Give honest reports at all times. Do not try to make the other fellow feel good by giving an inflated or incorrect report.
In order to conduct a QSO with other radio amateur stations it is essential that you know and understand certain "codes". The RST System is internationally recognised and has definitions intended to convey something to the distant listener. Many amateur transceivers have "S" meters, which are intended to give signal strength readings, but they are not all calibrated to a specific standard. Thus, meter readings mean different things on different sets. It is, for instance, common to find that a perfectly audible signal hardly moves the "S" meter needle and a Novice will therefore give a signal report of S0 or S1, which misleads the other station. The value of "S" units is really what you hear and should be used as such. It might be that the signal mentioned above, warranted a report of "S3" meaning "weak signals", rather than "S1" meaning "faint signals barely perceptible". A meter indicating S5 may well be very loud and an S9 report would be in order.
| READABILITY |
| 1 |
Unreadable |
| 2 |
Barely readable |
| 3 |
Readable with difficulty |
| 4 |
Readable with no difficulty |
| 5 |
Perfectly readable |
| SIGNAL STRENGTH |
| 1 |
Faint signals, barely perceptible |
| 2 |
Very weak signals |
| 3 |
Weak Signals |
| 4 |
Fair signals |
| 5 |
Fairly good signals |
| 6 |
Good signals |
| 7 |
Moderately good signals |
| 8 |
Strong signals |
| 9 |
Extremely strong signals |
| TONE |
| 1 |
Extremely rough hissing note |
| 2 |
Very rough AC note, no trace of musicality |
| 3 |
Rough, low pitched AC note, slightly musical |
| 4 |
Rough AC note, moderately musical |
| 5 |
Musically modulated note |
| 6 |
Modulated note, slight trace of whistle |
| 7 |
Near DC note, smooth ripple |
| 8 |
Good DC note, just a trace of ripple |
| 9 |
Purest DC note |
RST Codes (Readability, Signal Strength, Tone)
Amateur Radio Terminology and Codes
