I'm sorry Don, I know that you're trying to be helpful here. And your advice
about turning on the Attenuator, and turning off the pre is all good advice for
sure. But honestly.. Let's be serious.. We're not all contesters, and there
are actually some of us that really hate that whole 599 5/9 report when it's
not warranted.
I for one would like to be able to count on my meter to tell me the actual
signal level of a station I'm talking to. I'm sure that Wayne intended this
much as well. This is a $1900 plus rig, it should be accurate based on the 50uv
that you suggested that he set it to with an S9.
Sure we can all GUESS at what a persons RST is, and of course I've done it
too..
But giving advice to ignore the S meter is just a way of saying you don't know
what to tell the guy.
If that's the case, then just don't say anything, or tell him what you can to
fix the problem. Your answer was no better than someone that gets directions
from a person that has no idea where the address he's been asked for is, but he
just feels like he HAS to help, so he guides the people asking in the wrong
direction.
The answer is, I've never seen this issue before where turning down the RF gain
will cause a signal to Improve in S meter strength. Especially not on my K3.
If that were the case I would keep lowering my RF gain all day long until
everyone was an S9. There's SOMETHING going on with your rig.
Check your RF gain calibration using the Elecraft Utility, check your S meter
calibration. Make sure that you don't have something else like the Pre-amp on
causing an error in the reading. Make sure that you don't have the Sub
receiver on and the Sub AF audio up, or RF up causing it to look like it's
getting stronger. These are some of the things that I can offer you. None of
them may be the case, but at least it's a starting spot, not just an "Ignore"
your 2,000 dollar rig's S meter.
559 still MEANS Receive Excellent, Signal 5 S UNITS, Tone Excellent.
> Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:30:07 -0400
> From: w3...@embarqmail.com
> To: n...@comcast.net
> CC: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 S Meter behavior
>
> Robert,
>
> You are relying on your S-meter too much IMHO.
> Yes, all that has nothing to do with the actual reading of the S-meter,
> but it is just good operating sense.
just ignore the reading and give signal reports as you hear
> them - 59 (or 599) for a good strong signal, S-7 for perfect copy from a
> not so strong signal and S-5 for all the others that you can copy with
> some difficulty. For those below that level, you are not copying them
> anyway, so a signal report number is a moot point.
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