[Elecraft] K3 S-Meter Calibration

[William Shappley]

In case anyone wants to compare, I just calibrated my K3's S-meter  
with an in-cal HP 8640B.    The new firmware (Version 1.87/1.69)  
includes the magic
S-meter that reads the same no matter what (pre-amp, attenuator,  
etc.) and since the firmware documentation said recalibration is  
required, I decide to give it a whirl.

I calibrated at 14.100 MHz, and used the following levels:

S9 = 50 microvolts
S5 = 3.2 microvolts

The results:  SMTR SC = 16 (default is 14), SMTR OF = 20 (default is  
24).

The new absolute mode is amazing.  After calibration, I can put in 50  
microvolts and get S9 and 3.2 microvolts and get S5 in ATT, PRE or  
normal.

By the way, the power control IS much more stable in digital modes  
(RTTY in DATA A), and the average power on speech (using an LP-100  
vector wattmeter) is noticeably
higher.

Cool.

73,
Bill
K4DXU