Have you tried removing your watch, e.g. putting it in your pocket, so you can ensure the watch definitely isn’t providing the HR and it is coming from the chest strap?
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you can just do settings - sensors & accs - wrist heart rate - off no need to put it in the pocket.
Chest strap can be seen in the fit file too, convert to CSV, and you’ll see a line like:
Data,3,device_info,timestamp,“1011604466”,s,serial_number,“3988272937”,cum_operating_time,“179552”,s,unknown,“2”,unknown,“2172139305”,manufacturer,“1”,garmin_product,“2327”,software_version,“34.0”,battery_voltage,“2.8046875”,V,device_index,“3”,antplus_device_type,“120”,hardware_version,“5”,battery_status,“3”,ant_network,“1”,source_type,“1”,
but the garmin_product will be “3299” for an hrm dual I believe.
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Can you do that for activity profiles or something?
I did consider this but it looked like you have to turn it off when you work out, turn it on again for monitoring the rest of the day/night.
Not that I’ve ever found, as you say, it would be useful.
Are you moistening the strap just before you put it on and start running? Putting on the strap is one of the last things I do before I head out, and I’ll always make sure it’s not dry.
Getting dodgy readings at the start, but it settling down later, is suggesting to me it’s not picking up good readings early on, but once your skin starts to sweat and it’s has some natural moisture, it works better.
Not exactly the best of images, but the strap itself makes it clear you need to get the contact points a bit damp before you use it
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It’s been a couple of weeks since I washed the strap possibly, too.
I recently invested in some gel as I was getting some erratic data as it’s cold & dry. Not sure if it actually helped as think it was actually battery related or general issues with the strap. But I’m hoping it means I can sort of apply and forget about it and not worry about applying at the last minute.
I always lick the strap before putting it on and get a good connection initially but if I’m a bit slow getting out it must dry out and I get weird spikes and dips like yours until I start sweating and it sorts itself out.
I still use the old hard strap from my 305 so God knows how many years I’ve been licking it, probably ought to give it a scrub occasionally 
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Ah yes, forgot to mention that I did spend £9 on a new torx set so I could replace the battery last week. I had received one ‘low battery’ message from the HRM. So it’s not that.
My Google fu is indicating that you can set running to “jacket mode” which disables wrist HR, then you should still see the heart icon and HR data when you start he run and the HRM is connected.
In fact, it may be that the little heart icon is enough to say the data is coming from the HRM, but from their choice of wordsI’m thinking that it might switch back and forth if the external data stops/starts reporting.
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Jacket mode was new in 6 wasn’t it, thought you had a 5?
6S for me.
It’s probably the strap, but worth trying I think.
dear god…
a gel is available for those like me whose straps are probably the real epicentre of covid…
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I prefer to think that a daily dose of that green organism, I’ve nurtured for many years, is protecting me against all known ills. 
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Ah! Good response for next time Mrs eJC is prodding them with a lengthy stick…
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