[Elecraft] P3 0.050 Glitch?

[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Evening Jim,

The sad fact about this "S meter" business is that the SINFO (for CW) and 
SINPFEMO (for phone) signal reporting codes were NOT intended to report 
absolute signal strengths, but how well a signal was received and heard. I 
believe that these codes mutated into the RS and RST reporting codes 
sometime after someone realised that a meter connected to a receiver's AGC 
line would "wiggle" as the received signal strength varied.

A "S meter" which shows the incoming signal level in dbm is, of course, very 
useful when comparing antennas (the other guy's or yours) provided that its 
calibration accounts for any preamps etc.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD


Jim Brown wrote on Friday, January 14, 2011, at 18:50Z:

> More to the point, what happens on any band 10dB below S9?  The rigs
> I've measured with an HP generator have really lousy linearity,
> typically 3dB per indicated S-unit below an indicated S6.
>
> There are many components of a signal report, not the least of which is
> the absolute gain of the RX antenna in the direction (both H and V) of
> the other station. And how do you adjust for the use of a Beverage, and
> of outboard preamps?
>
> FWIW, I typically give reports by ear on the first exchange, but may
> give a second report after watching the calibrated K3 meter on the
> second transmission, sometimes switching from the Beverage to the TX
> antenna for comparison.
>
> If it's practical to do so, I would suggest an option .to allow
> adjustment of S-meter (and/or P3) calibration by band to account for
> external preamps other than the Elecraft preamp.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC