On Jun 7, 2007, at 6:24 AM, Toby Deinhardt wrote:
It is beyond me how regulators can take interference reports based
on s-meter values seriously. The s-meter is for many amateurs
around the world, the only way they have of selectively measuring
low level signals. One can not expect an affordable s-meter to be
accurate to a tenth of a dB but plus/minus one or two dBs ought to
be possible.
I agree 100%.
I like the idea that by referencing a fixed standard, i.e. S9 = 50uV
into 50ohms, and then with a fixed slope after that, i.e. 6dB/S-unit,
I can get an actual calculation of path loss by knowing the rest of
the kit, e.g. line loss, antenna gain, transmit power, etc. That is
really useful! Randomly changing S-meter behavior because it "looks
good" or "sounds good" seems pretty darned counter-productive to me.
As a minimum, if someone makes a 10dB change in their signal, I
should see a 10dB change on my meter. I just roll my eyes when
someone kicks on their amplifier and I see a 3 S-unit change. Oh please!
So this gets back to a discussion of user interface. Microsoft has
convinced us that being able to change things is somehow useful and
desirable when, in fact, all it really does is cause confusion and
support problems. Almost nothing is more frustrating than finding
that the person you are trying to help has "customized" their system
beyond recognition and nothing you tell them is really going to help
them get it to work.
Sorry Wayne, but being able to change the S-meter slope and intercept
strikes me as being a bad option. To me that is like changing the
calibration of a voltmeter or wattmeter because you like the needle
pointer to move differently.
73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com
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