A method (1) for operating an ultrasonic flow meter (2) for measuring the flow rate through a measuring tube (4) through which a medium (3) flows is presented and described, wherein the ultrasonic flow meter (2) comprises at least one transmitting ultrasonic
transducer (5) for transmitting ultrasonic signals (6) and at least one receiving ultrasonic
transducer (7) for receiving ultrasonic signals (6) and a control and evaluation unit (8), wherein the ultrasonic transducers (5, 7) are arranged such that they realize an ultrasonic measurement path (9) in the medium (3) and wherein the control and evaluation unit (8) controls the transmitting ultrasonic
transducer (5) such that it emits the ultrasonic
signal (6).The receiving ultrasonic transducer (7) receives the emitted ultrasonic
signal (6), and the control and evaluation unit (8) determines, during measurement operation (14), at least an indirect value for the flow rate (Vp) of the medium (3) through the measuring tube (4) from a determined
signal transit time (t_sig) of the ultrasonic signal (6) by evaluating the emitted and received ultrasonic signals (6). The method can react flexibly to changing measurement conditions by the control and evaluation unit (8) controlling the transmitting ultrasonic transducer (5) so that a
broadband ultrasonic signal (
USb,tx) is emitted, by determining an optimal
measurement frequency range (M_opt) in an evaluation step (10), by frequency-filtering (11) the received
broadband ultrasonic signal (
USb,rx) into several
measurement frequency ranges (M) of the received
broadband ultrasonic signal (
USb,rx), by furthermore calculating (12) at least one quality value (Q) from the frequency-filtered ultrasonic signal (USb,rx,f) of the corresponding
measurement frequency range (M) for each of the measurement frequency ranges (M) and determining the measurement frequency range (M) that achieves the highest quality value (Q) as the optimal measurement frequency range (M_opt), and by using a signal
propagation time (t_sig) when determining the at least indirect value for the flow rate (Vp).which was determined after
frequency filtering (11) of the received broadband
ultrasound signal (USb,rx) from the optimal measurement frequency range (M_opt).