Ha, ha!! Don't feel bad Keith. Watching an S-meter is definitely part of the 'shortwave mystique'. I knew I had "arrived" when in the 1950s I acquired an HRO-5 that featured a beautiful back-lit S-meter. That receiver required the AGC be turned off in CW mode because the BFO would trigger the AGC and desense the receiver, but I had tons of AM signals in the Ham bands and outside to watch the S-meter respond to.
Shoot, the Hallicrafter's S-76 receiver featured an S-meter that must have been over 4" across, using up as much space on the front panel as the whole tuning dial. I think it's not been an issue for me with the K2 because I've never been able to look at a bargraph or even a computer image of a meter on a screen as a real "meter". They just don't provide the same feeling as the old "wiggly needle" d'Arsonval meters. Still, top o' the line receivers like the K2 feature I.F. AGC that is far more versatile than the receivers with those huge S-meters. And maybe the piddlin' little bargraph puts the real value of an "S" reading in perspective <G>. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- I guess I'm the oddball. I run CW on AGC slow 90% of the time. Turning off AGC disables the S-meter and watching the S-meter is part of my enjoyment of the hobby (there, I said it)! If the signal is coming over the north pole and is fluttering rapidly, I'll go to Fast AGC. Using fast AGC increases the background noise as the receiver recovers gain between the various CW elements. Running slow AGC holds the gain down (and therefore the background noise) between elements, letters and possibly words. I often use the RF gain but I leave the AGC on. I'll back off the RF gain so the S-meter deflects up only when the signal fades up to max. If the signal is fluctuating from S7 to S9, I'll back the RF gain down to where the meter stays around S8. This is basically the same as turning AGC off but the AGC is still there to handle unexpected strong signals. - Keith KD1E - - K2 5411 - _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
