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Old March 6th 06, 09:25 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
Ed
 
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Default Vertical vs Horizontal shootout part one




Just don't expect that the S-meter so "calibrated" is reading the real
value of the incident field arriving at the rx antenna. It won't be,
unless that calibration includes (exactly) the real-world performance
of the receiving antenna system at each frequency, including line
loss, local reflections, and other factors.

Otherwise the reading still will be given in fairly meaningless,
relative terms -- the same as S-units.



The bottom line for the Rx, all it cares about since it doesn't know
what kind of antenna is feeding it, is the signal strength at the
input.... so I'd say a calibrated microvolt reading reflecting that
strength is not very meaningless at all. Any changes in the antenna
system will of course change that, but the whole point of any antenna
work is to maximize the signal voltage to that rx input, so I'd think a
calibrated reading would be extremely useful over an S meter alone.


Ed K7AAT