First Strike Meters
www.firststrikemeters.com makes a handheld digital satellite meter. It's realitively new on the market, so I decided to give a quick review for those interested. I have only been using the meter for a couple of days now. I will try to update this post/thread as I learn more.
Pros:
It works great and it's fast. I have never used a digital meter before, but I was amazed at how quickly I was able to aim a dish at a different satellite. I'm used to hauling a reciever and a small LCD tv outside and spending anywhere from 15mins to 2 hours to find what I'm looking for. Using this meter, I moved a fixed dish from 110w to 119w and my BUD from 103w to 99w in about 1-2 mins for each dish.
With this meter you enter your lat. and long. then you can select from the built in list of satellites that you can see from your location. Each satellite has one transponder listed. You can edit the LO, freq, SR, and LNB voltage and save it to 1 of 100 user saves.
It appears to be well made and comes with a AC charger, 12Volt car charger, and can even be powered / charged by a reciever. It has a back light, a rugged flexible orange "armor" and replaceable f-connectors.
Cons:
It has a usb port, but does not have any software or driver available yet. I'm hoping this get added, it would make loading a custom list of satellite transponders very easy. It might also allow for firmware updates.
You can turn the sound of the meter's signal strength off, but the meter still beeps as you push the buttons, kind of minor, but why not mute everything?
Azimuth calculation is pretty vague. It doesn't give you a compas reading instead it points seamingly one of two southernly directions. Either left or right of due south.
Overall:
I really like this meter, it gives fast readings and is easy to use. I hope this company continues to support the meter by releasing software for it. Gone are the many frustrating hours I have spent trying to aim dishes at different satellites.
Linear Mode
