6400 S meter never below S3

K5BLS

Hello everyone, Is there something amiss with my radio? Even with no antenna connected, and the slice adjusted properly, the signal never drops below S3. Pre-amp set at 0db, even going to -8 same thing. Thank you all that respond.
K5BLS

Erik Carling EI4KF

Do adjust AGC-T. Then you could see this Flex video: Understanding FlexRadio’s S-meter readings – FlexRadio

You will get a clear understanding of what you are seeing.

K5BLS

Thanks for the reply, Yes Adjusted the AGC-T and even with a dummy load and bandwidth zoomed in it will not show less than a s3-s5 and states better than -95dbm at the receiver. Pretty sure a dummy load has no RF coming from it so I'm perplexed how I'm supposed to trust this at all. Either antenna port displays the same results.

KD0RC

Take a look at this thread and the video. Tim does a great job of explaining it.

https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8009837/tim-explains-s-meters

WX7Y

So K5BLS, have you gone to CW on a Dummy load with the mode set to CW and the filter set to say 50 you're still showing S3-S5

mine here is about 0 to .25 DB on the S meter for a reference.

Mike-VA3MW

https://www.flexradio.com/videos/understanding-flexradios-s-meter-readings/

Your S Meter reading is related to your receive bandwidth.

If you want to see your true noise floor, set your RX bandwidth to 50Hz.

John KB4DU

Because the flex S meter indicates the signal strength at the antenna terminals, before the preamp, the reading is not affected by the amount of preamp boost or attenuator cut.