[Elecraft] Questions from a Liberal Arts Major

[Don Rasmussen]

The K3 keeps the S-meter data in 1 decibel increments, and it's on the enhancement list to be made available through the K3 RS232 command set. I've done some early testing on this and the virtual analog meter on the PC display mimics a true analog S-meter convincingly.

Five DB steps that can be on or off with a flicker fall way short for me as well, a convincing analog meter is 50% of the listening experience at this QTH. 

[Elecraft] Questions from a Liberal Arts Major
Kurt Pawlikowski kurtt at pinrod.com 
Thu Nov 13 09:54:28 EST 2008 

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Lee,

    Don't know about the connector issues (I suppose that might be a 
matter of personal preference). The S-Meter issue has to do with "fine" 
adjustments. Since the meter is a bar graph type, "blocks" are either 
lit or not. If, for instance, you are attempting to "see" the difference 
between 4.3 blocks and 4.4 blocks, they display the same (either 4 or 5 
blocks, depending on software design). Apparently, this design issue is 
also in the data given to a control computer. That is, instead of giving 
a "value" (i.e., 4.321), it is just mimicking the bar graph (i.e., 4 
"blocks"). So, if you're trying to make a comparative measurement 
between similar signals, unless they "happen" to be on the "edge" of two 
"block" values, they will look the same. While this is normal for this 
type of display, it is a little unusual for the computer data stream. 
That usually reflects "raw" data. Does that help? {'-)