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www.TELE-satellite.com —
04-05/2012 —
TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
indicates the transponder
performance in relation to
background noise. According
to Trimax, one of the upcom-
ing firmware updates for the
TM6800+ will address and
solve that issue.
All data gathered from the
constellation function can be
saved onto a connected USB
storage medium by pressing
the ‘Point’ button. If you pre-
fer the data to be stored in
the device’s internal memo-
ry you need to press ‘F4’ in-
stead. The constellation dia-
gram can be redrawn at any
time with a simple touch of
the ‘Up’ button.
After that, press the ‘Menu’
button once to move back to
the frequency/channel op-
tion and a second time to call
up the main menu again.
The next option we tested
was the ‘SAT finder’ function
and to this end we hooked
one of our 60cm offset an-
tennas to the Trimax meter.
That antenna is mounted
onto a portable pole and was
not aligned to a specific sat-
ellite at the time.
We wanted to find out what
it takes to perfectly align an
antenna with the help of the
meter and so we tested two
very different scenarios: AS-
TRA 19.2E as an example for
one of Europe’s most popu-
lar and powerful satellites,
and HISPASAT 30.0W as an
example for a satellite with
lots of DVB-S2 transponders
and a critical reception situ-
ation with a 60cm antenna,
particularly when it comes to
LNB skew.
Using the ‘SAT finder’
function is child’s play, most-
ly thanks to the pre-installed
settings list, which includes
at least one transponder for
virtually all relevant satellite
positions.
So in most cases all you
have to do is select the de-
sired satellite in the first
menu item and you can
quickly go about antenna
alignment.
The signal strength and
signal quality bars on the
display are easy to read
even from a distance, which
is an enormous aid in every-
day installation situations.
As soon as a signal is locked
the bars change their colour
from red to green and the
meter generates a sound
that changes in pitch as the
reception quality increases
(or decreases). The signal
performance is always given
in dBµV as well.
If you prefer to use a dif-
ferent transponder you can
either select it from the
settings list (if pre-stored)
or you can manually key in
the required parameters.
Once the signal is detected
and locked you can initiate a
san covering that particular
transponder only.
It does not take more than
a few minutes with the Tri-
max TM6800+ to find ASTRA
19.2E and HISPASAT 30.0W.
Using the pre-defined satel-
lite list you only need to se-
lect the corresponding sat-
ellite and then choose a Ku
band transponder.
Next, we started to slowly
move the antenna until the
meter indicated a hit with
green bars and a clearly au-
dible sound. Could we have
asked for more?
Of course it can always
happen that the same tran-
sponder configuration is
used on two different but
neighbouring satellite posi-
tions so that it makes sense
to call up a channel of the re-
quired satellite on the display
to do some cross-checking
and verification.
In case none is available on
the channel list we recom-
mend you do a transponder
search.
It is here that the NIT func-
tion of the Trimax TM6800+
comes into play and shows
its full worth. As soon as a
signal is locked the current
satellite name pops up on
the display, which means
installers know right away
which satellite the antenna
is pointing to, even if iden-
tical transponder data are
used in different positions.
We should emphasise that
the NIT feature comes by no
means as standard for most
meters and is a valuable
aid when it comes to mak-
ing sure you’ve hit the right
spot.
To call up the TV picture on
the display you need to be in
the main menu and press
the ‘Menu’ button. The me-
ter then switches to playback
mode and behaves more or
less like any ordinary satel-
lite receiver.
Using the ‘Up’ and ‘Down’
button you can zap up and
down the channel list or you
can use the numeric keypad
to select a channel number.
If you want to access the
channel list all you need to
do is press the ‘OK’ button.
The currently showing chan-
nel stays on the display in a
small window and you can
swiftly select a channel on
the list and switch to that
channel.
In case you’re wondering
whether the ‘Left’ and ‘Right’
buttons also have a dedi-
cated function in playback
mode: Use them to switch
between TV and radio recep-
tion. There is no option to
quickly jump back and for-
ward within the channel list