[Elecraft] Re:Alligators and Bats

[lhlousek]

<<Hang in there; we're all in this together!>>

All in what together?  Getting some weird ego boost out of foisting our week
signals off on other ops?  In know I do but it's tough to understand why.

It's often a lot cheaper and easier to get 10 dB or ERP with power than it is by
improving antennas.  Is it really more heroic making a contact with a 5 watts, a
70' tower, and full size beam than with 100W and a vertical?

An S unit is 6 dB (or is supposed to be anyway) or a factor of 4 in signal
strength.  The difference between 10 and 40 watts is one S unit.  I wouldn't be
surprised if two ops, using identical RXs, under identical conditions of QRN,
QSB, etc. gave out S reports that differed by 2 S units.  That would equate to a
factor of 16 in power, the difference between 10 and 160 Watts. I wouldn't put
too much weight on random signal reports.

BTW, propagation is reciprocal...even during early evening hours.

Lou W7DZN