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Satellite Signal Meter Recommendations


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I'm new to satellite TV and recently switched to Dish Network. I'm trying to learn how to setup and point my portable dish and have quickly figured out I need to get a signal meter. I bought one of the cheap ($15) ones, but it was junk and didn't work. I'm ready to get a "real" meter, but I'm not sure which one to get. Anyone have any recommendations for a good, easy to use signal meter?

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If you are using DPP LNBF heads (standard), then I used an Acutrac 22 Pro with a lot of success but it is discontinued.  I then used a First Strike FS-1 which identified the satellite it is connecting to.

For a Hopper 3 with hybrid DPH LNBFs, then a Super Buddy 29 meter is needed.  Very pricey but it does a tremendous job.

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I have the Hopper 3 with the hybrid LNBs.  

Over $460 is pricey.  I was looking at some of the $150-200 ones, but they all seem to be made for overseas and have little to no support.  I'm going to be setting the dish up every week so maybe I will need to bite the bullet and pay the big bucks.

Thanks

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I did a quick look at the First Strike FS-1 you mentioned, and it looks pretty nice. Only $250 on Amazon and appears to have a good support site with a lot of information. From what I read on that site, it appears it would work with my setup. Is there a reason that it won't?

 

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24 minutes ago, cshrader said:

I did a quick look at the First Strike FS-1 you mentioned, and it looks pretty nice. Only $250 on Amazon and appears to have a good support site with a lot of information. From what I read on that site, it appears it would work with my setup. Is there a reason that it won't?

According to Mark, the FS-1 doesn't work with DPH LNBs.

Like Mark, I also bought a Super Buddy 29 and never looked back.

Currently there are several Super Buddys on eBay ranging from $180 to $700.

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On 7/1/2018 at 11:43 PM, cshrader said:

From what I read on that site, it appears it would work with my setup. Is there a reason that it won't?

 

As Mark said, if you have the Hopper 3, you need a Super Buddy.  Check Craigslist and eBay.   I found mine on Craigs and paid $225.  A week or so later I saw one on eBay for under $200.

There is plenty of manufacturer support available for the Super Buddy, including software updates.  When I get home in Sept, I'll send mine in for a new battery.  That'll cost me about $100 total.  When my battery is weak, it powers down if I hit the LNB soft key.  That usually happens when I am in a hurry to set up the dish, so I've learned to charge it the day prior to moving.   

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Satlook Lite...........bought from RV4TV.COM guy in Oregon.  Best investment I ever made.  It works.  Dishpointer Pro on phone gets me in general direction, that meter locks on, asap.

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On 7/2/2018 at 8:24 AM, remoandiris said:

As Mark said, if you have the Hopper 3, you need a Super Buddy.  Check Craigslist and eBay.   I found mine on Craigs and paid $225.  A week or so later I saw one on eBay for under $200.

There is plenty of manufacturer support available for the Super Buddy, including software updates.  When I get home in Sept, I'll send mine in for a new battery.  That'll cost me about $100 total.  When my battery is weak, it powers down if I hit the LNB soft key.  That usually happens when I am in a hurry to set up the dish, so I've learned to charge it the day prior to moving.   

I have an outlet that is Inverter driven and I kept the Super Buddy 29 plugged in until I am ready to use it.  It is a real pain to run an extension cord out to the dish to aim it and it only took once to learn to keep the Super Buddy charged.

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I have DirecTV and not Dish, but does Dish have a signal meter as part of their receivers that you view on your TV screen?  DirecTV does and I use a wireless baby monitor to see this screen from outside where I am aiming.  Just aim the baby monitor camera at the TV screen and take the monitor outside.   A whole lot cheaper than any meter and works great.  Just a thought.

Ed

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All Dish receivers have a signal strength meter.  The earlier receivers (before Hopper 3) could use the signal strength meter on the receiver to aim the dish.

Normally I have a Winegard Trav'ler that seeks the satellites on its own.

What I found the first time I was setting up the tripod for my Hopper 3 was that the Hopper 3 doesn't display signal strength until the Switch Check has been passed and that doesn't happen if the satellites are not there.  And all I had at the time was the First Strike FS-1 that doesn't work with the Hybrid LNBF for the Hopper 3.

I wound up eye-balling until I got one satellite and lived with that. That took a couple of hours.  That is when I started the search for a Hybrid capable meter a nd would up with the Super Buddy 29.

What we are seeing is the evolution of technology.  In the beginning a simple volt meter (satellite meter) could be used to aim dishes when there was a one-to-one coax to LNBF connection.  Then Dish raised the game with Dish Pro Plus (DPP) when the was two signal streams down one coax cable. The simple meter still worked with DPP.  Then after a few years, DirecTV came out with SWM technology that multiplexed 8 signals on a coax and the meter technology needed to change.  Then a few more years and Dish jumped the game to 32 channels on a wire (currently using 16) using the Hybrid switches.  Applied Instruments built the Super Buddy 29 and subsequent meters to work with for Dish.

The engineering of these meters is tough and you have to deal with the incredibly limited sales market for these meters.  Outside the dish installers, the number of self-installers of Hopper 3 can probably counted on hands and feet.  It is going to be a few years before some Chinese company rips off the Applied Instruments technology like has happened to the SWM meters, if ever because of the limited market.  Even copiers need to have a market to sell to.

Dish has released the DPH-42 Switch which takes a DPP (standard) LNBF and converts it to a Hybrid.  An option is to use a DPP LNBF head on a tripod with would let you use the older meters to aim the dish and then the DPH-42 Switch would feed the Hybrid signals to the Hopper. 

Assuming you already have a Hybrid LNBF on the tripod dish, you would need to get a DPP LNBF (maybe $45) and the DPH-42 Switch ($70+) plus a meter like the FS-1 ($250) and more complex setup.  You are in the cost ballpark of a used Super Buddy 29.

Be advised, a lower cost Super Buddy 29 probably needs a battery replacement

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14 hours ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

I have an outlet that is Inverter driven and I kept the Super Buddy 29 plugged in until I am ready to use it.  It is a real pain to run an extension cord out to the dish to aim it and it only took once to learn to keep the Super Buddy charged.

Mine won't work plugged in.  Gives me a voltage fault when I hit the LNB soft key.  I think that is another tell tale sign that I need a new battery.

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3 hours ago, edatlanta said:

I have DirecTV and not Dish, but does Dish have a signal meter as part of their receivers that you view on your TV screen?  DirecTV does and I use a wireless baby monitor to see this screen from outside where I am aiming.  Just aim the baby monitor camera at the TV screen and take the monitor outside.   A whole lot cheaper than any meter and works great.  Just a thought.

x2.  

Directv brought back the signal beeps a few months ago so I don't have to use my Swift Hitch camera, around $250, but it worked great and much easier than fiddling around with those expensive meters.  The First Strike was difficult to use and had to be programmed.

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Apps will tell where there are probable holes in the trees but you sure aren't aiming with them.  The signal beam from thee satellite bounces off of the center of the dish and I have yet found a way to put the smartphone in the center of the dish and look at the screen.

If you put your faith in a compass then you never heard of Deviation, the effects of metal objects on the lines of magnetic flux.  Across the country I have observed a Deviation of 19 degrees.  Than means the compass was reading 19 degrees more the the Azimuth I wanted.  And the Deviation can be negative depending on the side of the Mississippi you are on.  If you believe the arm of the dish is the direction of the satellite signal beam, good luck.

Can you eventually focus the dish with an app that gives you an idea where the satellite is and a compass that gives you a relative place to aim, sure. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

Apps will tell where there are probable holes in the trees but you sure aren't aiming with them.  The signal beam from thee satellite bounces off of the center of the dish and I have yet found a way to put the smartphone in the center of the dish and look at the screen.

If you put your faith in a compass then you never heard of Deviation, the effects of metal objects on the lines of magnetic flux.  Across the country I have observed a Deviation of 19 degrees.  Than means the compass was reading 19 degrees more the the Azimuth I wanted.  And the Deviation can be negative depending on the side of the Mississippi you are on.  If you believe the arm of the dish is the direction of the satellite signal beam, good luck.

Can you eventually focus the dish with an app that gives you an idea where the satellite is and a compass that gives you a relative place to aim, sure. 

I've found I can get a pretty good look at what the dish actually "sees" with my phone app by standing in front of the dish with the phone held at approximately the dish center line. I do have to keep in mind though, that the focal point is only in the center of the dish for the middle LNB on a triple set, but the satellite spread shown by the app is usually pretty accurate for getting through tight holes in the trees. In my current location for instance, the Dishpointer app showed that I had a clear view of 61.5 and 72.7, but 77 would be pretty poor, and that's exactly what I saw on the diags page after a test switch finished with the dish dialed in on 72.7 with my meter. 

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Actually, unless the disk Skew is 0 degrees, the satellite data stream does not line up with the arm.  Since the dish is always set with a Skew, the signal path which bounces off the dish face at 15 degrees, is actually to the right of where the arm is pointing, the amount dependent on the Skew value.

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31 minutes ago, cpaulsen said:

I use a Birdog Meter.

With a Hybrid LNBF?  I think not and this doesn't fit the discussion

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6 minutes ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

With a Hybrid LNBF?  I think not and this doesn't fit the discussion

Been waiting for someone to notice the multiple types of dish/LNB  being thrown around. I could manually aim an old, single LNB dish in under 5 minutes. A 3 beam head takes the assistance of a meter, and the newest offerings need a better meter.

I have been wrong before, I'll probably be wrong again. 

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Yeah, Mark and Dale Bruss is correct.  You can only use the Super Buddy 29. I have tried it for hours with a bunch of different apps with no luck. I even swapped out the LNBF for an older non-hybrid one and used a cheap meter to get a signal, but once I put back on the hybrid LNBF, it didn't work. 

I'm going to buy a Super Buddy 29 and figure out how to use it. Hopefully, it isn't too hard to figure out. 

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8 hours ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

Actually, unless the disk Skew is 0 degrees, the satellite data stream does not line up with the arm.  Since the dish is always set with a Skew, the signal path which bounces off the dish face at 15 degrees, is actually to the right of where the arm is pointing, the amount dependent on the Skew value.

You're right of course, and I should have made it clear that what I line up with is the approximate signal center line to the dish center for the center LNB.

Dutch
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7 hours ago, Darryl&Rita said:

Been waiting for someone to notice the multiple types of dish/LNB  being thrown around. I could manually aim an old, single LNB dish in under 5 minutes. A 3 beam head takes the assistance of a meter, and the newest offerings need a better meter.

Wireless Baby Monitor and meter in the DirecTV receiver works for me.  I have been using DishPointerPro to find holes in the trees, an old boy scout (and I mean OLD) compass for finding the azimuth when setting my tripod, have the dish preset for elevation and skew and just aim it.  It is a slimline HD and it usually takes me mere seconds to aim once the tripod is set and the dish is on it.  I have been doing this for over 8 years now and setup is a piece of cake.  Like a lot of things you get better at it with practice.

Ed

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