Signal Reports on a Repeater Lots of new hams dont understand that the S meter on their radio is only reporting the relative strength of the repeater system and NOT the signal strength of the station they are talking to unless they are in the simplex mode. When the repeater is transmitting, it may have an output greatly exceeding that of the station IT is listening to. Remember the station it hears on the input frequency of its receiver may be on a hand held radio and only a few blocks from the machine or it could be a mobile radio in a vehicle out on the fringes of the repeater coverage area or a base station running a high gain antenna and 100 watts from the next county or in some cases, the next state. To a third party, (another ham), listening to the machine on the repeater output, all of these stations would have the same S meter reading on his S meter! As long as the repeater can detect the signals and is working properly as it is setup, then all stations, (to the third ham), will appear to have the same signal strength on the S meter. Remember, the S meter is only reporting the relative strength of the repeater when it is transmitting and not the individual stations! So all that being said, how do you give an accurate signal report to the station you are talking to?
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 13:44:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015