Satellite meters - any good ones?

[PhilipPeake]

Does anyone have any advice on decent satellite meters?
They really seem hard to find.

I bought a Digisat Pro III thinking that it would do all that I need -- which isn't much, just set up my Dish DP for the RV, from time to time set up the home dish(es) - Dish 1000, and, of course, find satellites and set up FTA dishes.

Well, it sort of works. When it works its ok. The biggest problem is the limited life on its internal batteries. Once those are discharged its a 14 hour wait for it to re-charge. No ability to run it from an external power source.

Life is REALLY short on a Dish DP, and foget about trying to power a 3 LNB system such as Dish 1000. Their suggested workaround is to pull off the lnb, fir a normal twin, align with that then put the real lnb back... hmm...

Quality is also quite poor. The case on mine showing white stress marks on the blue where it was forced together. The holes for the various sockets etc are just hacked out of the box plastic.

Definitely not what I was expecting for $90+

One time when I connected it to the 3 lnb system, there was smoke and burning smells came from it .... it REALLY doesn't like handling that much current.

So... I started looking at the BirdDog meters. These come from the same people that do the DIGISTAT ... not a good indication to start with.

So I looked at the user manual - basically the same story, not capable of really driving a Dish 1000, and its not clear that it can run from an external power source.

I felt ripped off with the quality of the DIGISAT ... for ~$450 I would expect a LOT more - but I get the impression its the same thing with some added abilities to display signal quality and identify satellites.

So, what is there thats any better? Anything?

 

[rcdallas]

Applied Instruments Signal Level Meters

I have dual sat buddy, I recommend single.

 

[PhilipPeake]

Applied Instruments Signal Level Meters

I have dual sat buddy, I recommend single.

Want to elaborate on why you don't recommend the dual?

 

[sA :: Shaggy]

I was given a single sat buddy its the only one Ive truly used more then 5 times. I love it. The only down side to mine, is the fact that the battery is broken. thats all tho.

 

[rcdallas]

Want to elaborate on why you don't recommend the dual?

Sure...

It's a waste of money, if you know how to tune a dish there isn't a need for it.

I bought it thinking I would utilize it on say a Dish 1000, trying to balance the birds for optimal signal, I used it a couple of times and realized it's not needed. I could see the possibility of using it if the mast was not plumb to begin with (windage). Most of the time I tuned using a DP Dual, I know what the signal strength is with that meter using the DP Dual, so if I'm 5/6 on the 119, and 5/2 on the 110, there's no need to balance.

When tuning a 1000+ setup, you tune the 119 and then peak on the 118, when tuning a regular 1000 you tune the 119 and peak the 129. I haven't tuned a 1000.2 so I can't elaborate on that.

Now I recommend the sat buddy, just because I know it can take the daily abuse in the field. Mine's been dropped countless times, it's been in the rain and snow plenty... speaking of which there was a weekend where I left it in the back of my pickup in which it was rained on the entire weekend and still works to this day.

 

[PhilipPeake]

Ok - I know what you mean about not being needed for twin LNB. I (momentarily) considered buying the twin version when I bought mine, but then thought about it, and how it would probably be almost as much effort to set up the two feeds as to just flip between the two lnbs with the internal switch.

I looked at the device you mention - looks good, and it is rated to actually drive the 3 lnb setup. Also looks much better construction.

Even in its cover, I wouldn't dare to leave mine out in the rain for too long.

 

[rcdallas]

Yep, a DP Twin is nice with the ability to use the Diseq control.