You *must* use signal meter to set-up dish!

[bill190]

Setting up a FTA dish is quite different than a pay TV dish.

I can't align a FTA dish without using a stand alone signal meter such as this one...
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/A...gnal-meter.htm

I can set-up a Pay TV dish using the signal meter on the receiver/TV, but this is a *very strong* signal and the signal is guaranteed to be "active".

The "signal meter" on a FTA *receiver* is used along with WHICH frequency you have selected. The various satellite frequencies are at lyngsat.com. Many frequencies listed on the internet for satellites will show little or NOTHING on the receiver/TV signal meter!

So if I have a specific frequency for a specific satellite selected on my receiver... My receiver will look for that frequency only!

There may be only one satellite in the sky using that frequency.

These frequencies change. Say you are using your FTA receiver to find a satellite and there is a frequency selected. This frequency may no longer be used by that satellite. It may have changed just last week. So you can point your dish right at that satellite and get nothing!

If the frequency is current and is "active", I can move my dish back and forth and find only one tiny spot in the sky where I will get a signal reading on my receiver/TV for that specific frequency.

It is like looking for a needle in a haystack when you have not yet aligned your dish. Not good...

Note the frequency needs to be "active". A satellite may have a particular frequency, but if nothing is being sent out on that frequency, my "receiver signal meter" will show little or nothing.

A signal meter like at the above link will show readings for ANY satellite. Therefore I can easily use this type of signal meter first to align my dish with all the satellites in the arc. The needle will move higher as it passes by *any* satellite. My signal meter also makes a sound as the dish passes by a satellite.

Once I have my dish aligned with all the satellites in the sky, I can then set my receiver to a specific frequency, then move my dish back and forth with the positioner to find that specific satellite. (I will find it if that frequency is "active".)

[rainman]

the little meters you speak of only have one problem they do not identify the sat so if you don't know what sat you are on makes it difficult to know where you are at in the sky.I would recommend never relying on one freq unlees you are postive it is active.all my dishes have been first aligned with the receiver then using the small meter to peak it. but to each his own whats works for one may not work for the other.

[Iceberg]

never used on of them...I use the meter in the reciever. If I dont know where I am, thats what blind scan is for