$66 Analog/Digital Signal Detector.

[gordon_s1942]

In my local Leading Edge store today, I saw a VHF/UHF Analog-Digital signal detector.
it had 2 antenna inputs, one for VHF, the other for UHF.
It had a line of LED's to indicate signal strength.
Now it was in a blister pack and I only briefly read the back of the package but the instructions were to attatch a suitable antenna to either input, turn it on (Battery operated) and by rotating the antenna, look for the highest reading with the LED's.
I could not see a switch to select either Analog or Digital so unless it was hidden or there was another switching means, if your like most of us in a currently dual signal area, what are you reading ???

At $66 its a toy plain and simple but as against 10 Grand for a full blown FSM, it MIGHT just do an odd job or 2.
I am curious how this works and in general what you think of it.
Being Leading Edge I dont know if its a Jarcar item or one of theirs.

[bigfella08]

Probably one of these

[MonsterMash]

Do you know if them Jaycar Digital TV strength indicators work well with separate duel (UHF and VHF) antenna's?
Also how accurate are they in fringe area's?

I know its an el cheapo toy, but its only going to be used once or twice.

Thanks.

[mtv]

They work on the same principle as sat finders, but at terrestrial frequencies.

All they do is display a level in a bar-graph form (in this case, a series of LEDs) when they detect any RF in the VHF/UHF bands, of which there will be a heap.

They cannot differentiate between analogue and digital signals as there is no decoding circuitry, nor can they tune any individual frequency, so they will get swamped with everything in the bands they cover, from about 40MHz to 900MHz.

The most important measurements for digital terrestrial TV (satellite as well) are BER (Bit Error Ratio) MER (Modulation Error Ratio) and NM (Noise Margin) these relate to the 'quality' of the received signals, not the strength. This determines the reliability of the signals. These 'meters' do not measure any of those parameters, nor would you expect them to at the price.

I'd be interested to hear any reports from people using them, as I would expect they'd be a lot less useful than the satellite version, as there's quite a bit of difference with a highly-directional satellite antenna with RF signals being spaced much further apart than terrestrial VHF/UHF signals and antennas that will pick up numerous signals, all mixed together.

[mtv]

Also how accurate are they in fringe area's?

They are not accurate at all.

They are more likely to work better where there is less RF around, so in theory, areas outside cities and major regional areas with less signals present should increase their sensitivity, but as for fringe areas, I'd guess youd just have to try it and see.

[gordon_s1942]

As the one I saw at Leading Edge had no Pass through facility, so you couldnt even attatch a small digital TV to it and use it as a monitor.
if it did, you could use it as MTV says, like a Sat finder.
Rough but it MIGHT just give you a better lock on the signal.
As we are all finding out,Location, height, Location, direction,Location is critical for any sort of Digital reception.
MTV found a 'sweet' spot for me and I marked it very carefully and a few days later I experimented by moving the antenna Left 6 feet, Right 6 feet, Up six feet.
I was using this 7 inch LCD TV from the WareHouse/Clint's/Sam's.
It only has an SD Digital tuner and the usual stab in the dark quality/signal strength bars but the Tuner seems to be quite sensative.
It will hold a signal when the Healing HD stb is pixelating.
I put the antenna right back to where MTV found the 'sweet' and THATS it !!!
Bigfella, the one in Leading Edge is a different design altogether and it claims to cover both Analog and Digital.

[Fernbay]

Probably one of these

$59 for them on Ebay with free postage

[stapla]

Has anyone got an idea on a cost effective meter that can measure digital TV signals - maybe BER too ? Something like $100 - $1500 ??

Thanks
Peter.

[MrMod]

Spectrum analyzer?

[mtv]

Has anyone got an idea on a cost effective meter that can measure digital TV signals - maybe BER too ? Something like $100 - $1500 ??

Thanks
Peter.

Peter,

I'm assuming you require a terrestrial DVB-T meter only... not satellite.

These are a reasonable entry-level meter with BER/MER



From memory, they are around $1200 but give Lavey's TV a call to confirm current pricing.

I haven't seen anything on the market that's cheaper, that is any good.

Typically, good digital meters like Unaohm start around $2.5K

[mtv]

Spectrum analyzer?

Yep... ideally, but way out of the price range stated.
eg: My Unaohm spec/an is around $10K

[WIDEMR]

For the cheaper end of the range ive used the Horizon DVB-T and yes measuures BER ect.

Pretty decent meter for the price, IIRC was around $600?

eg.

[hamguy2]

$10 us max

[hamguy2]

hi i see theyve got the satvisions here the 1 i have does satellite tv only buty it does ber etc it has a scope etc i paid$ 199usa for mine 2 years ago ,avcomm.com.au sell them for $399 there a good buy for what they do,thx hamguy2 nsw