On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:25:48 -0700 (PDT), Tom WA6SUS wrote: >Is it wrong to give 5x2 signal reports? I was just listening to a 40 meter >net last night and pretty much heard everyone. I would say that many of the >signals were fully copyable but also clearly weak. (5x2 or 5x1 even) Also >noted that I heard more people than many others in the net. I was using a >little Outbacker on my truck tailgate. I didn't check in as it was clear >that not many would have heard me anyways. I am so impressed with this >radio. It is obvious to me that the K3 receiver is excetional.
There are at least two out of the ordinary things going here. First, your antenna was not a very efficient one, so it's not going to put a lot of voltage into the K3 input. That will make the S-meter read lower than if you were on a nice dipole. Second, although I haven't measured it yet, I suspect that the K3 S-meter is probably more linear than most S-meters. Most S-meters are 6 dB per S-unit only around S9; by the time you get below S6, it's more like 3 dB per S- unit. That means that most radios are far too generous at the bottom end of their range. Third, you may have had your atttenator on, which would also make the S-meter read low, unless you also had gone into Config and set the S-meter for Absolute readings. I live in a fairly quiet area, and often am able to give honest signal reports of 539, even 529 sometimes. Most hams give signal reports that are far too generous. 73, Jim K9YC _______________________________________________ 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
