I usually set my receiver gain/attenuation to get the S Meter noise floor on 160M to equal roughly S= 1. There are times that I can be listening on my transmit antenna (2 el vert array) with no preamp and no attenuation and get that result (very quiet in the winter on CW). There are other times that even on the beverages - I have to drop in some attenuation to get there (SSB in the summer).
I find this technique offers excellent receiving capability and minimizes operator fatigue. The S Meter reading is meaningless across all of those variances. 73 Ed N1UR _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
