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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 1 -12/2012
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www.TELE-satellite.com
relatively full-screen mode
in the center of the display
and Spectrum Wide displays
a large segment of the entire
spectrum.
Spectrum Narrow shows a
small segment of the spec-
trum around the desired
frequency. The spectrum
display is refreshed at a fast
enough rate so that it can
easily be used during the
alignment of an antenna.
It includes the FM and DAB
bands as well as the VHF and
UHF bands.
The HD-T2’s constella-
tion diagram display turns
out to be especially useful
when trying to track down
the source of interference
signals such as those that
might be generated by 4G
data connections. You can
recognize at a single glance
whether the form of the dis-
played signal is regular and
tight or if it’s a disturbed,
irregular signal display as
the result of external inter-
ference. The pictures in this
test report show a clean and
well received signal in the
constellation diagram.
We also like the fact that
the HD-T2 can also power
external antenna amplifiers
with +5V or +12V; a fea-
ture that all too many other
manufacturers forget to in-
clude but that always seems
to create an unnecessary
and avoidable problem for
installers.
The Logger function is an
absolute highlight of this
analyzer especially for those
professional users that have
to submit a report of their
work. It can optionally pro-
vide the signal measurement
values of all the active fre-
quencies and then performs
an automatic scan across
the entire VHF/UHF band
for analog, DVB-T and DVB-
T2 signals or lets the user
manually select a frequency
whose signal parameters
then end up in the HD-T2’s
memory.
With the help of special
Windows software (HD-T2
Log Reader), this informa-
tion can be transferred to
a PC where it can be saved,
exported or printed out.
And if, for example, the in-
stallation involves distribut-
ing the signal to multiple us-
ers, the installer can check
the signal levels at all the
endpoints (such as at wall
outlets) and present an Ex-
cel table as proof of his ex-
cellent work.
Professional installers will
definitely appreciate the
Slope Test function in the
HD-T2 when it comes to the
installation of more compli-
cated systems with multi-
ple users and lengthy cable
runs.
If the signal varies due to
multiple amplifiers and split-
ters or if there are longer
cable runs with less than ad-
equately shielded cable, this
could lead to a sloping signal
level within the frequency
range to be carried. That
is, higher frequency signals
could be more attenuated
and lower frequency signals
could be less attenuated ul-
timately leading to reception
problems in the higher fre-
quency ranges.
With the help of the Slope
Test function, this type of
problem can instantly be
recognized. The analyzer
utilizes the frequency plan
selected in “Choose Trans-
mitter” and displays the
signal level values of all the
frequencies in the plan next
to each other. The HD-T2
calculates the signal level
difference between the cur-
rently selected frequency
and all the other active fre-
quencies. This lets the user
see at a single glance the
extent of the signal level dif-
ference.
The pictures in this test
report show an acceptable
difference is signal level of
just a few dBµV.
Thanks to the USB inter-
face on the side of the HD-
T2, the user can easily link
the analyzer to a PC so that
new frequency lists and up-
dated firmware can be up-
loaded.
This interface can also
be used to transfer stored
Logger data back to a PC
for further processing. The
necessary drivers to estab-
lish this link are available
directly from Microsoft for
all Windows versions and in-
tegrated into the operating
system. All that’s needed is
to connect the analyzer to a
free USB port on the PC and
to allow Windows to auto-
matically find the necessary
drivers.
If for some reason the
drivers are not installed au-
tomatically, they can also be
loaded manually from the
Internet via Horizon’s web-
site
www.horizonhge.com
as
can the HD-T2 Reader soft-
ware and any new firmware.
This is especially important
since Horizon is constantly
at work further developing
their products and regular-
ly releases new versions to
An Excel table with the Logger data from our HD-T2 test analyzer