[Elecraft] RF-Gain & S-Meter (again)

[Don Wilhelm]

  Bill,

The Hallicrafter SX101 was one of the few exceptions.  Most receivers 
behaved similar to the way the K3 does when the RF gain is reduced - the 
S-meter goes up.  With the SX101 (if I recall correctly), the S-meter 
reading for all signals was reduced when the RF Gain was reduced.

If I may, can I present a "different way of looking at it" - if the 
no-signal S-meter reading (with the RF gain reduced) is S-4, then 
signals below S-4 will result in no additional S-meter deflection.  A 
signal that is S-5 will still flick the S-meter up to S-5, and you can 
report him as S-5.

You likely turned the RF gain down so the atmospheric noise would not be 
bothersome - if you go beyond that point, you will be reducing signals 
that can be copied above the noise level.

What is really happening is that you are reducing the RF gain to reduce 
the amount of atmospheric noise that you must listen to on any one 
band.  When you can just barely hear that noise, the S-meter will read 
at the level of that band noise.  Signals at a level above that will 
still indicate at their proper S-meter readings.

At least that is how it works on my K3 with the S-meter set to ABS 
mode.  I think this way is meaningful.
Right now, I am listening to I2VRN on 7.102 kHz and his S-meter 
deflection does not change when I reduce the RF gain from full to about 
the 2:30 o'clock position (he is S-8 here), but tuning away to a quiet 
spot on the band, I see the minimum S-meter reading is S-3.  I would 
give him an S-8 report.

Try it and see - only the lower end of the S-meter scale becomes 
unusable, but the actual signals that you hear are indicated at their 
proper level - assuming one has calibrated the S-meter for S-9 with a 50 
uV signal.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 5/28/2011 8:11 PM, Bill Swindell - K1LED wrote:
> I have looked at several posts on this topic. I still feel that the S-meter
> is worthless if you turn down the RF hail at all. When U turn the RF gain
> down, the meter moves over to full scale. If the RF gain was truly reduced,
> I would think the S-meter indication would also go down. I guess they are
> emulating something that other radios do but, when U started in ham radio,
> many years ago, if I turned down the RF gain on the Hallicrafters SX101 that
> I was using, the s=meter wend down too.
>
> I'm sorry but I like the old way and feel that it was more meaningful.
>