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S-Meter Accuracy of FLex and Others - Rob Sherwood

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Comments

  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Your noise floor is hight Burt,,what did Flex say when you opened a help ticket?
  • Ria
    Ria Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    I did some investigation of my own on my 6700 and this is what I ended up with. All measurements are CW at 500Hz passband, no antenna connected.

    160m - S2 - -114dBm
    80m - S1 - -118dBm
    40m - S1 - -119dBm
    20m - S1 - -119dBm
    17m - S1 - -119dBm
    15m - S0 - -142dBm
    12m - S1 - -119dBm
    10m - S1 - -118dBm
    6m - S0 - -143dBm

    I do have to wonder why the 6400 reads so high? 

    With that said I have no real complaints. I nearly never give real signal reports anyway, unless it's dBm. Far more objective. 
  • Burt Fisher
    Burt Fisher Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Not worth bothering them with an S meter issue, I did bother them with my 6400M crashing they tried like **** to help but I decided to live with it, for now.  I wish they had an idiot setup I could download for idiots like me to set parameters to a "normal" setting for "Global" etc.
  • Ria
    Ria Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Burt, am I the only one here seeing the irony, in that your YouTube videos repeatedly scold contesters for not giving “real” signal reports, yet you’re asking for Flex to give you a fake reading of zero on their S meters?
  • Ria
    Ria Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    “if I short the inputs to any other type meter it reads zero. A digital VOM does not have a reading above zero even though active circuits inside it may have electrons flying around inside. Zero ought to be zero.“ Actually, it doesn’t. Nearly every VOM I’ve used measures the resistance of the test leads in addition to the resistance of the load under test. Usually you see something like 0.05 of an ohm or similar when you short the leads of a VOM. It’s true for most every meter, from a high end fluke to a free harbor freight one.
  • Ria
    Ria Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    “if I short the inputs to any other type meter it reads zero. A digital VOM does not have a reading above zero even though active circuits inside it may have electrons flying around inside. Zero ought to be zero.“ Actually, it doesn’t. Nearly every VOM I’ve used measures the resistance of the test leads in addition to the resistance of the load under test. Usually you see something like 0.05 of an ohm or similar when you short the leads of a VOM. It’s true for most every meter, from a high end fluke to a free harbor freight one.
  • Craig Williams
    Craig Williams Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
    All mine except my Waveteck DM27XT. Actually reads 0.0 with the test leads shorted. And, it's probably a Beckman as Waveteck bought Beckman from Emerson Electric after I left their Doric Scientific Division around 1988. Now no Beckman or Waveteck.
  • Burt Fisher
    Burt Fisher Member ✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Ria this is not the forum discuss an opinion on contests. If you are trying to bait me, I will pass. My comment on zero being zero need not be rehashed. Beta was technically superior to VHS but the market went to VHS. Thus the S-meter purity issue may be won by Flex but the market will determine whether my opinion has any merit.  The talent expressed in this thread humbles me as I cannot hold a candle to the science demonstrated here. 
  • Ria
    Ria Member ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Except that zero is not zero as has been repeatedly explained. I support flex in having an accurate S meter rather than a feel good one. As an owner for the past few years, three time award winner and former alpha team member and being friends with the senior staff in the company I fully understand and support their reasoning. 100%.
  • Gerald-K5SDR
    Gerald-K5SDR FlexRadio Employee ✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Burt,

    I hear your desire to have the S-meter read zero but to do so would render the S-meter to be totally worthless for any purpose other than to watch it squiggle.  An accurate S-meter actually serves a useful purpose for properly setting the preamp gain or attenuation for best dynamic range of the receiver given the antenna and operating conditions.  I described this in another thread.  Therefore; we have no intention of changing the S-meter to render it useless.  An accurate S-meter also gives you a true RMS power measurement of the received signal at your antenna port, which may a novel idea in ham radio.

    Thanks for your comments but this subject is now respectfully closed.

    73,
    Gerald

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