[Elecraft] K4 S-Meter Characteristics

[Dauer, Edward]

Who uses S-values anyway?  Maybe for serious propagation measurements,  but I haven't heard anything but "5NN" or "59" in a contest as far back as I can remember, and likewise in CW DX work.  It's programmed into the logging software and probably impossible to dislodge.  I was recently in a DX pileup and decided to send a real report, 459, so the DX knew how he was actually doing in my part of the world.  I could almost feel the annoyance coming back at me through the ether from both the fox and the other hounds.  On CW and SSB rag chews I have heard real reports being exchanged, about both the signal and -- more commonly on SSB -- in complaints about the noise.  But even there what matters is readability above the noise, not the microvolts themselves.  IMHO, it's interesting to have S numbers on the scale of my P3, but if they disappeared from the K3 display it would be a long time before I noticed their absence.

"59 Good Buddy" (whatever that means),

Ted, KN1CBR


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Message: 6
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2020 19:43:35 -0400
From: Brian Denley <b.denley at comcast.net>
To: Charlie T <pincon at erols.com>
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K4 S-meter characteristics
Message-ID: <29E31AA6-423D-497C-AB4F-B5E675A25B5B at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=utf-8

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 1 agreed on a technical recommendation for S Meter calibration for HF and VHF/UHF transceivers in 1981.

Why go back to 1947?

Brian Denley
KB1VBF
Sent from my iPad

> On Apr 24, 2020, at 6:30 PM, Charlie T <pincon at erols.com> wrote:
> 
> ?S-meters should be calibrated with 9 signal levels:   
> 
> *Faint - Signal barely perceptible
> *Very weak signals
> *Weak signals
> *Fair signals
> *Fairly good signals
> *Good signals
> *Moderately strong signals
> *Strong signals
> *Extremely strong signals
> 
> (Reprinted from the 1947 ARRL Handbook, page 466 "RST System of Signal Reports")
> 
> 73, Charlie k3ICH
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of John Stengrevics
> Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 7:49 AM
> To: Morgan Bailey <mbaileycrna at gmail.com>
> Cc: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K4 S-meter characteristics
> 
> Agree completely.  I find all S meters to be totally inaccurate and next to useless, including my K3S?.  
> 
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