On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:11:31 -0700, "Joel Koltner"
wrote:

"Richard Clark" wrote in message
.. .
Perhaps I should more blunt, but the quote I lifted only speaks to two
things: an antenna, and a claim for its signal to noise ratio.

60 dB ??????????????

Originally I almost added something like, "(assume you're standing next to the
transmitter)" :-)

60dB+ isn't unheard of for hilltop-to-hilltop microwave links though, is it?
And one might obtain 50dB with regular TV antennas if they have a good
line-of-sight to the transmitter and there aren't significant reflections,
right?

This is comparing elephants to oranges. You haven't specified
anything that is noise related, you said nothing about antennas (exept
what might be presumed from vague associations), and receive and power
levels are wholly missing. As dB is a ratiometric relationship, you
have offered nothing to validate the ratio.

Hilltop-to-hilltop microwave links can be designed for a 60 dB snr
(one cannot call it gain, certainly); or 60 db directivity; however
hilltop-to-hilltop microwave links do not automagically qualify as
coming with that directivity if they are too close!

So, you came up with 60 dB, what was the noise level in? what was the
noise level out? What is the source of the noise in? What are you
loading the 1,000,000 * (S+N) into?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC