Question about alignment using meters

[VinceT3]

Is it better to use a blind scan reciever or a meter?

Are one of the 100 dollar units ok for personal use or would the 600 dollar unit like the birddog be worth the extra money for personal use?

Next time I move my Toroidal I would prefer a better method of alignment.. than I was doing before.. I was considering one of those dual meters like the "Acutrac22Pro" so I can hit both ends and align the dish easier.. any thoughts? anyone use the Acutrac22Pro and have opinions on it? or suggestions for other meters?

 

[iafirebuff]

I don't have any experience with an expensive meter, but I use a cheap-o meter to aim the satellite in the general area. From there, I do I blind scan on the receiver to see where I am at. I then peak the dish to the proper satellite. You can also program in some active tp's and then use your receiver's meter and peak from that. Then do a blind scan. Now with an expensive meter, I guess you can aim and peak from the meter alone.

 

[updatelee]

a birdog is nice because it will not only identify that your locked onto the corect satellite but will also tell you the ber (bit error rate, ie quality). I personally find you can really tweak a dish alot better looking at the ber rather then the ber rather then signal strength.

the dual meters are really usefull for aiming a multilnb dish with skew. any multidish setup, including torodial, is really a give and take situation, if you tweak the dish for the outer arc on the west side then the east side will severly suffer. you really have to tweak the dish so your happy with not the perfect signal, but an acceptable signal on both ends, dual meters let you look at two lnbs at the same exact time, so they really help for this.

for a meter that only shows signal strength (like the acutrac), I prefer an analog one (unlike the acutrac)

I own a dual analog meter, birdog, and satlook nit. out of the three the only one I would trade is the birdog for a sathawk (lacuna) meter. the lacuna lets you enter your own freq/pol where the birdog does not, therfore your waiting on birdog to come out with current satellite files, with the lacuna you can enter them yourself. both these sell for under $450usd at sadoun, if youve got a budget of $600 Id look at the trimax, its alot more sophicticated.

now if they made a dual input spectrum, wow, Id be all over that !

 

[gabshere]

i got one and sent it back its just like larry said

I guess you can aim and peak from the meter alone

its a small unit and easy to carry around for someone who does alot of them. for me i guess i was looking for a meter that id the satellite and said g10 when i pointed at it. these meters usually have a unique transponder stored for each satellite and id with that . so for me using a receiver at the dish is just a good . but if you do a lot of installs or want a small package that tells you if you got the satellite then a meter might be for you. a meter ( some of the more expensive models) control switches , peak multiple satellites ect. this is good for DN & DTV which point several lnb (one unit)@ several satellites
so it depends on your needs.....

 

[VinceT3]

the multiple would be very helpful with the T-90 which can have as many as 16 lnbs ..

using the two on the outsides I should be able to align in probably an 1/8th of the time it would take me aiming using one sat at a time..

 

[Ramthebuffs]

For 600 bucks you can buy a laptop and do a video chat to a camera looking @ your tv screen as a meter.

 

[Bijou Media]

For a professional a meter is a must, you need to save time, and screwing around getting power, and all that good stuff is bad. For someone who is installing there own system just use a small TV, and meter, or a family radio. You can buy a cheap POS BW tv for $20-$30 which is much cheaper then a Bird dog channel Master, or Digi. Just what I would do.

 

[VinceT3]

yeah.. the tv thing is what I was doing ... small 19" tv out in the back yard w/ my coolsat 5000 attached to scan..

but gabshere hit it on the head with a multi-lnb system.. switching between several lnbs adjusting the dish a little and checking all of them again.. is well.. a pain in the ass and time consuming..

if I could see the two outside lnbs at the same time it would make it so much easier to determine if what I'm doing is right..

 

[gabshere]

there is a way to do it with a receiver & tv just by setting up a diesqc switch and make sure the lnbs are on different satellites. then just flip back and forth.... but it will not be able to display at same time. i don't know how the meters do it i just know there are several out there that do two at once ( dual) .... now weather they read and display the information at the same time is a different story ( i don't know ) an inquire to the sales dept before hand would be needed to find out if no one answers ....

 

[VinceT3]

if I were smart I'd setup 2 tvs out there and two different fta boxes..

 

[Anole]

if I were smart I'd setup 2 tvs out there and two different fta boxes..

As I was reading through this thread, I was about to say something like that!
How many of us who would consider a $400-600 meter, don't actually have multiple receivers?

For tuneup of dual LNBs where they are attached to each other and skew is a consideration, the two-meter idea has been wonderful.
By being able to peak both LNBs live, it cut down my setup time beyond belief.

Now, as to actually -spending- the $400 to 600, I can think of a whole lot other equipment I'd want first!

_____________________
Invacom SNH-031, SKY Mexico DVB321-3, Fortec 36", Mercury II, Satpros DSR500s, Twinhan 102g & StarBox

 

[Tron]

The appeal of the meters is that the whole setup is SO portable, and some of the new meters actually have a tuner with a screen! Now THAT'S neat

But not $600 neat....

 

[kcent]

I have been installing for a living for sveral years and use both my birdog and dual channel master however for the home owner wh will only be setting up once in a great while I would recomend using the tv and reciever. I have a frend that has installed for years and just bought his first meter. However if you have 600.00 to throw away buy a birdog or somthing like it.

 

[VinceT3]

Well this weekend I decided to give the dual tv idea a try..

One connected to 79 W via my coolsat, which I found with little trouble. then I moved that to my satpro so I can watch the signal while I tinkered with the next one..

I put my LNB at 16R looking for 103 W an scanned with my coolsat.. nadda..

moved it up/down.. all around.. but no 103 W.. though I did find 101 W at 8.5 R .. which seems a long way off from 16 R for 103

I sent my finding back to wave frontier.. I'm guessing someone goofed on the calculations .. Good god was that easier than 1 reciever changing lnbs a hundred times..