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a soft key (a button near the
screen) you make your se-
lection. The very first screen
in satellite mode is already a
measurement mode. At the
top of the screen, you can
see the name of the satel-
lite and a signal strength
measurement result in two
forms: bar graph and nu-
merical. With the left and
right arrows, you change the
satellite until the HD-STM is
able to lock to the signal and
shows its parameters: chan-
nel power, modulation er-
ror ratio (MER) or carrier to
noise (C/N), channel bit er-
ror rate and post-Viterbi bit
error rate. You can also se-
lect a desired satellite from
the list which is displayed
after you press the LIST soft
key.
For each receivable sat-
ellite, HD-STM has at least
one transponder stored in
its internal memory. In this
way, when the meter locks
to the transponder, HD-
STM “knows” the satellite
name. If the factory pre-
programmed transponder
settings are not enough
for you, you can add your
own custom transponders.
The possibility to manually
add more transponder data
when needed, without turn-
ing to a PC but directly from
within the meter menu, is
an important asset of the
HD-STM. Simpler meters
often do not allow this op-
tion.
If your antenna is not yet
set to receive a signal, Hori-
zon’s HD-STM can help you
too. Simply switch it to spec-
trum mode and turn and
tilt your dish until you see
peaks of signals in the spec-
trum. Span of the shown
spectrum is adjustable in
the following steps: 60, 120,
240, 480, 960, 1200 MHz.
Once you maximized the
peaks in the spectrum view,
you return to the previously
described
measurement
screen and by switching the
satellite name you identify
to which satellite you have
just directed your dish. If
this is not the desired one,
knowing what satellite you
are receiving now gives you
a good hint what to do with
your dish: turn it eastwards
or westwards.
Once your antenna is
looking at the right satel-
lite, you delicately tilt it and
slightly turn it left or right
to maximize all the read-
ings which the HD-STM is
presenting. Meter sensitiv-
ity and resolution is exactly
as they should be. HD-STM
measures channel power
with 0.1 dBµV and MER and
C/N with 0.1 dB resolution.
The HD-STM can be used
not only in simple installa-
tion with a direct connec-
tion to an LNB. The meter
is compatible with DiSEqC
switches and DiSEqC mo-
tors. Thanks to that, you
can check if your customer
has a problem with a DiS-
EqC device or perhaps
everything is OK with the
switches and a motor but
the receiver itself does not
generate the right DiSEqC
commands. The HD-STM
can also detect an open
circuit and short circuit in
the cable connecting it to
the LNB. This is also a help-
ful function. Operating the
functions described above
is quite simple thanks to the
very logical menu structure.
The HD-STM can also
show the constellation dia-
gram for both QPSK and
8PSK. Having a little expe-
rience, you can judge how
noisy the signal is just by
looking at the graphs.
When we switched the
HD-STM to the terrestrial
mode, it surprised us by
asking in which region of
Poland we live and even in
the vicinity of which city.
That’s because the test
sample Horizon provided
Download this report in
German
www.TELE-satellite.com/
TELE-satellite-1201/
deu
/horizon.pdf
us with had been custom-
ized for Poland. Should it be
bought in some other coun-
try, it would be customized
with the settings suitable
for that region. This is quite
helpful as you do not have
to memorize the channel
numbers or frequencies
of the DVB-T multiplexes
in different regions. How-
ever, nothing prevents the
HD-STM to show the whole
spectrum, channel after
channel, if you so require.
But that’s not all. It is Ho-
rizon’s policy to make vari-
ous settings for their meters
available on their web page.
You just download the most
recent settings dedicated
to our region and install
them in the meter’s inter-
nal memory. To do this, you
just need to install a simple
software that is delivered
on the included CD-ROM.
Not only terrestrial but also
satellite data is updated in
this way.
The HD-STM can measure
both analog and digital ter-
restrial signals. It can even
show constellation diagram
for DVB-T. Moreover, you
can configure the meter to
provide DC voltage for pow-
ering mast amplifier. You
have a choice of 5, 12 or 18
V DC.
The SETUP menu has
quite a number of items.
Except for typical settings
like: the units of channel
power (dBµV, dBm or dBmV)
or LCD parameters, you
can also choose whether
to measure MER or C/N for
digital satellite signals. We
prefer MER as this meas-
urement is less dependent
on meter type and brand.
Choice of menu language is
presently limited to English
and French but this is rather
not a big problem as most
users all over the world are
quite familiar with the Eng-
lish terms related to meas-
urement technique.
Your measurement re-
sults, no matter satellite or
terrestrial, can be stored on
a SD card as well as down-
loaded to a PC. Horizon
provides the necessary PC
software on the included
CD ROM. This is applicable
not only to the values. You
can also capture screens of
spectrum or constellation
displays.