If you think 10 dB is insignificant, try to explain why to the person
who's proud of his 7 element single band Yagi mounted on a 1.3
wavelength boom, which is how much you need to get 10 dB gain over a
dipole. Or the person who just bought a kW amplifier to drive with his
100 watt rig.

I've yet to see an S-meter with units greater than about 6 dB. Less than
this is much more typical. The S units on my Icom 730 vary from 1.3 to
4.0 dB, depending on where on the scale you are. A 10 dB signal change
will move the meter from S-2 to S-7.

This isn't to say you can't work a whole lot of stations with 10 watts,
or a 100 watt rig into a 10% efficient antenna -- or even with one watt.
But you will notice a difference when you increase or decrease your
power 10 dB.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Myron wrote:
That IS good news and something I'll have to keep in mind. That's the kind
of information that gets listed in a chart somewhere about transmitting
theory and is easy to forget when so many people seem overly concerned about
tweaking antenna efficiencies and lowering SWR by the smallest percentage
points.

Myron

. The good news is that cutting power from 100

watts to 10 is only 10 dB, which isn't even one S-unit on a typical
amateur receiver. Under most circumstances it won't make a big
difference in how audible your signal is. There's one particularly
skilled operator in my area who regularly breaks CW pileups to South
Pacific islands, running only a couple of watts, from an HF mobile rig
in his car. [Maybe if I play around with this stuff for a few decades
I might pick up a fraction of that skill... I should be so lucky!]