[Elecraft] K3 S Meter behavior

[Robert Mitilieri - N9EF]

While I've seen many post regarding S meter calibration I have a question to which I haven't found an answer in the archives.

Let's say I'm listening to a signal that's peaking at S7. I usually decrease the RF gain so that, with no signal, the  S meter reads about S5. This reduces the background noise. However when I do this on my K3, the signal that was peaking at S7 is now peaking at S9 +10db. Reducing the RF gain further shows the signal peaking near S9 +20db.  I am accustomed to having the signal still peak at S7 since the signal strength hasn't actually increased at all.

I'm still getting used to the K3 (s/n 4411). Is there a configuration parameter that I may have set incorrectly?

Robert - N9EF