[DogParkList] MacLoggerDX 4.3.3 released

[Fokko]

At 05:36 -0500 21-01-2008, Steve - VA3SPH wrote:

>"The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit of measurement that expresses 

>the magnitude of a physical quantity (usually power or intensity) 

>relative to a specified or implied reference level."


Yes, I know dB is relative. But as S9 is calibrated as 50uV over 50 
ohm, and the Omni VII S meter indicates the antenna voltage, it's not 
depending on pre-amps, etc., it's in a sense absolute with a dB 
antenna voltage indication.




>Question for you.  The Omni VII seems to have an true analog signal 

>level meter on the front.


No, the Omni VII is fully digital, the S-meter is on the LCD screen 
by numbers and bar.



>I am curious how you able to determine these fine levels like S9+18 S+19

>etc..?


Actually, internal it's in dBs, but to the screen it's in steps of 
6dB, that's why I talk about S9 + 12dB. It has nothing to do with 
accuracy, but just that 6dB is chosen as resolution.

Anyway, via CAT (MacLoggerDX), it returns in increments of 6dB, so 
it's just the calulation error of 1, that it shows 1 (dB) too much 
for each step above S9


So, it all has nothing to do with S-meter accuracy, but simply the 
calculation of internal values to the screen. It's just look stupid 
to see on the transceiver S9+12, and on MacLoggerDX S9+14 ;-)


And for Scott (NE1RD):


>I believe there is a misconception here. MacLoggerDX

>communicates with these radios over a serial port. It

>issues commands or queries and gets responses. MLDX

>doesn't have access to the meters; it asks the radio to give

>it a number (like the power output or the S-unit reading)

>and MLDX simply reports it. How could it do otherwise?


It's not that simple, as the returned values are numbers, it's NOT 
just a text string, it must be parsed to human readable text ;-)

73, pa0dtl

-- 
Fokko van Duin,
CDS advanced technology bv,
http://www.lanbox.com/