The decibel is a rather ridiculous method to measure rf power. Indeed, the
decibel is designed on the human ear, of all things. While this can be
justified for audio work-its' justification in radio takes a "stretch of
sanity" (akin to "a leap of faith" in religion) to justify.



The large unit is the "Bel", and is a measurement (guess really-although
someones' guess has become standardized and now defined in math) of a sound
increase of twice as loud (twice as loud = "One Bel")-as detected by the
human ear. The Decibel is one-tenth of a Bel (One Decibel = smallest sound
increase which can be detected by the human ear).



In many ways the Bel/Decibel is much like time-they don't really exist.



Warmest regards,

John