http://www.sadoun.net/forums en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:07:11 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.sadoun.net/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.sadoun.net/forums http://www.sadoun.net/forums/other-fta-receivers/17768-geosat-dsc-100c-compared-mercury-ii.html Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:25:45 GMT Hello all: Now that the C band setup is all aligned and working properly (for the first time), I decided to go ahead and get another receiver rather than try to run two dishes from one unit, which... Hello all:

Now that the C band setup is all aligned and working properly (for the first time), I decided to go ahead and get another receiver rather than try to run two dishes from one unit, which would have been confusing, to say the least. So, last Saturday it was another run up to Columbus to buy the current offering, the Geosat DSC-100. Here are some observations comparing it to the Mercury II.

One thing I’m picky about is blind search capability. The Merc has me spoiled- you can set three parameters (locking speed, MHz/step, FTA/scrambled or both), and watch as it scans to see where it is in the scan and what it’s picked up so far. I had a Sonicview which was terrible for blind scans- no parameters to set at all, and only a status bar for information. The Geosat is pretty good in this respect. You can get even finer steps than the Merc (down to 2 MHz/step, the Merc stops at 4), set symbol rates (as a range, or all), and polarities. In the menu leading to the search, you can do the various kinds of search (1 Tp, blind search, channel search from pre-stored Tps, etc). One thing that’s a lot different is that the Geosat starts at the highest frequency and goes down, the Merc starts at the bottom and goes up. One minus in the Geosat column is that after the scan is finished, it will save the info, and then after exiting the search menu automatically go to the last sat you were watching BEFORE the scan, not what you just scanned. That’s ridiculous and wastes a lot of time because you have to then corral the dish back to what you were just scanning. If they are far apart, it’s really irritating. The Merc stays where you just scanned, so you can exit and see your results immediately. The Geosat puts TV and radio channels in the same list, so if you go through your channels, there’s no need to go to a separate menu, which you do in the Merc, you’ll just keep going right into your radio channels and back again. I count this as a plus for the Geosat.

The signal level display is much more elaborate than the Merc, it takes up most of the screen and shows a bar graph history of the last sampling data. The beep sound, however, is atrocious- it’s incredibly loud and is not affected by the volume control on the remote. They must have thought this themselves because there’s a dedicated button on the remote to turn off the beep sound!

One big plus in the Geosat column is that it can definitely work with lower signal levels and still produce a good picture. This is especially good for C band where signal levels are generally lower to begin with. Scanning the same sat with the Merc and the Geosat produces several more watchable channels with the Geosat. Given the nature of Ku band use for news gathering and feeds which require the more agile blind scan, I use the Mercury II for that, and the Geosat is working great with the C band dish.

Overall, I give the Geosat a thumbs up, it’s a decent replacement for the Mercury.

CN ]]> Other FTA Receivers cnagorka@gmail.com http://www.sadoun.net/forums/other-fta-receivers/17768-geosat-dsc-100c-compared-mercury-ii.html