Mike wrote:
I tend to agree. If someone doesn't want to use or place any
importance on a particular S-meter reading that's fine - I tend to be
that way as well. But the fact that it's a "meter" suggests - as
does its intended purpose - that it represents some type of standard
of measurement. Therefore IMO it's worth having your meter adhere to
that, whether or not you choose to pay any attention to it. Why call
it a cup if in fact it's a tablespoon?
The S-meter has always been conceived to represent signal strength in terms of
dB relative to a fixed intercept (nominally, in many quarters, 50 uV = S9).
When you are measuring dB, you are measuring a ratio of two voltages, not an
absolute quantity of voltage (though that can of course be derived from
calibration data). Changing the slope and intercept of the S-meter is no
different than changing the scaling factors on an old analog VTVM. The face
might look different after you do it, the needle might react differently, but
it still reads the same quantities if you know the calibration of the thing.
From that perspective, it doesn't really matter HOW the S-meter is calibrated,
as long as it IS calibrated.
Given the almost complete absence of any kind of accepted standard, I think
Wayne made exactly the right call in making the S-meter user-programmable. We
now have the opportunity, given this new feature, to experiment and see what
really works best, and make a LOGICAL case for establishing that as a
standard.
Bill / W5WVO
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