[Elecraft] Re: K3 S-Meter and 6dB

[Darwin, Keith]

I've had a couple of off-list replies as well, providing good defense
for the 6 dB per s-unit standard.  Yes 6 dB is 4x the power but a linear
amp is usually 10x the power which is 10 dB or 2 s-units.  Also S9+10 dB
would be a nice even 2 S-units over S9 or the equivalent of S11.  If it
were 6 dB per unit, s9+10 would be something like S10.8  Yuck!

Anyway, whether it is 5 or 6 is less important than having it consistent
from S9 to S1 and I still say makers could easily do a better job of
producing a linear meter.  There is a lot of room for meters to be
better without having to be lab quality.  (Eric, hope it's not too late
for the K3).

- Keith N1AS -
- K2 5411.ssb.100 -

-----Original Message-----
>...but 6 db per s-unit just doesn't add up.

Sure it does. 6 dB is four times the power. Half an S unit is doubling
the power.

5 dB per S-unit means two S units are ten times the power and four S
units are one hundred times the power.

>S-meters are only useless because they've been built that way for too 
>many years.

IMHO that depends on whether you want a receiver or a lab-quality
selective voltmeter.

73 de Jim, N2EY