Ralph Mowery wrote:
"Ken Scharf" wrote in message
...

On HF there is no need for an S-meter standard because it seems to be
the rule to give report 59. If you don't you soon have a bad
reputation of giving wrong reports


A signal doesn't have to be S9 to be heard 5 by 9.
I would usually tell the guy on the other end what
the S meter read, and also how readable he was.
When the band is quiet QRN wise, I could honestly
give a 59 report to someone hardly moving the meter.
OTOH with heavy QRM+QRN someone could be pumping
30db over and still be a rough copy.


Then you are still passing out wrong signal reports. The first one would be
something like 5 x 2 or 5 x 3 and the second one would be 2 x 9 or 3 x 9.

The first number is how well you can understand what is being said and the
second is how strong the signal is.


If you mean the actual strenth of the signal in uv at the antenna,
then you are correct. If you mean the strength of the signal in your
EARS that's another story. One is an actual measurement, the other
is subjective. (How would you measure signal strength if you
were using a receiver without an s meter, such as an old SW3?)