Vic K2VCO-2 wrote > This argument will never die. > > But remember the last time you called CQ and a station came back that you > could hear, but > not copy. (I'm thinking CW, but it also applies to SSB). > > You know he is in there, but despite struggling with the narrowest > possible bandwidth and > every trick your receiver is capable of, you just can't get his call as he > floats in and > out of the noise. > > I maintain that even ONE dB matters in this situation.
IMHO 1 dB absolutely matters when signals are at or below the noise floor. I've lost several QSOs while activating SOTA summits for exactly the reason Vic described above. I find myself wanting my Beverages (at home) or the K3's APF, neither of which is available on a summit while using my K2. AB7E made a very useful set of recordings which demonstrates differences in weak signal copy in background noise. They also demonstrate why you should not send at QRQ speeds when signals are weak (an exception to this is when lightning crashes are prevalent). http://www.ab7e.com/weak_signal/mdd.html It's interesting to note significant differences in various SOTA activators ability to copy my signal from a summit (i.e. Summit-to-Summit QSOs). I usually hear other SOTAs well but some are deaf as stones. I believe this is due to inexperience by some in copying weak signals. 73, Bill W4ZV -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/mods-to-K2-tp7579293p7579329.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ 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
