Well said Craig! I would again mention how useful a nuanced S-meter is for peaking a beam heading. I am not in the habit of looking up stations on QRZ when I work them or hear them (even though I have a fast PC with dual displays right at the operating position), so unless they have a dx prefix I really don't know the proper beam heading. Typically with normal qsb I can get close enough by swinging the beam past the desired direction a few times, IF I have a nuanced and easy to read S-meter.
Also, a nuanced S-meter is an invaluable sensory input that gives us subtle clues as to what is happening with propagation, and we all want to have a better sense of that, I believe. Erik K7TV Craig-89 wrote: > > > Hi Guy > > It seems that the consensus is that a pretty innacurate S-meter is ok. > > I dont know why everything related to ham radio has to be reduced to the > bare minimum or be in the totally useless category. Not everyone's ham > radio life revolves around giving out cookie cutter signal reports. > > Most people would not buy any piece of test equipment with 300% > inaccuracy. I could just imagine all the shouting if power meters had a > tolerance of +- 200% or likewise VSWR meter. S meters should be no > different. > > A calibrated S meter could be useful tool in many other ways. > > - Measuring field strength and patterns of antennas. > > - Reporting on things like BPL and other radiated and conducted > measurements that seem to be a daily threat on HF. Just knowing they close > to S9 plus plus minus 20 db is not a professional way to build an > argument against such pollution in professional circles. Having a > calibrated S meter and adding something a like calibrated loop with a > known antenna factor would make collecting and surveying potential RF > pollution data very easy. While we don't need 0.1 db accuracy 1 db of > accuracy is easily achieved in SDR radios. > > http://www.vk1od.net/bpl/QueanbeyanBplTrial2.htm > > - Using a good S-meter would also be a reliable way of surveying a > potential new QTH. The data could be used to compare signal noise levels > to the thermal noise floor, or even compare what you are measuring to the > surveyed ITU noise levels on HF. It would be nice knowing that your > potential new QTH is in a QRM silent location. It would also be good > comparing noise floors amongst hams for various locations. > > - It would also be useful knowing how accurate and reliable propagation > programs are on a daily basis since they do predict signal levels. This > might come in handy if one wanted to build a DSP based DF system which > relies on ionospheric data. > > - As a general level meter around the shack, it could even be used as an > accurate power meter. > > So to me a well calibrated S-meter can take the place of many expensive > instruments that most hams dont have access to on a daily basis. It is a > very useful tool. When we use some sort of absolute reference our > understanding of what we are measuring on a daily basis increases our > understanding of what we are doing in our hobby. > > While we on this subject if further work is carried out on the K3's > s-meter you might as well follow the IARU's recommendation for S-meters > and make it quasi peak in nature. > > Besides these days, with the competition increasing in the new radio > market with radios like the Perseus, ADAT and the newly released cheap > Flexradio models, all which offer a very accurate S-meters as a feature. > It would do no harm to the K3's reputation having a feature that some > consider desirable, that's marketing not rocket science. > > > 73 > Craig > > --- On Fri, 10/31/08, Guy, K2AV <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> From: Guy, K2AV <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Bigger K3 S-meter >> To: [email protected] >> Date: Friday, October 31, 2008, 12:05 PM >> I would just like to see signal strength, including noise, >> in absolute >> reference levels. In particular when listening to a local >> while turning a >> beam kind of thing. Although that can be done relatively >> with the audio >> voltage level, it wouldn't allow me to tell a local >> that his ground wave >> signal has gone down 3 db and is staying there, or be able >> to create data >> for studies over time. >> >> Since it is an SDW, such is possible. dBuv is fine. Might >> need linearity >> points as part of the package which could be calibrated >> with a precision >> attenuator. >> >> >> Changing the functionality of the BG or SM commands so they >> could provide >> greater resolution *would* break software, which is what I >> was saying. But >> while I can see that having software access to the dBm >> reading could be >> useful for antenna measurement purposes, given the vagaries >> of propagation I >> would have thought that a 1 S-unit resolution was perfectly >> adequate for >> normal purposes. I cannot see how it would be more useful >> to be told I am >> S6.5 rather than S6 or S7, or even S5 or S8! Whatever the >> reading is it is >> going to be different 20 seconds later anyway. >> >> >> -- >> View this message in context: >> http://n2.nabble.com/Bigger-K3-S-meter-tp1399030p1437492.html >> Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Post to: [email protected] >> You must be a subscriber to post to the list. >> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): >> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm >> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: [email protected] > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > > -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Bigger-K3-S-meter-tp1399030p1438672.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
