"S"-Meter Readings

[Kechkaylo Dave (ATLINKS)]

To All:

I completely agree with Glen's "S"-meter comments. Few manufacturers spend
any amount of time at all designing their "S" meters to read anything close
to what the actual signal level is: they can vary all over the place.
Amazingly, I measured my SS-9000 from 0.78uV (S3) thru 50,000uV (S9+60dB)
with a new HP signal generator. Interestingly enough, that SS-9000's
"S"-meter was dead on (give or take a little paralax error). Other than
this, most manufacturers' so-called "S" meters don't mean a thing unless you
calibrate it against a known source for each band. Yes, there are
band-to-band differences in overall receiver gain, thus "S"-meter readings
derived from AGC.

Dave Kechkaylo, W8DLK/9

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