TEST REPORT Satellite Meter

Trimax SM-2200 Signal Meter

Satellite Signal Finding Made Easy
If you’re a satellite antenna installer, you want your job to be
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as easy as possible especially if you have to climb up on a roof to Arabic ‫ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/ara/trimax.pdf
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satellite spectrum analyzer up there with you but what if there was Farsi ‫ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻲ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/far/trimax.pdf
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any easier way? Trimax may have just what the doctor ordered. Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/hel/trimax.pdf
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Trimax recently introduced a Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/ita/trimax.pdf
The SM-2200 is fitted with a Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/mag/trimax.pdf
sophisticated handheld signal single male “F” input connector Mandarin 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/man/trimax.pdf
meter that should greatly sim- Dutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/ned/trimax.pdf
on the top side and a USB serial Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/pol/trimax.pdf
plify an installer’s job. Thanks to interface connector plus DC Portuguese Português www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/por/trimax.pdf
Jerry Fisher at SatMan Canada Romanian Românesc www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/rom/trimax.pdf
power port on the bottom. The Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/rus/trimax.pdf
(www.satmancanada.com) who USB connector and DC power Swedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/sve/trimax.pdf
sent us a sample, we had the Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0807/tur/trimax.pdf
port are protected from dirt
opportunity to take a closer look and moisture by rubber protec-
at this meter. At only about 1.25 tive flaps. Included in the pack- a PC cable with an RS-232 con- taking the meter out of service
LBS (0.5 Kg) and with dimen- age are an AC charger, a DC car nector on one end for a PC and a to repair or replace the female
sions of 9.5 x 15.5 x 4.5 cm, it is charger, a female-to-female “F” USB connector on the other end “F” connector. Instead, when
small and lightweight enough to connector, a black protective to plug into the meter. Lastly, the threads become damaged, it
easily carry around almost any- carrying case and convenient you’ll also find a 15-page user is a simple matter of removing
where. The internal electronics shoulder strap. Also included is manual for the SM-2200. the existing female-to-female
are surrounded by a sturdy black
“F” connector and replacing
plastic housing. The meter is
powered by a 1950mA recharge- Everyday Use it with a new one. Obviously,
the manufacturer was thinking
able Li-On battery.
When charging the meter for ahead when they came up with
the first time, the manufac- this idea.
turer recommends charging the
internal battery for at least 5 The front panel of the SM-
hours before using the meter. 2200 comes with 28 buttons to
The universal AC charger is operate the meter. These but-
rated for 90-240VAC/50-60Hz tons include a numerical keypad,
operation that, with the cor- four function buttons, four left/
rect wall outlet adapter, lets you right/up/down ring buttons sur-
use the SM-2200 almost any- rounding an “OK” button plus a
where in the world. The DC car set of buttons to access specific
charger can be used to charge points in the meter’s menu. And
the meter while on the road. let’s not forget the main power
Just plug the charger into your button. There’s also a set of
vehicles 12VDC power port and five status LEDs: a power indi-
the meter will recharge while cator, a signal lock indicator, a
enroute to your next installation 22 kHz indicator as well as 13V
job. The meter does not need to and 18V polarization indica-
be turned on while the battery tors. But, without a doubt, the
is being charged; the power LED most prominent feature on the
on the front panel will glow green front panel is the 3.5” TFT LCD
to show that charging is taking screen. Not only can you view all
place. It will turn red when the the different menu pages right
meter is fully charged. on this screen, but you can also
watch and listen to satellite TV
The satellite signal is sup- channels directly on the SM-
plied to the meter via the male 2200! This virtually guarantees
“F” connector on the top side of that the satellite you want is the
the housing. You might be won- satellite you get.
dering why the manufacturer
installed a male “F” connector Once the meter has been
and supplied a female-to-female fully charged, hold down the
“F” connector in the pack- red power button for about one
age instead of just installing a second to turn the unit on. If
female “F” connector. The idea you are turning on the meter
08
0 6 -0 7 /2 0 was that the exposed threads of for the first time or if the meter
2200
TR IM AX SM satellite
a female “F” connector were far has been reset, the registration
id ea l to ol for any more likely of becoming dam- code that comes with the pack-
An aller
system inst aged over time. In such a case, age needs to be entered. From
it would have probably involved this point on, the meter will take

46 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 06-07/2008 — www.TELE-satellite.com

 Meter with accessories

you directly to the Main Menu cal step would be to enter the LNB power completely. In the
screen every time it is turned proper antenna settings into Auto mode, the meter selects
on. Next the meter needs to the meter. From the Main Menu the proper voltage based on
be set up for the area it will be screen, scroll to Satellite Set- the polarization.
used in. From the Main Menu ting and press the OK button
screen use the arrow keys to and then scroll to Dish Set-up The antenna we want to align
scroll down to System Setting and press the OK button again. is routed through a DiSEqC
and press the OK button. If The Dish Set-up menu lets you 1.0 switch so the meter needs
the meter happens to be in TV choose a satellite and adjust to be set up for this as well.
mode, the System button on its parameters so that the From the Dish Set-up menu
the front panel can be used to meter can properly receive a we scrolled to Switch Type and
go directly to the System Set- signal from the antenna. With pressed the left/right arrow Dish set-up
ting screen. From the System the satellite name highlighted, keys until DiSEqC 1.0 was dis-
Setting screen, you can select we used the left/right arrow played to activate this function
the proper language (English keys to select Galaxy 25. We in the meter. We selected #2
or Russian), the correct TV were using a standard Ku-band under Switch Input to match
standard (NTSC, PAL, SECAM LNB on our dish with an LOF the #2 input used in our
or AUTO) and set up the timer (local oscillator frequency) of DiSEqC switch. Once these
to shut down the LCD screen 10.750 GHz. In the Dish Set-up settings were taken care of,
after a user-settable time (5, menu we scrolled to LNB Type the Exit button was pushed
10, 15 or 20 minutes). For our and used the left/right arrow and OK chosen to save the
initial test we wanted to use keys to select 10750. Other settings.
the meter to align our dish to preprogrammed LOF settings
Galaxy 25 at 97° west. So we include 5150, 9750, Universal At this point the meter is
selected English as our menu and Customized. The Custom- ready to find satellites for you. Satellite finding
language and NTSC as our TV ized setting can be used to set The day we were outside to
standard. From the System up a different LOF such as the test the meter was cloudy so
Setting screen you can also 11.250 GHz LOF used by the the video display was easy to
Factory Reset the meter and North American DTH satellite see. But, even on those bright
view the current software services. In the case of the sunny days, the included sun
loaded in the meter. Once all Universal setting, the Low LOF, screen helps make the video
the settings have been taken High LOF and 22 KHz settings image viewable. For our first
care of, the Exit button will are automatically adjusted for test, we wanted to see how easy
take you back to the Main you. The LNB power setting it would be to find the Galaxy
Menu. can be used to force the meter 25 satellite at 97° west. The
to stay at either 13V or 18V meter came preprogrammed
With the system settings regardless of what polariza- with all the transponders on
taken care of, your next logi- tion is in use or to turn off the this satellite so it was just a Angle calculation

48 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 06-07/2008 — www.TELE-satellite.com

 Info bar Main menu Edit satellites

matter of choosing which one to transponder can be started by nately, its price tag is somewhat plied car power adapter. It would
work with. From the Main Menu scrolling down to Search and higher than a standard satellite have been nice to be able to add
screen we highlighted Satellite pressing the OK button. All of receiver and this might chase new satellites and/or transpond-
Finding and pressed OK. This the active channels on the trans- some of them away. ers while in the field. Hopefully
took us to the Satellite Find- ponder were found and stored in a future software upgrade will
ing screen from which we could the meter in just under 10 sec- The long-life battery will take care of this minor incon-
select the satellite we wanted onds. By exiting out of the on- almost guarantee that you won’t venience. Overall, though, the
to look for and the transponder screen menus, the channels that run out of power in the middle Trimax SM-2200 satellite meter
we wanted to use for this task. were just stored can be viewed. of your installation and, should is a reliable tool that will reduce
If a known active transponder The up/down arrow keys can be it need a charge in the field, much of the time needed to align
is missing from the list, you can used to switch between channels simply plug it into your vehicles a satellite system. It doesn’t get
use the Satellite Finding screen or you can press the OK button cigarette lighter with the sup- much easier than this.
to edit an existing transponder to display a list of the available
and put in the missing data.
Just keep in mind that doing this
channels. The left/right keys
adjust the volume in full-screen
Expert Opinion
will overwrite the existing data mode and act as page up/down +
for that particular transponder. buttons when in Channel List Small siize, light weight, and long-life bat-
Unfortunately, it was not possi- mode. In the Channel List mode, tery makes it an ideal companion to any satellite
ble to add new transponders to the video of the current channel installer
a satellite through the meters is shown in an insert. Scrolling
menu screens; only existing
transponders could be changed.
through the list automatically
shows the video of the high-
- Ron Roessel
New transponders can only be added via soft- TELE-satellite
Adding new transponders would lighted channel. Pressing OK ware upload Test Center
USA
involve using an interface pro- again places the current video
gram made available through back into full-screen mode.
the Trimax web site (www.
trimaxmeters.com) and then The quality of the video is
uploading the new data to the actually quite good; even the

Trimax SM-2200
meter through its USB port. audio is good when you con-
We opted for the 12.115V sider that this a satellite meter!
transponder and began by Switching between channels

in Europe
rotating our 90cm antenna in takes about one second and just
the general direction of Galaxy like a standard satellite receiver,
25. In no time at all the signal an Info bar that provides some
strength and quality bar graphs basic channel information is
on the Trimax meter display momentarily displayed at the
came to life announcing that bottom of the screen. We also
we had found our target satel- tested the meter on several When we powered up the
lite. In addition to these two SCPC transponders and found meter and navigated through
bar graphs, the display on the that the Trimax had no trouble all of its menus, we quickly
meter also shows the power in dealing with these lower sym- discovered that the western
dBµV as well as the C/N and BER bolrates. hemisphere satellites were pre-
values to make fine tuning of the programmed into it by default.
antenna a piece of cake. This
information gives an installer Conclusion The test model we got was set
up for use in North and South
an extra level of precision when Its small size and light-weight America. Can the SM-2200 also
aligning an antenna that could design lets you take the Trimax be used in other parts of the
not normally be achieved using SM-2200 right up to an existing world?
the signal strength and quality or newly-installed dish antenna We turned to the manufac-
bar graphs alone. regardless of whether it hap- turer’s web site (http://www.
If you’re not exactly sure pens to be on the ground, on a trimaxmeters.com) and found
where a satellite is located in the wall or on a roof. It is easy to special versions of firmware
sky, the meter also comes with a hold in one hand and the menus that were designed for different
handy Angle Calculation tool to are quite legible on the 3.5” dis- parts of the world: 1. Asia and
point you in the right direction. play. It would make an ideal tool South Pacific, 2. Atlantic Ocean,
Simply go to the Angle Calcula- for any satellite system installer. 3. Europe, Africa and The Middle The Trimax SM-2200 used as a
tion screen from the Main Menu, There will undoubtedly be sat- East, 4. North and South Amer- small portable satellite tv
enter in your local longitude ellite hobbyists out there that ica. The latest software version
and latitude coordinates and will “have to have” this meter was higher than the one in our European satellite list included
select the satellite you want to to add to their collection; from meter (1.03 vs. 1.00). We down- satellites from 4.8° E (Sirius) to
find. The tool will calculate the their point of view, this meter is loaded the European firmware 72° E (Intelsat 4).
azimuth and elevation angles a portable satellite receiver that along with the software loader, We downloaded the manu-
needed for that satellite. they could use together with a a transponder editor tool called facturer’s satellite list to our
Once the alignment is com- small satellite dish anywhere the “Meter Tool”. The firmware PC, edited it a little bit with the
pleted, a channel scan of the they happen to be. Unfortu- update went smoothly. The “Meter Tool” by adding more sat-

50 TELE-satellite & Broadband — 06-07/2008 — www.TELE-satellite.com

ellites that can be received here which we found very useful. The
Expert Opinion
in Europe and then uploaded it
back to the meter. After setting
signal bar graphics as well as the
signal power value expressed in
+
The Trimax SM-2200 is a signal finder combined
up a test antenna in the yard, dBμV were very easy to read. with a satellite receiver. The meter has both visual
we connected the meter to see However, the signal quality per- and audible signals that can be used as feedback.
how easy it would be to align our centage values and C/N value The ability to show video is an additional plus; you
can show your customer that the antenna system
dish. Within seconds we spot- were harder to read. The last two
you just aligned is working exactly as it should.
ted ASTRA 1 (19.2° E) and then are the most important when This may help in those situations when a cus- Jacek Pawlowski
rotated the antenna to HOTBIRD trying to fine tune an antenna. It TELE-satellite
tomer is convinced that there is a problem with the Test Center
(13° E). The meter showed the would undoubtedly be helpful if antenna set up and it turns out to really be at the Poland
signal strength bar along with a future software release made receiver end.
the quality bar that we used for these values easier to read. Also -
feedback during the alignment. the C/N resolution of 1 dB might It would be nice if the manufacturer expanded the satellite list
If you get along with your be good enough to align a stand- for Europe. If the C/N resolution of the meter could be increased
neighbors, you can also listen to ard antenna that isn’t too big. to 0.1 dB, this would allow an installer to align reception systems
the special audio signal gener- However, if we want to align our that are more demanding. The meter might be easier to use if the
ated by the meter. The better the DX antenna, a C/N resolution of signal quality displays were larger (C/N and signal quality per-
signal, the faster the beeps. The 0.1 dB (or MER) would be pref- centage).
pitch of the beep stays constant erable. Once the antenna was
and it is actually quite loud. This properly aligned, we performed
is a big plus for an installer work- a typical automatic channel scan
TECHNIC
ing near a busy street and not much like in a standard satel-
DATA
necessarily in the backyard of lite receiver. The quality of the Distributor Satman Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

someone’s house. If you can do video was surprisingly good. The E-mail [email protected]
without the loud beeps, Trimax colors were much better than Tel +1-204-661-3279
included the ability to shut the in the laptop we were using to
Model Trimax SM-2200
audio off by pressing the F2 key. write this test report. Even the
We checked a few other satellites audio was quite acceptable con- Function Hand-held Satellite Signal Meter
and tested FTA and scrambled sidering this was such a small Symbolrate 2-45 Ms/sec
channels, high and low symbol unit. We really didn’t expect to DiSEqC yes, 1.0
rate (over 2 Ms/sec); the meter find such high quality in a signal
Display 3.5” TFT LCD TV screen
locked onto every signal without finder. When you start flipping
any problems. through the channels, you can’t Satellite Input male “F” connector
With the audio muted we help but think about taking it USB Interface yes
had to rely on the screen rea- with you on your next camping Internal Power Source Rechargeable 1950mA battery
douts. Trimax added a practical trip. Watching TV under a tent?
External Power Supply 90-240VAC/50-60Hz
sun shade to their carrying bag Why not?

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