[Elecraft] [K3] Using K3 for relative noise survey

[Rick Miller - N1RM]

I currently live in a townhouse and have made an offer on a few acres in a
more rural area. I would like to measure the relative noise levels between
the two locations to reduce the probability of surprises or disappointments
should I close the deal.  I have gotten access to a very good battery
powered spectrum analyzer and plan to use a tripod-mounted 6 foot whip and a
20 dB LNA to measure the noise levels at each location.

While setting this up, I though it would be interesting to try to also use
the K3 to measure noise with the same antenna (but without the LNA).  I've
written a Python script to control the K3 as it steps through each band and
records S meter levels.

I'm looking for recommendations on K3 settings for this purpose.  Specific
questions I have are:

1. Is the high resolution S meter command (SMH) the best way to measure
received signal strength with a computer?

2. What settings for attenuator, pre-amp, and AGC will give me the most
useful readings? Right now I'm using Off, On, and Off respectively for those
settings.

3. What Mode and Bandwidth settings should I use?  Right now I'm using CW
and 200 Hz.  I'm pretty sure I should be using a wider bandwidth and will
try that tonight.

4. Is this a dumb idea?

My first run through very late last night showed almost no variation across
any of the bands.  I did see differences between bands.  Right now I pause
for 1 second after setting band, mode, and bandwidth, and then another
second after each frequency change (stepping in 10 KHz increments) for
things to settle.
 I don't know the dynamics of the S-meter processing, so maybe I should be
waiting longer.

Thanks for reading this.

Rick
N1RM



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