[TenTec] Signal reporting

[Simmons, Reid W]

I want an honest signal report from the other person because I want to know
how my equipment and antenna(s) are doing.  If I'm a 228 don't be afraid to
tell me.  If I'm truly sounding like one of the strongest signals on the
band (a 599) let me know that too.  How else can you get an idea of how well
your signal is doing in a particular area?  If I'm giving a report I compare
the subject signal to others on the band and rate it accordingly.  If I
plotted the types of reports I have given versus the quantity of each it
would pretty much be a Gaussian distribution.

I don't rely on an 'S' meter.  I find them to be more of an aesthetics
pleaser than a trusted functional item.  However, I do like what
Watkins-Johnson does and that is to report the strength of the signal at the
antenna input.

I have never been a contester but I always found it curious that on the day
of the contest everyone seems to be using 10KW to a 10 element beam on a 110
foot tower and propagation has achieved perfection.  Why else would everyone
be giving and getting a 599 signal report? :)

Reid, K7YX

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Carl Hyde [mailto:cshyde@yahoo.com] 
Sent:	Thursday, November 18, 1999 10:27 AM
To:	tentec@contesting.com
Subject:	Re: [TenTec] TenTec RX-320 S-meter reply.


Just to make people like Jeff happy I always give a 59
signal report no matter what the signal report may be.
I figure if I can hear and understand the other
operator why try to figure out some arbitrary scale of
subjective ear calibration anyway. Besides I like the
DX operators to thank me for a nice signal report, as
if I had anything to do with it to begin with. IT
makes me feel like I have been a positive influence in
their life.  I wouldn't want anyone to get a case of
depression and commit suicide because I gave them a
4x2 signal report.  I can see it now on CNN "Ham
operator kills himself over a bad signal report".  I
can't bear the thought of that happening so all you'll
get from me is a 5X9.  Before contests I just read the
5x9 report into my speech unit and it does the QSOs
for me and I don't even have to talk to another ham at
all. I just sit there sipping a cold beer and push the
buttons on the speech box.  Probably by next year I'll
have this speech recognition development board figured
out and I intend to have my computer tune the bands
with the Pegasus, recognize a "CQ Contest" call, and
reply with my callsign, a 59 and a number and log the
contact. That way I can enter contests automatically
and I don't even have to be home in the radio room to
win them. I can set up an entire year's worth of
contests in advance.  Now thats Ham radio!!! I'll just
have the computer email the completed log at the end
of each contest and I don't even have to get involved
with the contest at all. I'm going to call it RoboHam.
So 5nines and 73s to all and to all a good night!


> > The thing that burns me about 'S' meters is the
> trend for hams to use
> > S-units for their signal report numbers "5x9 +10"
> what the hell is that?


=====
Carl S.HYDE
W2CSH
cshyde@yahoo.com
Eagles May Soar, But Weasles Never Get Sucked Into Jet Engines!

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the word tics, meaning blood sucking parasites.
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