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THE RST REPORTING SYSTEM IN A NUTSHELL!


RST Reports: An RST report is a report from a receiving station on the quality and strength of the transmitted signal. Using shorthand in the form of numbers to represent the tone of a CW signal or voice transmission of a transmitting station's signal at the receiving station's location (QTH). Here is what it means:

R -  Readability - Understanding what is said and how well. On a scale of 1 to 5, the readability of your signal with a "5" being perfect with no difficulty. In other words the ability of the other operator to understand what you are saying. A "1" is unreadable....a "5" is perfectly readable.

S -  Strength- On a scale of 1 to 9, indicates how strong your stations signal is. A "1" is a very faint signal.  A "9" is an extremely strong signal.

T - Used for morse code signal reports. Indicates on a scale of 1 to 9 the quality of the tone of the morse code "dits and dahs".  From a "60 cycle harsh tone" a (1).... To a "very pure tone", a (9)

R = READABILITY
1 -- Unreadable
2 -- Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable
3 -- Readable with considerable difficulty
4 -- Readable with practically no difficulty
5 -- Perfectly readable

S = 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 strong signals
8 -- Strong signals
9 -- Extremely strong signals

T = TONE
1 -- Sixty cycle a.c. or less, very rough and broad
2 -- Very rough a.c. , very harsh and broad
3 -- Rough a.c. tone, rectified but not filtered
4 -- Rough note, some trace of filtering
5 -- Filtered rectified a.c. but strongly ripple-modulated
6 -- Filtered tone, definite trace of ripple modulation
7 -- Near pure tone, trace of ripple modulation
8 -- Near perfect tone, slight trace of modulation
9 -- Perfect tone, no trace of ripple or modulation of any kind

R-S-T System