A couple of the other active threads on sat dishes mention the longing for DirecTV to restore the beeps used in aiming and the use of digital meters. I am an ace in aiming a SLM3 HD dish but since my wife passed in April, I have had to resort to solo back and forth aim/look at the TV screen strength bars. The dogs are of no help. I think I want a meter.Can we have a discussion, in one thread, of pros/cons of the various meters? I use DirectTV, HD, SL-3. Thanks!!!!!

Buy a Birdog satellite meter. Using that and my Align-A-Site to get close first I can have a strong signal in about 5 minutes. Nice thing about a Birdog is that you set it for the satellite you want to lock onto, and then fine tune the antenna until you have peak signal quality. You can find them used on places like Craigslist and Ebay pretty reasonable. Or send me a PM and I will sell you mine, as I have a new one on the way.

The small inline meters are available at most electronic shops (Radio Shack) or on the internet. I don't think there is a dimes worth of difference in quality between the cheapest and most expensive. They are very easy to use and work well. You do have to make sure you zero in on the right satellite but just a casual look around at neighbors will give you an idea of the direction for your service.

We have a Accutrac III that didn't work as easily as advertised. And at the one and only time we've used it with any success in that last 4 years, we had switched back to SD receivers. We changed our Winegard Dome to a SK-3005 and are much happier with it.

The SL3 is pretty easy to align with just a cheap meter. Just peak on the 101 bird and if you have the tilt correctly set for your location you will be good to go on the 99 and 103 birds.

OldF**t wrote:The SL3 is pretty easy to align with just a cheap meter. Just peak on the 101 bird and if you have the tilt correctly set for your location you will be good to go on the 99 and 103 birds.Will a cheap meter work on a setup utilizing a SWM unit? I have tried to do so without success so I quit using it.

Digital Satellite Meter discussion | Good Sam Community

donn0128
Explorer II
Jun 05, 2013
Buy a Birdog satellite meter. Using that and my Align-A-Site to get close first I can have a strong signal in about 5 minutes. Nice thing about a Birdog is that you set it for the satellite you want to lock onto, and then fine tune the antenna until you have peak signal quality. You can find them used on places like Craigslist and Ebay pretty reasonable. Or send me a PM and I will sell you mine, as I have a new one on the way.
hershey
Explorer
Jun 05, 2013
The small inline meters are available at most electronic shops (Radio Shack) or on the internet. I don't think there is a dimes worth of difference in quality between the cheapest and most expensive.
They are very easy to use and work well. You do have to make sure you zero in on the right satellite but just a casual look around at neighbors will give you an idea of the direction for your service.
hitchup
Explorer
Jun 05, 2013
We have a Accutrac III that didn't work as easily as advertised. And at the one and only time we've used it with any success in that last 4 years, we had switched back to SD receivers.

We changed our Winegard Dome to a SK-3005 and are much happier with it.
OldF__t
Explorer
Jun 05, 2013
The SL3 is pretty easy to align with just a cheap meter. Just peak on the 101 bird and if you have the tilt correctly set for your location you will be good to go on the 99 and 103 birds.
br549
Explorer
Jun 05, 2013
OldF**t wrote:
The SL3 is pretty easy to align with just a cheap meter. Just peak on the 101 bird and if you have the tilt correctly set for your location you will be good to go on the 99 and 103 birds.

Will a cheap meter work on a setup utilizing a SWM unit? I have tried to do so without success so I quit using it.
accsys
Explorer
Jun 05, 2013
The problem with the cheap meters is they sing on any satellite and there are a lot of them up there. Like donn0128 said in the first reply said you need a meter where you can specify which satellite you are hunting for or else you are locking onto a satellite that will do you no good whatsoever.

Even if you are pretty good with a compass and think you are looking in the right portion of the sky, it is real easy with a cheap meter to try and lock on to a satellite that is a few degrees from the 101.
2oldman
Explorer II
Jun 05, 2013
Discussion from last year
mikestock
Explorer
Jun 05, 2013
No. Not without an ASL-1 or Schneid has used a 2 way SWM splitter. Another way is to use the legacy LNB to get the dish aligned and then replace it with the SWM. It sounds difficult but if you don't use the screws they are easy to swap out. This works best if you have a powered meter that can be used independently of the receiver. Mine is an Acutrac II that does this. They are available for $80 or so.
Sandia_Man
Explorer II
Jun 05, 2013
Never used a signal meter when aligning our 18" Directv SD dish and thought that it would be imperative to have one when trying to align our Slimline 5 dish as some have stated it would be quite difficult to catch all the satellites. I purchased a digital signal meter online and attempted to use it only to find that it was pinging on the wrong satellites most of the time and never used it again. What I found out is that as long as the dish is adjusted to the appropriate settings as designated by the Directv HD receiver and the mast is level, it is just as easy as aligning the 18" round dish. I just use a compass and lock on to 101 and all the other satellites come in just fine giving us all the same channels we receive at home in about 5 minutes tops.
OldF__t
Explorer
Jun 05, 2013
br549 wrote:
OldF**t wrote:
The SL3 is pretty easy to align with just a cheap meter. Just peak on the 101 bird and if you have the tilt correctly set for your location you will be good to go on the 99 and 103 birds.

Will a cheap meter work on a setup utilizing a SWM unit? I have tried to do so without success so I quit using it.

No