Received signal strength plots
SLC Recevier Signal Strength Indications
S-Meter calibration and signal strength plot interpretation
Kenwood R-5000 and
Website S-Meter Plot Calibrations
There is no official industry standard, but most communication receiver
manufacturers consider S9 to be 50 microvolts of radio-frequency voltage
across the antenna terminals. Each S-Unit below 50 microvolts generally
is considered to be 6dB (1/2 voltage, 1/4 power) lower.
However, actual S-Meter calibration against those generally accepted standards
tends to be very poor with most receivers.
S-Meter calibration of the Kenwood R-5000 at this website
was measured with laboratory-quality test equipment. The results are shown
in the table below. Even though the built-in analog S-Meter calibration
is not very good, it is better than for most receivers. We correct the
analog meter calibration errors in software after analog to digital data
conversion, so that the calibration of the S-Meter plot at this website
is correct to within a fraction of a dB for both HF and VHF.
| Kenwood R-5000 Receiver |
Website |
| Standard |
S-Meter Reading |
HF |
VHF |
S-Meter Plot |
| 50.00mv |
S9+60 |
Off-Scale |
Off-Scale |
+60 |
| 15.81mv |
S9+50 |
S9+60 |
Off-Scale |
+50 |
| 5.00mv |
S9+40 |
S9+55 |
Off-Scale |
+40 |
| 1.581mv |
S9+30 |
S9+45 |
Off-Scale |
+30 |
| 500uv |
S9+20 |
S9+35 |
Off-Scale |
+20 |
| 158.1uv |
S9+10 |
S9+22 |
Off-Scale |
+10 |
| 50uv |
S9 |
S9+10 |
S9+15 |
S9 |
| 25uv |
S8 |
S9+5 |
S9+8 |
S8 |
| 12.5uv |
S7 |
S8 |
S9+2 |
S7 |
| 6.3uv |
S6 |
S6 |
S7.5 |
S6 |
| 3.2uv |
S5 |
S4 |
S5 |
S5 |
| 1.6uv |
S4 |
S1 |
S3.5 |
S4 |
| 0.8uv |
S3 |
<S1 |
S3 |
S3 |
| 0.4uv |
S2 |
<S1 |
S1 |
S2 |
| 0.2uv |
S1 |
<S1 |
<S1 |
S1 |
This page was last modified: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:01:28 GMT
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