,000 QSOs, filled 19logbooks. There were no home computers for me at that time.One night things were a bit slow on the bands and I had three stations inSan Diego on 20 meters to keep me company.  All were running comparablestations.  KW and tribanders at 70 feet.  They all lived within a couple ofmiles of each other.  So I proposed an experiment.  I had them each say asentence in turn, perhaps no more than 6 seconds.  And keep it goingaround, one sentence after another.  I watched my S-meter.  At anygiven moment, one of them would be 10 to 20 dB stronger than the othertwo.  And it was a different station each time.  We did this for maybe tenminutes and the results were as I have described.I learned some things from this that I wish I had known while chasing DXfrom the States before I went to Kwaj.  Primarily, propagation is king.  Noamount of power will guarantee your signal to be highest at all times.  Icame to think of propagation as a searchlight, constantly scanning.Whichever station is shined on at the moment would be the one that gotthrough the pileup. Had I realized this, my anxiety level about working theDX over the years would have been much lower. Sooner or later, it will beyour turn.The second thing that occurred to me is that there is no substitute forcrisp operating technique.  Call only when the DX is listening. Hear the DXstation before you call.In any pileup I could hear at least five levels of signals, even wheneveryone one was transmitting at the same time.Based on all of the above, I would tend to disregard any worry over one orto dB.But, as was pointed out, over the long haul in a contest it evidently makesa difference.There are two other circumstances where 1 or 2 dB makes a difference.  EMEcommunications.  We don't strive for that last tenth of a dB noise figurefor no good reason.The other circumstance in my mind would be digital modes on a "dead" band.It could make a difference of whether or not the report was decoded.Just my two cents worth.  I have enjoyed the discussion.73,Dave, K4TO______________________________________________________________________________________________TowerTalk mailing listTowerTalk at contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk