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02-03/2012
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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 02-03/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
Satcatcher Digipro C Max
More than a cable meter: includes
everything a professional installer needs
An Accurate Instrument
With Many Accessories
Accuracy is something
that every installer will
value with a signal meter
but apart from that true
professional users have
further demands on a me-
ter: the instrument should
have a bright and readable
display, and its keyboard
should be easy to oper-
TEST REPORT
Digital Cable Meter
ate. It should also offer a
wide choice of accessories
making the work simpler
and more efficient. To our
delight, the new Digipro C
Max by Satcatcher fulfills
all those requirements.
Its display is exceptionally
bright and clear, you can
operate its keyboard even
with gloves on your hands,
and the number of accesso-
ries they offer to the pro-
fessional user is really sur-
prising.
The meter can be sup-
plied packaged in two ways.
In a metal box like other
Satcatcher meters or in a
premium package with lots
of extras included. For our
test we opted for the latter
and were delighted at the
many useful accessories.
The most unusual and most
useful for an installer is a
fully adjustable vest with a
lot of pockets and straps.
It allows you not only to
transport and use the me-
ter in a convenient way but
also to keep handy all sorts
of other tools an installer
must have. Apart for the
vest, you get a plug type
power supply, a car lighter
DC charger, a neck strap
with a piece of sheep skin
fur to avoid skin irritation,
and a bad weather cover
for the meter along with
an attachable sun shade.
Everything is neatly packed
in a carrying bag so you
do not need to worry that
your meter accessories will
disappear somewhere over
time.
The workmanship of the
Digipro C Max is very good.
The enclosure is robust but
quite elegant at the same
time. Buttons are large
and clearly labeled. The
POWER button has an edg-
ing around it what guar-
antees that the meter will
not switch on accidentally
when pressed against a
solid surface. The keyboard
consists of a numeric key-
pad, quick access buttons,
navigational arrows and 4
function keys F1 - F4. The
function of these F1 – F4
buttons depends on the
particular menu or screen
you arrived at and is always
explained at the bottom of
the display window. Speak-
ing of the display, it is one
of the strongest points of
this meter. This TFT LCD It
is very bright and clear. You
will be able to read it even
outside in a very sunny day.
There is also a loudspeaker
embedded in the Digipro C
Max Professional, giving off
a significant sound volume.
The Digipro C-Max Pro-
fessional lets you either use
a pre-programmed chan-
nel band plan or you may
choose to blindscan the
whole bandwidth. The effort
you put into the initial chan-
nel band plan programming
will pay off in much quicker
measurements. To create
a band plan, you enter the
Meter Config menu and se-
lect Edit Channel item. In
this screen, you edit the
channel name (most of the
installers would probably
use the standard chan-
nel designators like: S02,
S28, K32), its kind (analog
or digital), and a number
of parameters as: frequen-
cies, modulation, symbol
rate, bandwidth. Of course
there is a different set of