Well I have had this meter in my sights for some time, and mine arrived today, £65 from Amazon including delivery.
What can I say, well for the money this little meter is a no brainer bargain.
It takes all of the guesswork away from finding the Sky (Freesat) satellite, so long as you have set the Dish angle correct for your region, it is just a case of moving/panning the Dish from East to West and this little meter will burst into life to confirm you have found Astra2 with a visable TV picture.
Don't get me wrong, this meter is more of a compact satellite reciever with a built in TV screen, loaded with the same software as many FTA satellite receivers like the Comag or Aldi offerings etc.
But the main differennce is that you have a TV picture confirming that you have found the correct satellite.
I would say that this little meter is the last word in DiY satellite finding, and definatley gives my proffesional UnaOhm Spectrum Analyser Satellite meter a dam good run for the money, considering it's current day value would be close on £2k!
The meter we have had for a few years was a digital satellite meter that identified the satellite so did the same thing - i.e. not finding the wrong satellite. It makes the setting up so simple. We paid around £150 for ours at the time and doesn't have a picture. Its great to see the prices dropping.
Hi Swizz.
The SatLink in the video by the way is the older model, but pretty much the same as the one I got is model WS-6906 the only difference I can see is that the newer model although the same size has a slighly bigger screen and the LED's are differently laid out differently.
As for how you Peak the signal, that is easy as there is a signal strentgth and quality bar graph at the bottom of the image, so you can peak of that.
I can only think that the SatLink meter has some kind of automatic attenuation built in, as there is no way of adjusting that like what you can on a proffesional meter.
Fact is it does not really matter, with my Spectrum Analyser I can find a satellite with a very weak signal, but not enough signal for a satellite reciever to squeeze a picture out.
So finding a satellite, but not having enough signal is not much use, apart from it tells you that you need to install a larger dish!.
One of the things I like about the SatLink is that the Li-On Battery 8.4v 3000mAH is easy to get at and is a stock item, so will be getting a spare back up battery as soon as I can.
The main feature of the Satlink is the fact that it has a 3.5" TV screen, folk often use a meter thinking that they have got a signal, only to find that when they hook the satellite receiver up, that the no signal message is displayed on the TV.
This is often caused by either being on the wrong satellite, or the signal being to weak for the satellite receiver to work with.
Fact is that if you get a TV picture on the SatLink meter, you will find that your satellite receiver will work fine.
Like I mentioned the SatLink WS-6906 is not in fairness a professional satellite meter, SatLink do a pro model that has a much larger screen and also incorporates a Spectrum Analyser and will do both Satellite and Terrestrial, even that is a bargain at £250 but simply not needed for camping duties.
Yep David, I don't like to take my Pro satellite meters with me camping, so the Unaohm EP-805B Spectrum Analyser and my RO.VE.R. "SDM-1s" stay at home.
I take a Emitor Digisat Pro meter camping, which is a very basic DiY meter, but at around 15 years old is well over due for replacement, even back then it cost £50 so it will be kept in the toolbox as backup.
And for the money the SatLink WS-6906 was a no brainer, even for an old school satellite installer like myself, the Satlink will be so handy.
Got the spare battery coming in from China worth a punt at £15 inc shipping, whether it ever actually arrives is a gamble of course, but I have always had good results when buying from China, but of course it is their New Year at the moment which goes on untill about the 8th February, year of the Horse or somthing, so no doubt that will add to the delay.
Also it turns out the battery is a 7.4v 3000mAH Li-oN not 8.4V as stated in the handbook!, I checked inside the meter before ordering.
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Topic: Satlink Meter
