[Elecraft] K3: Is it wrong?

[Jim Brown]

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