Julian, I tend to use S-meters more for purposes other than for giving signal reports, but when I do give a signal report I prefer to make it an honest one and update it later in the qso. When I get a non-real report of 599 e.g. from a dx, it kind of neutralizes the joy of having made the contact. I think Elecraft and TT (and in the past Collins) deserve credit for providing meaningful S-meter scales. I think the biggest problem today with the existing S-meter standard is that the same standard is applied to each HF/MF band, with an abrupt change for VHF. A separate S9 definition for each band would make more sense because of different average noise levels. Sometimes in the past I have gone by the standard for 40 and down, and deliberately inflated the readings on the higher bands by switching on the preamp consistently for those bands. Of course if one uses a separate receive antenna, one may need to adjust reports for that. Given all possible adjustments, one might want to be able to set a dB offset individually for each band, and I am sure that the K3 could do that, although I would not push for it as a priority.
Anyway, since you do external software for the K3, can you confirm that an S-meter displayed on the PC could get signal strength data from the K3 that has a fine enough granularity to show a change of 1 or 2 dB? Thanks, Erik K7TV Julian, G4ILO wrote: > > > > K7TV wrote: >> >> Are you referring to the K3's ability to display audio output level in mV >> or "dbV"? >> While mere signal reports can reasonably be given by ear, I have >> measurement in my blood and really appreciate that K3 capability. >> > I think signal reports are more politics or psychology than science. If > someone gives me 599 it's only good manners to send 599 back. It's just > the way I was brought up. :) If they send something other than 599 then I > realise that they are actually giving me a real report, so I try to give > them a real one back. But since signals can often vary from S7 to S9+20 > over the period of a QSO I think the idea of giving realistic signal > reports is actually unachievable anyway. > -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Bigger-K3-S-meter-tp1399030p1400685.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ 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
