I think that location VERY hard to beat. Easily hidden and out of artillery range (coffee spills).
Mobile, I like the use of the S-Meter to give me a read relative to others, and, to what I THINK I’m hearing.
Visual reference points.
Highways can parallel and cross over the one I’m on. Skip can show up unannounced. Etc.
The Meter is only thing I miss being able to see.
I started or added to an S-Meter thread last year or so. How accurate is an S-Meter neither here nor there. How linear, barely. It’s usefulness is worth having.
— It’s a listening aid to HELP separate reports while at 67-mph.
Receive strength isn’t always indicative of distance. But with multiples of “talk” occurring, it doesn't take long to figure out.
The signals of some others strengthen and weaken predictably. Others do not.
I can be traveling faster and they are behind me. Or, I can be overtaking them. That’s Scenario One.
Scenario Two is that they are in opposite direction.
Three, on an adjacent road and could be as in either of above.
Four, stationary off of the road. Sounds easy, but not if your road is in a large bend around them.
Five, (all sorts of possible combinations of above).
It’s when reports of an immediate road hazard have surfaced that comms with others will matter most. Reaching local drivers is priority.
No guarantee they can hear you if you get much farther. One may have to accept two U-turns (legal) to re-aim one’s antenna, so to speak.
Immediately pulling over and working tactics per routing is to NOT accept the day is a loss given some problems.
An alternative route is a decision made ahead of time. Road, load, traffic, geography & weather.
S-Meter part of being prepared to jump on alternatives.
Twice this past week, alone.
Being able to “read” S-Meter the only downside to console-rear position, IMO. I already can (by feel) adjust radio to “local”, relatively. With Skip come in the back door, it’s no longer so simple.
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