Satellite finder meter

[streetlighter]

Looking to buy a satellite finder meter that will indentify the satellite, as in i can select Astra2 28.2 east and it will tell me when the dish is locked onto the signal.

Im in the process of sending back a Lexium fastalign because it was of poor quality and impossable to set up for me.

Im now looking at the Horizon Nanosat only downside is that its powered by the satellite reciever and has no built in power supply, i suppose no big deal in having a small FTA box on the van to power the meter.

Looking to spend less than

 

[steptoe]

seriously?

for something decent to actually identify the sat you are looking for will be way upstream of your budget.

I just use a really cheapo sat finder and when I need it a box to actually identify the sat,

mine cost me about 20quid,

for something you want I reckon it'll be close to a grand.!

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I bought one of these SLX Satellite Finder Meter | Screwfix.com many years ago. It tells you the signal strength but you dont know if you have the correct satellite. Professionals would laugh at this bit of kit but its ok for my limited needs

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 23:54 ---------- Previous post was made at 23:52 ----------

Just noticed they also stock this now Professional Satellite Meter & Compass | Screwfix.com

 

[steptoe]

mine is pretty similar,

and, IMHO,

unless you spend a LOT of cash you wont find anything much better than using one of these,

some come with a little screen etc, but they wont identify the satellite until you watch it,

either go cheap or go big,

there really doesnt seem to be much in between with these things.

 

[oldtimespark]

Hi have used four different makes of satellite meters:

Lacuna Mark 3 - (No longer being made)

Horizon HDSM USB Plus (Roughly

 

[streetlighter]

I would love one of the Horizon meters if i was doing quite a bit of satellite work then it would easily pay for itself. I have a few of the inline satellite meters that beep when your near a strong signal and this is the way i normally align a dish, ive even done it just using the inbuilt signal meter in the reciever menu moving the dish very slowly.

Today i ordered the Nanosat meter from Electricfix ive seen a few reviews of it on the net and seems to be ok for what i need. Will post a full report on it when ive given it a test run.

 

[ProDave]

I like to be different.

I use one of these 3.5" Color Digital TV Signal Sat Satellite Finder Meter | eBay

Shop around, there are several people selling them, and that may not be the cheapest. Pretty much the same thing is also available in different case designs.

As previously said, it's "just" a FTA satellite receiver in a case with a battery and LCD screen. So what?

Set it up at home and scan in all the channels from the satellite(s) you will be installing.

then on site, select a known channel from the sat you are looking for, bring up the signal display and go find the satellite.

As soon as you hit the correct satellite, you get to see the picture of the channel, and see readings for signal strength and quality.

It works for me.

Yes I know it's not a "propper" meter, and doesn't have nice things like a spectrum analyser, but for value for money it knocks spots of any other form of cheap meter.

It all depends what you are going to do. For me, just doing a satellite install once in a while it's perfect.

 

[streetlighter]

Got the Horizon Nanosat on Tuesday and after a quick software update it was outside for a test run and im impressed so far. Its simple to use powered by the LNB supply from the satellite reciever disconnect the F connector from the LNB and connect to the left hand socket on the meter and connect the patch lead supplied to the right hand of the meter and the LNB press the one big button and the meter starts up.

Comes pre loaded with Astra2A,Astra2D,Astra19.2 and Hotbird simply press the button until the desired satellite is selected. Moving the dish slowly in the approximate direction of the satellite the display has pictures of a dish with arrows that show what way to turn the dish and a signal bar graph when satellite its found the meter beeps and displays found on the display.

Only problem ive had is trying to get the data packs to downloads from the horizon website with other sat locations on like Hispa 30 degress west and turksat at 42 east they are not currently online for download but ive been told they will be avalable in January.