A lonely G3UCK said, seemingly talking to himself: > No comments from Elecraft or elsewhere on my posting below, so perhaps my > conclusions are wrong or maybe I'm just expecting results too quickly. > Any > views anyone?
I have wondered about this IARU R1 Recommendation about S-meters. In order to comply, it means transverters have to be 20 dB hotter on the output for the same input signal level, as the transverter is usually used with a radio where S9 is -73 dBm & not -93 dBm. Or all radios have some means to make the S-meter seem 20 dB "hotter" when used with a transverter. I am not aware of any that do. None that I have do this, so I guess transverters are that way. For radios that straddle R1's -73/-93 dBm S9 boundary, we should also see signs of compliance with the Recommendation. A quick check of one such reasonably current product from one of The Big Three I own that I do not recall acting like it complies with the Recommendation shows that indeed, it does not. It is has one of these new-fangled "light bulb" S-meters, where S1 is set to light up at different levels on 70cm, 2m, 6m, 10/20m & 80m (total spread between them: 9 dB). S9 is set to 31, 31, 28, 25 & 22 dB above S1 on those bands, respectively. From S9 to S9+60 is 60 dB. The narrative for this Recommendation, found at http://iaru-r1.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=173&func=download&id=178&chk=b8ce4681621e009741d6eabdce8eef20&no_html=1 "At the IARU Region 1 Conference in Hungary 1978 the need for a harmonised standard for the "S-meter scale" was expressed and a proposal was accepted for publication in society journals. The essential recommendation was 1 S-point is 6 dB . At the Brighton Conference in 1981 the recommendation was formally adopted as a standard for amateur radio equipment manufacturers. At the 1990 Torremolinos conference an amendment was adopted which reconfirmed the -93 dBm reference level for frequencies above 144 MHz, but no statement was issued for the bands between 30 and 144 MHz. Although not explicitly stated the implication of the recommendation is that on VHF and higher frequencies the S-meter will deviate on the thermal noise only ( S2 in 3 kHz bandwidth, S3 in 12 kHz bandwidth). Although the recommendation is not too complex it seems to be rather difficult to implement by commercial manufacturers." A good Recommendation would make sense on its own - not need a narrative & perhaps not one that says what this one does. A good Recommendation would be followed & might also be something that we could look back at & see why it was we are told things should be done that way. This was just a quick look, but my impression is that if S-meters are to work this way, it should be like an IARU bandplan & apply to just R1. 73, ex-VR2BG/p. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
