Digital Satellite Finder Meter Buying Guide (Non-Pro)

You possibly saw the technicians of the satellite television companies to use digital satellite finder meter to find the sweet spot of optimal signal strength. Made in China Cheap Digital Satellite Finders Does the Job For Home or DIY Work. Here is a Digital Satellite Finder Meter Buying Guide. The reason of need at home is for those who want periodically slightly adjust dish antenna for maximum strength, find issues before seeking professional help, use for DIY projects like satellite TV in car, simply like the thing etc. Your Set top box actually has that capability but it is probably not practical to use for the purpose.

Digital Satellite Finder Meter Buying Guide

Digital satellite finder meter or sat finder is a signal meter which is used to accurately point the satellite dishes at communications satellites in geostationary orbit. Their gold standard are meters with spectrum analysers, which are impractical to use by the most of the general population without training.

There is really not much text on whole Internet around buying satellite finder meter. We needed to buy one for our DIY project. Amazon, Ebay mostly are full with Made in China stuffs and they are more than enough and cost effective for the home users. Obviously these digital satellite finder meter also become unusable after few years of regular usage exactly like dish antenna’s receiver unit become weak with time and need minimum guidance to buy.

Cheapest possible such meters are for antenna aiming and focusing and has needle meter. It is not what you’ll probably buy.

You need the one which ideally has minimum capability to show signal strength and quality on the LCD screen together which needs to connect LNB (read satellite dish antenna) and recorder (read set top box).

Some of models are SF-372, SF-345, SF-500, SH-200HD etc. They should be suitable for all the countries with HDMI output. It is better if features are clearly written on the package. Ask the seller about support of your needed network by the device and return policy before purchasing. Online purchase is actually good now.

In India, a company named Solid (solid4you.in) manufactures them.

Digital Satellite Finder Meter Operating Guide Guide

The set top box with television usually need to be switched on. Meters in our segment usually has settings for ZIP code or latitude and longitude, in other words the user possibly need to adjust approximate geographical location. These devices automatically recognise the LNBF frequency and C, KU, KA Band satellites. There is no need to know transponder frequency and other technical matters. As next phase, the coaxial cables need to be connected between the dish TV unit set top box, switch on, select find menu, which is really easy and there are hundreds of video guides on YouTube.

You probably want to find percentage of error for kind of calibration of calculation, that is possible if you know a technician who has a professional instrument.