{"id":131,"date":"2025-11-20T23:20:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/?page_id=131"},"modified":"2025-11-20T23:20:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:20:46","slug":"rst-list","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/rst-list\/","title":{"rendered":"RST List"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udc42 The RST System: Reporting Signal Quality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>RST (Readability, Strength, Tone)<\/strong> system is a three-digit code used by amateur radio operators to give a quick, standardized report on the quality of a received signal. It is an efficient way to let the sending station know exactly how their transmission is being received, especially when operating Morse Code (CW) or Single Sideband (SSB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Three Components of RST<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report consists of three numbers, always given in the order of <strong>R-S-T<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Readability (R) \u2014 Scale 1 to 5<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Readability indicates how easy it is to understand the signal, regardless of its volume or quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><td><strong>Score<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Meaning<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>R1<\/strong><\/td><td>Unreadable<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>R2<\/strong><\/td><td>Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>R3<\/strong><\/td><td>Readable with considerable difficulty<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>R4<\/strong><\/td><td>Readable with practically no difficulty<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>R5<\/strong><\/td><td>Perfectly readable<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Signal Strength (S) \u2014 Scale 1 to 9<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Signal Strength is a measure of the signal&#8217;s electrical power at the receiver, typically indicated by an S-meter on the radio. It is often the highest number reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><td><strong>Score<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Meaning<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>S1<\/strong><\/td><td>Faint signals, barely perceptible<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>S3<\/strong><\/td><td>Very weak signals<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>S5<\/strong><\/td><td>Fairly good signals<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>S7<\/strong><\/td><td>Moderately strong signals<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>S9<\/strong><\/td><td>Extremely strong signals (usually full-scale)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> S9 is the top of the scale, but hams sometimes report signals &#8220;S9 + 10dB&#8221; (or more) to indicate the signal strength goes beyond the S9 calibration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Tone (T) \u2014 Scale 1 to 9 (Primarily for CW\/Digital)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tone describes the quality of the signal&#8217;s electrical carrier, originally developed for Morse Code (CW) and digital modes. For modern SSB voice transmissions, the Tone value is typically omitted or automatically reported as 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><td><strong>Score<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Meaning<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>T1-T4<\/strong><\/td><td>Very rough, chirpy, or filtered AC notes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>T5-T8<\/strong><\/td><td>Modulated, key clicks, or slightly rough DC notes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>T9<\/strong><\/td><td>Perfectly pure DC note<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83d\udc42 The RST System: Reporting Signal Quality The RST (Readability, Strength, Tone) system is a three-digit code used by amateur radio operators to give a quick, standardized report on the quality of a received signal. It is an efficient way to let the sending station know exactly how their transmission is being received, especially when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-131","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/w7rjp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}