[TenTec] S-Meter Calibration in 3.033xa
John Henry
jhenry at tentec.com
Wed Apr 10 08:18:40 EDT 2013
Several changes went into the latest firmware.
We added the S-Meter Calibration.
This is not a hardware based smeter calibration. One should only use this
calibration to calibrate what the DSP programs the voltage level for the
physical meter.
If the rig is not reading S-9 properly, then that should be aligned first
before attempting to adjust the S-Meter meter.
The best way to see if the DSP is reading the incoming RF levels and
calculating the correct S value, hook up a software program on a PC that
will display the meter value, (if the software program has a calibration
value, zero it on the program first), then use a signal generator to put in
an exact known level for S9, and verify the PC software program is telling
you S9. If not, there is a procedure to adjust the hardware first. I'm sure
that there will be 50 different peeps on here that know the procedure and
can help you through it. DO NOT use the rigs S-Meter itself to calibrate it
yet. Just the hardware, and an external program such as N4PY or HRD or???
your choice.
THEN, once the rig is telling the PC software program the correct values
for an S9, THEN go in and adjust the rigs meter itself for S9 and ALL of
the other S values.
Another change that went in was to address an item that a lot of folks have
complained about since going from V1 firmware. The S-Meter does not the
strength of a signal when the RF Gain adjust the signal past the AGC action
point. So, we moved the signal strength calculation before, which means the
S-Meter will show you the actual S-Level, not affected by AGC or RFGain
now. Unfortunately, it does not operate at a different rate based on AGC
selection. This is something that can be changed in software, and will look
at a possible solution when we get time.
I have heard from a few where the AGC is not operating as expected in
3033xa. The quick and dirty "yank a signal" test shows it working, but then
an on the air listening to a strong CW station shows otherwise. So there is
something amiss here that I will need to try to resolve. This is after a
master reset. However changing the AGC settings will get it to work as
expected, but that should not be necessary.Standard F/M/S AGC should
operate as expected.
At the moment, we are very hot and heavy on a few things, so I can't
comment on an expected investigation time period nor an expected delivery
date yet.
Hope the above helps,
Thanks, and 73
John Henry, KI4JPL
TEN-TEC Engineering.
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