Buying a satellite meter

Mike 1972

I have a basic satellite meter at the moment that just gives signal strength. Trouble is theres no quality reading (for setting LNB skew) or quick way of positively identiftying a satellite.

Im looking for someting a bit more convenient than lugging out an FTA box, portable TV and extention lead (not practical especially on a rainy or very sunny day) but any meters Ive seen advertised are either very expensive (Im not in the trade or anything just a n00b who likes piddling about now and again) or are kinda vauge on what exactly they do.

Can anyone recommend anything ?

watty

no.

Next useful step up measures BER etc and maybe €200

A decent portable Spectrum Analyser (much the best) is over €1,500.

You could glue/velcro a 2.4Ghz Wireless Video Receiver to a portable LCD screen and the videosender on the cheap FTA sat receiver that measures BER (Quality) indoor. I've tested this and it works.

I have the other kind of meter (€200) and used both portable and lab-bench spectrum analysers as well as basic meter with 2x F and needle + beeper.

Apogee

A number of portable satellite receivers with integrated LCD screens have started popping up on ebay of late.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/7-Color-LCD-Monitor-Digital-Satellite-Finder-Meter-TV_W0QQitemZ120452426033QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes?hash=item1c0b862931&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1301%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50
http://cgi.ebay.ie/3-5-Color-LCD-Pro-Digital-Satellite-Finder-Meter-TV_W0QQitemZ260452216580QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes?hash=item3ca4296f04&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1301%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

They are both reasonably priced and will give you a quality reading and help identify a sat if you have the channel parameters pretuned. The following beacon transponders will help in that line:
http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Beacon+Transponders

There's a fairly comprehensive list of digital meters on satshop24. Really there is nothing equivalent to the above in terms of flexibilty until you go up towards the 200/300 mark. The SatFinder plus 900 is for €159 is limited to 17 pretuned satellites. Plus it won't help you distinguish between Astra 19 and 28 for example, where the portable receivers will.
http://www.satshop24.de/satshop24_s/messgeraete_satshop24.html

byte

Quite fond of the Horizon HDSM meters myself. Handy for simple tasks.

Bought a second hand HDSM USB (direct USB port for editing your list of stored satellites) for around €150 last year, wasn't too bad. It works anyway, and of course it's able to determine when you're looking at the right bird.

stevethesatguy

Trimax 2200 or the Horizon HDSM V2.5 the only decent meters that are fully upgradable, i my humble opinion


Steve