Satellite Meters

[gabshere]

I've seen several people talk about them but no reviews
i know some here have the Birddog, i know several sponsors sell them.
i don't do everyday installs just tinker and usually just use the tv as a tuner but it would be handy to use a meter. i think i would like the sat id feature , i see some have this feature . the Birdog , Sathawk & Super Buddy those might be a little over kill for me . but you don't even see a review on those..

or and i didn't read about them (so maybe they have sat id) these seem to be easy to use and more in my range or use and expense for hobby. anyone got one or want to do a review. sure would like to read one with pros & cons for us backyard dish pointers. also i figured the ones listed above were software updateable and the ones below weren't.

Sat Buddy
Sat Buddy 2
Dual Buddy
Acutrac22 pro
Accutrac III
DigiAir

thanks for your input.

 

[Technojunky]

Don't spend any money on any of that stuff. I had the Bird dog, but it has major flaws in the way it works. I soon realized that there is nothing better than a compass, and a good grasp of the concept. I take my receiver outside with a 7" LCD monitor. I get the dish in the right direction with a compass, then fine tune it with the signal meter on the receiver setup screen. You might get a few wrong birds at first, but you will soon learn to aim your dish with your eyes closed.

 

[flatlander37]

By way of introduction I am a new member who knows absolutely nothing about FTA. We live high in the mountains of Co. and can only receive TV via satallite. We spend the winters in Mazatlan Mexico.
I am also a Bronco football fan and enjoy NASCAR racing. Would we be able to receive any of these sports with consistancy via FTA?
Do most of you out there also have subscription services like Dish or Direct?
I would also like to know if reception in Mexico is a possibility.
Thanks

 

[Treecutter]

Sorry for hijacking but I cant seem to start a new thread

Ok this is the deal I just got a satvision sf-3000e meter..Now I have read the manual but I cant seem to get the meter to work right .When i go in to easy find set up ...and I tell the meter what bird I want ...It will show me that i have locked on the bird ..lets say Im looking for 110 and I am realy on 119 its will tell me that im locked on 110 ... but ..I know that im locked on 119 but the meterscale will say ok your on 110 ,but its not giving me positive id .. I have played with this meter all night up on the roof... I even point it to 101 bird just to have ot say your locked on 110...I have read that this meter gives positive id .. But I cant get it to work right ...If any 1 can give a bit of insight on this ..I be very great full Cuz right Now im feeling like a big time ...lol

 

[vfrjim]

I use a Satlook 3 , very basic meter, but works great. If you can get it at a good price, it is well worth it. It does not identify a sat but you know if you are on one without a doubt then blindscan with a receiver and you identify it.

 

[updatelee]

I own a dual analog meter, a birdog, and have on permenent loan, a satlook NIT. all work indipendant of the ird (battery pack), which is often very handy.

dual analog meters are great for field work, they have alot of really usefull debuging abilities. dual meters are nice if your doing any dish500 installs or torodial installs as you can aim the two outside lnb's at the same time. for adjusting skew. also if you turn them off and slave them to an ird the meter will tell you the voltage the ird is sending, this helps determine voltage drop issues, you can also tell the current draw, this helps determine funny things like pinched or stapled coax, water corrosion, etc. they also show you if the 22kz is present or not, handy for starchoice lnb's and others.

the birdog is handy for quick and acurate installs, people often say they identify the satellite their on, not really though, it tells you signal strength and if and only if your on the satellite your birdog is set to then it will show you pq or ber, the ber is pretty acurate and you can really fine tune a dish. birdog can not control 22khz though, but it can control diseqc switchs. its limited though by what birdog.tv thinks the sat looks like, so if your birdog is not 100% current then you might be on the right sat, but it wont lock. you have not control over the tp, you just have to hope birdog.tv is picking an active one. it has no diagnostic abilities at all. birdog also only works with dvb, no analog or dgII locking.

the satlook nit is the cats a** its amazing. it can control 22khz, disrwc, even a diseqc v1.2 motor ! it shows you the entire spectrum of what its seeing, it lets you take pictures of the sats you like so you can easily identify them later on another install. its handy too becayse you can overlay a known satellite and instantly see new tps pop up from wildfeeds. it lets you move the marker over the tp and it will even do its best to determin the name of the channel on that tp, the symbol rate and fec as well. it has an analog tuner built in as well.

because you can see the entire spectrum you can acuratly tweak your skew on linear, as you can see the V tps starting to pop up out of the noise floor when you skew the H to far.

when youve got two satellites close together you can also see how the two are bleeding into each other if your dish is too small (smaller dish larger the focal point, larger dish the better isolation between satellites) sometimes you may have great signal, but if there is another satelllite close by using the same tp your quality may be low because the other satellite is bleeding in, spectrum analyzers are the only way to determine this accuratly.