The Last Step
Finally, the remaining value will tell you how many tens or 100’s you have. Try to break down this number into a sum/difference of your memorized conversions for 10, 5, and/or 3 as follows:
DB Value |
Sum/Difference of 10,5,3 |
Equivalent multiplication and division |
Result |
|---|---|---|---|
0 dB |
Memorize this one |
1 |
|
1 dB |
10-3-3-3 |
10/2/2/2 |
1.25 |
2 dB |
5-3 |
3/2 |
1.5 |
3 dB |
Memorize this one |
2 |
|
4 dB |
10-3-3 |
10/2/2 |
2.5 |
5 dB |
Memorize this one |
3 |
|
6 dB |
3 + 3 |
2 X 2 |
4 |
7 dB |
10 –3 |
10/2 |
5 |
8 dB |
5 + 3 |
3 X 2 |
6 |
9 dB |
3 + 3 + 3 |
2 X 2 X 2 |
8 |
10 dB |
Memorize this one |
10 |
|
In our example, we were left with 7 dB worth of tens of kilowatts. From the table above, we see that 7 can be thought of as 10 minus 3. Remember how you memorized that 10dB is a factor of 10 and 3dB is a factor of 2 and also that subtracting in dB is the same as dividing in "regular" numbers? So 10-3 in dB is the same as 10/2, which is 5. So we have 5 tens worth of kilowatts or 50 kilowatts. 77dBm is 50 kilowatts.
Want to try it yourself? Try the practice page, next.
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