I've posted before about wishing that there was a signal meter that was better than the little
SF95 thing, but didn't want to spend the money on one of the "smart" meters that identify satellites, or a spectrum analyzer. I just wanted a meter that was more sensitive than the SF95, and was affordable.
Well the closest thing to what I wanted, which was sold at
Sadoun was the Perfect Vision PVSF3, ie
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/Perfect/PVSF3.htm
however, I had no need for monitoring two lnbs at the same time, so it seemed like this was slighty more than I needed. I was hoping that Sadoun might have a single lnb version of this, but apparently not. So I did a google, and found that Channel Master sells the single version of this meter, ie the 1007IFD, which is considerably cheaper than the "Dual" meter.
I just picked up one of these meters, not at Sadoun, but perhaps Sadoun might consider stocking the single lnb version of the Perfect Vision meter in the future. Anyway, I just tried it out. I hooked it up to my 90CM dish, which was on a satellite which according to either the SF95, or the meter on my Fortec receiver, was peaked on the sat, ie doing the push up, pull down, side to side thing showed no improvement. However when I connected the 1007IFD, even a slight push/pull on the dish showed that I wasn't quite peaked. I'm not sure that this meter is any more sensitive, however it definately shows smaller increments in signal, which is what is needed for accurate alignment.
The other nice thing about this meter, is that it has a battery, and can power the lnbf without connection to the receiver, and can switch between 13V/18V, and inject a 22KHz signal as well. It also can measure the lnbf voltage and current supplied by the receiver when used in that mode. Put this on my big dish, and found that I was only getting about 15 or 16V out to the LNB through my 250' of COAX. Anyway, this is just what I've been looking for. I'm sure that the functionality of the PVSF3 is the same, however the extra cost of getting 2 meters makes it less cost effective.
Anyway, hopefully Sadoun might consider this model in the future, as I'm sure that there are a lot of people looking for a meter better than the SF95, but don't want to spend as much as the PVSF3 or other sophistocated meters.
Can't wait for a dry day to go give my dish an alignment tuneup.