There is another way of looking at it-- how many additional contacts would potentially be available by utilizing an increase of just 3db?
I don't know the answer but there is a somewhat analogous situation in astronomy having to do with the brightness of stars. They are also measured on a logarithmic scale, called magnitude, each magnitude representing twice or half the brightness level of the following or preceding magnitude. A difference of one magnitude does not appear very large to the eye, yet the ability to see one magnitude fainter can yield three times as many stars. I imagine some similar effect might pertain to radio waves. BTW, I'm not asking for more power in the KX3; would be quite content with 10 watts, same as my K3. 73, Drew AF2Z On Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:56:48 -0700, Alan N1AL wrote: >On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 08:10 -0700, juergen wrote: > >> However from a communications effectiveness point of 20 watts is a >> much more realistic power level, especially for SSB QSO's. > >The difference between 10 and 20 watts is only 3 dB, half an S-unit. >Compared to the 20-30 dB of QSB you often find on the HF bands, you >would hardly even notice such a small difference. I think it is quite >rare that 3 dB would be the difference between making a contact or not. > >Alan N1AL > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
