[Elecraft] Bigger K3 S-meter

Fri Oct 31 17:03:47 EST 2008

Well said Craig!

I would again mention how useful a nuanced S-meter is for peaking a beam
heading. I am not in the habit of looking up stations on QRZ when I work
them or hear them (even though I have a fast PC with dual displays right at
the operating position), so unless they have a dx prefix I really don't know
the proper beam heading. Typically with normal qsb I can get close enough by
swinging the beam past the desired direction a few times, IF I have a
nuanced and easy to read S-meter.

Also, a nuanced S-meter is an invaluable sensory input that gives us subtle
clues as to what is happening with propagation, and we all want to have a
better sense of that, I believe.

Erik K7TV

Craig-89 wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Guy
> 
> It seems that the consensus is that a pretty innacurate S-meter is ok.
> 
> I dont know why everything related to ham radio has to be reduced to the
> bare minimum or  be in the totally useless category. Not everyone's ham
> radio life revolves around  giving out cookie cutter signal reports. 
> 
> Most people  would not buy any piece of test equipment with  300%
> inaccuracy. I could just imagine all the shouting if power meters had   a
> tolerance of +- 200% or likewise VSWR meter.  S meters should be no
> different. 
> 
> A calibrated S meter could be useful tool in many other ways.
> 
> - Measuring  field strength and patterns of antennas.
> 
> - Reporting on things like BPL and other radiated and conducted
> measurements that seem to be a daily threat on HF. Just knowing they close
> to  S9 plus plus minus 20 db is not a professional way to build an
> argument against such pollution in professional circles. Having a
> calibrated S meter  and adding something a like calibrated loop with a
> known antenna factor would make collecting and surveying potential RF
> pollution data very easy. While we don't need 0.1 db accuracy 1 db of
> accuracy is easily achieved in SDR radios.
> 
> http://www.vk1od.net/bpl/QueanbeyanBplTrial2.htm
> 
> - Using a good S-meter would also be a reliable  way of surveying a
> potential new QTH. The data could be used to compare signal noise levels
> to the thermal noise floor, or even compare what you are measuring to the
> surveyed ITU noise levels on HF.  It would be nice knowing that your
> potential new QTH  is in a QRM silent location. It would also be good
> comparing noise floors amongst hams for various locations.
> 
> - It would also be useful knowing how accurate and reliable propagation
> programs are on a daily basis since they do predict signal levels.  This
> might come in handy if one wanted to build a DSP  based DF system which
> relies on ionospheric data.
> 
> - As a general level meter around the shack, it could even be used as an
> accurate power meter.
> 
> So to me a well calibrated S-meter can take  the place of many expensive
> instruments that most hams dont have access to on a daily basis. It is a
> very useful tool. When  we use some sort of absolute reference our
> understanding of what we are  measuring on a daily basis  increases our
> understanding of what we are doing in our hobby.
> 
> While we on this subject if further work is carried out on the K3's
> s-meter  you might as  well follow the IARU's recommendation for S-meters
> and make it quasi peak in nature.
> 
> Besides these days, with the  competition increasing in the new radio
> market with radios like the Perseus, ADAT and the newly released cheap
> Flexradio models, all which offer a very accurate S-meters as a feature.
> It would do no harm to the K3's reputation  having a feature that some
> consider desirable, that's marketing not  rocket science.
> 
> 
> 73
> Craig
> 
> --- On Fri, 10/31/08, Guy, K2AV <olinger at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> 
>> From: Guy, K2AV <olinger at bellsouth.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Bigger K3 S-meter
>> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>> Date: Friday, October 31, 2008, 12:05 PM
>> I would just like to see signal strength, including noise,
>> in absolute
>> reference levels. In particular when listening to a local
>> while turning a
>> beam kind of thing.  Although that can be done relatively
>> with the audio
>> voltage level, it wouldn't allow me to tell a local
>> that his ground wave
>> signal has gone down 3 db and is staying there, or be able
>> to create data
>> for studies over time.  
>> 
>> Since it is an SDW, such is possible.  dBuv is fine.  Might
>> need linearity
>> points as part of the package which could be calibrated
>> with a precision
>> attenuator. 
>> 
>> 
>> Changing the functionality of the BG or SM commands so they
>> could provide
>> greater resolution *would* break software, which is what I
>> was saying. But
>> while I can see that having software access to the dBm
>> reading could be
>> useful for antenna measurement purposes, given the vagaries
>> of propagation I
>> would have thought that a 1 S-unit resolution was perfectly
>> adequate for
>> normal purposes. I cannot see how it would be more useful
>> to be told I am
>> S6.5 rather than S6 or S7, or even S5 or S8! Whatever the
>> reading is it is
>> going to be different 20 seconds later anyway.
>> 
>> 
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