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12-01/2012
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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 12-01/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
Horizon HD-STM
Perfect choice for an installer who values
a practical instrument.
A Satellite and Terrestrial Meter
with a Very Practical and
Intuitive User Interface
Tune Your TV Antenna
This new signal analyzer
is bigger than the other Ho-
rizon meters we have tested
in TELE-satellite. No wonder,
the HD-STM can measure
not only satellite DVB-S/S2
signals but also DVB-T and
even the old analog TV and
FM radio signals. The green
case color gives this meter a
somewhat military look, but
fortunately its case is made
of ABS plastic, not metal, and
a fully machined Aluminum
front panel. Its weight is also
quite “civilian”. Definitely,
you will not strain your neck
when working with the HD-
STM at 2kg.
The meter sports 10 but-
tons: except for the naviga-
tion arrows and an OK button
in the middle of them, there
is an ON/OFF button and four
“soft” buttons located near
the LCD. Their function de-
pends on the current menu
and is always displayed on
the screen. The last element
on the front panel is the signal
input connector. Along with
the meter itself, Horizon pro-
vided us with a short piece of
coaxial cable with F connec-
tors on both ends, then an
F-to-IEC adapter and finally
2 pieces of 10 dB signal at-
tenuators for the 5-1000 MHz
range. The latter ones come
in very handy when measur-
ing the output of a terrestrial
antenna amplifier.
The Horizon HD-STM is also
equipped with a car lighter
type DC charger, a mains
cord with the proper plug for
your region and an USB cable.
As with every other Horizon
meter, you do not need any
external power supply unit
but connect the mains cord
directly to the meter. This is
very practical as it saves the
hassle with a separate power
supply unit, all these items
can be stored in the padded
case supplied.
When you look at the HD-
STM from the right side you
will notice: a slot for a SD
card, the USB port and a DC
power supply input to be used
with the car charger. The SD
card is to be used to log the
measurements results.
Horizon provides the User
Manual in an electronic form
– a file in PDF format on
the included CD-ROM. We
browsed through it and no-
ticed that it is very detailed
and written in a simple style
illustrated with a huge num-
ber of screen-shots. How-
ever, for the purpose of this
test, we decided not to study
it in detail but start using HD-
STM right away. In this way,
we wanted to check if the
user interface was intuitive
TEST REPORT
Combo Signal Analyzer