On 08/25/2013 07:44 PM, Bob Kupps wrote:
Well I applaud your making the effort at giving an "honest" report. It seems to me that
599 is reported far too casually these days and I certainly attempt to give "honest"
reports even in a (non contest) pile up. Although R reports are fairly easy - I give 3 if I'm
struggling, 4 if I have to pay attention and 5 if it's easy. But S reports, especially on the low
bands where we are often using preamps, attenuators or both make an objective report a bit tougher.
The other night I was chatting with my pal W6YA on 20. My 100 watts to a 5/5
stack always gets a better report on his K3 than his 1500W to a 4 el gets on my
K3 until he finally said that he always uses his preamp on the high bands
because the K3 S meter is factory calibrated with the preamp on, and he like I
strive to give meaningful reports.
Anyway, I would be interested in how other ops (who care) try to give
meaningful reports - objective vs subjective. Also my compliments to N4ZR and
the RBN guys who are providing a great service to the ham DX community in this
regard.
73 Bob HS0ZIA
Hi There is idea that S9 is 50 microvolts at the antenna terminal - is
that 50 ohms or? - and that is truly objective. However, I don't give
the S-meters a lot of credence in that regard. And I have operated
(still operate) teceivers that don't have an S-meter. There are winky
blinky lights or anything. If I have an S-meter it gets a vote but my
ears have the bigger say. With no S-meter my ears have ALL of the say.
I have actually heard on the air reports of S-0 (that's a zero). Huh?
What! I thought tha guy was doing a good job copying a signal that
didn't exist! We can give in to the canned QSO contest style and always
give out 599 or we can just do our best with an *estimation* of signal
strength. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
73,
Bill KU8H
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Topband Reflector
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