I understand what you mean! I have a cheap $30 meter, and I'm looking to upgrade. I too strive for the best of things sometimes. All I need a meter for is FTA, we have cable tv elsewhere in the house, and I am the only NERD playing with FTA in the house. LOL I was just hoping for another option if it was out there, and I meant no harm to any installers that do this for a living.
Well, if you don’t need to worry about S2 signals there are tons of them that are very affordable.
I started with an OLD Birdog I bought from a friend of a neighbor, I can’t remember for sure but I think it was like 4 years ago maybe, more or less. At that time there was nothing on S2 and it was OK but I wanted one with an actual tuner and tv screen so I could ~verify~ stuff. So I bought some Chinese clone thing off of ebay. It was a bit of a disappointment because there is no way to connect it to a PC and edit things in it.
You have to do ALL the editing through it’s tiny little screen and keypad. That part of it annoys me deeply. And when I bought it, S2 was not really in use, yet. Other than the very annoying lack of interface, it was fairly handy because I really hate dragging an STB, TV, power cord, etc, all out into the yard. But since then there seems to be a rush to switch to S2 and that has been troublesome for me.
Another problem I have is that ALL of my dishes, including the ones I use to watch subscription Dish with, are Frankendishs, made from pieces and parts that I found laying around, a lot of it has been given to me, some of it I bought online, etc.. I’ve converted dishes that were linear commercial dishes into circular. I’m converting a large commercial linear KU dish into a mini C-band dish.
Everything I have is breaking the rules. And I’m not very good at it either so I really need a proper meter.
I even converted some old linear stationary dishes into HH motorized dishes. And since they weren’t designed to be used that way, there are no markings on them for setting ANYTHING. Plus I flipped the mounting hardware upside-down as well. It seems like strive to torture myself by continually taking on difficult if not impossible situations.
IF I were only needing a meter for FTA I would definitely buy one that does S2.
Most of the meters that will recognize S2, won’t actually tune it in and show you an S2 video on screen. Most of them only give you a rudimentary beepy meter for the S2 BUT will tune in and display non-S2 signals.
That being the case, you’re getting essentially an older type meter/tuner/tv (which can be had for under $100 on ebay all day long) and one of the multitude of little pocket meters for S2, combined into one.
Most of the ads for the meters out there are very aloof about the capabilities. You have to read them very carefully and in most cases, fill in the missing information.
I came close to buying several meters but when I would go back and double-triple check them for the 23rd time just before clicking the buy now button, I would realize that they were omitting features.
It boiled down to two meters for me, the SatHero SH-600HD or the Satlink WS6932-HD.
I was searching for a US based vendor (which are few and far between) because I do not like ordering direct from China or Hong Kong.
Either one of those meters can be found from anywhere from $300 to $400, if you shop around and are willing to take a chance on buying direct from over there.
