[Elecraft] K3 S-Meter and Noise

[Wayne Burdick]

Jim,

If it's an issue with the S-meter, it may well be corrected by the  
corrected RF GAIN calibration procedure due out in the next beta  
release. I can send it to you to try.

Generally if you connect an antenna to three radios and one of them  
sounds louder, it means that radio has more gain and/or lower phase  
noise. The K3 has excellent sensitivity and low noise, so this  
wouldn't surprise me. It suggests you can run with preamp off most of  
the time -- that's a good thing.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

On Oct 3, 2009, at 7:33 PM, Jim HaRRIS wrote:

>
> Tom,
>
> I have three radio's in my shack besides the K3.  I've checked their
> S-meters with the recommended XG1 and all have comparable readings.   
> All
> four are equally quiet without an antenna connected and with a dummy  
> load
> connected.  When connected to an antenna the K3 has about 2 S units  
> more
> noise indicated than the other radios connected to the same antenna  
> (A/B
> switch) and the noise level sounds about that much louder.....