Is the Accutrac II a good meter? - ABA DSS

rhino1616 · November 26th, 2008

I have a T90 (82, 91, 101, 110, 119). Im considering of purchasing an Accutrac II, tired of small beeper locater &/ or hauling out reciver & TV. I want to tune into some linear sats 92, 105, 123..etc. Ive read some posts but Im confused with the answers I read, some people say its awesome, othrs say its a waste (espcially tuning into linear sats). What's the real deal, will the Accutrac II really assist me is it worth the money. I would like to purchase it by the weekend if I get some decent feedback.

**creativegenius** · November 26th, 2008

Its a good meter in the $120 range. I don't think it actually tells you what SAT you've hit, like the Bird Dog unit (and others) do, but then again its not $450+ either

Creative Genius

**bigevil69** · November 26th, 2008

welcome aboard friend
everyone here is willing to help you free
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upgrade your membership and you can do that by clicking the link in my signature

i don't know about linear sats but is great for circular sats

**lonster** · November 26th, 2008

Works good for me.

bill of oz · November 26th, 2008

it is a good meter yes....it does not tell you what sat your on, but then again the meters that DO tell you what sat you are on do not work very well for linears sats (in my experience).....

they often get confused as to what satellite it is.....when i have aimed 121W or 123W the meter will always say it is locked on 119W even though i know its not.....

the only negatives i have to say about the accutrac are.....the batteries do not last very long especially when being used to power the lnbs for aiming.....and the lcd display is very difficult to see on a bright sunny day.....

now having said all this....a signal meter/finder might not help you out alot when aiming a t-90 dish....because you have so many LNBs on that dish.....

you are never going to be able to align all the lnbs 100%......you basically have to find the happy medium between them all.....

your lnbs are shooting a straight line accross the sky.....you can tilt this line with your skew adjustment.....but the satellites in the sky are not in a straight line.....the are on an "arc".....this is why you will never be able to get them all aimed 100%......

this problem is compounded if you are aiming for satellites on both sides of "the arc"....meaning some sats are east of your southern most satellite and some sats are west of it.....

its kinda like trying to fit a square block into a round hole.....

**creativegenius** · November 26th, 2008

For most looking to hit the KU birds, i.e., 82 91, 110 and 119 its a good solid meter. Splurge and get the re-chargable battery pack

Creative Genius

**arboristman** · November 26th, 2008

as for if fta is worth it or not.
there is generally no epg.you have to look things up online,and or memorize what plays often.
most are religious/ethnic etc.but there are quite a view English based locals up there in the sky on ku,plus some other cool finds.some of which you will not find on dn/bev.
to me,how can free digital tv not be worth it? take for example your case,when all you have to do is add an lnb for 123w.a little bit of time and very little money,and you have some fox/abc/mytv/rtn and other stuff that is free from any ecms that can be viewed at any time.just for the fun and experience of doing it its worth it.and you always have tv.
sure its not like allot of things you can pay for.but it is for sure way better than some of the "filler" crap the providers make you pay for with their packages by FAR.

free 100% legal tv for a few bucks that's always up with exceptions of local broadcasting probs/weather or weather on your end.how can that NOT be worth it?

and in your case,you have the dish.you have the receiver.all you need is a 10-25$ linear lnb for tv that never goes down due to ecm's.you bet buddy.happy bird hunting.

edit:
I want to tune into some linear sats 92, 105, 123..etc. Ive read some posts but Im confused with the answers I read, some people say its awesome, othrs say its a waste (espcially tuning into linear sats).

oh,i think i misread.i think you still meant the meter and not the birds here.
well good anyway.

if you ever had a doubt if true fta ku band was worth it or not least there's some more encouragement to do it lol.

bill of oz · November 26th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by arboristman

oh,i think i misread.i think you still meant the meter and not the birds here.

lol.....good post anyway.....and i agree 100%

**RagingBull** · November 26th, 2008

I agree with Bill of Oz when it comes to the meter. A couple of additions to his post. The meter has quite a bit of attenuation so if you are using the meter on your STB with it in line you may not see the signal you are looking for until you take the meter out of the circuit. One useful feature of the meter not mentioned is the ability to measure the DC signal of your STB. This can be very useful in checking your Cables and connectors as you can measure the voltage coming out of the stb and then check it again at the dish and see how much switching voltage you are dropping on the cable.

For actual tuning of the dish I still prefer to run an extra RG6 or RG59 with video connectors and an 8'' LCD display (available for $50 on ebay). The 8'' display can be velcro tie wrapped to the pole leaving your hands free to tune and the display is big enough to read the quality numbers. I have also done it with a 3" display but the resolution is not quite high enough to read the numbers but the bar graph can still be used.
For $100 the Accutrac is probaby the best in its price range. There are better meters but they are in the $500 range.
I have to admit though I don't use mine unless I suspect I have a bad cable or connection. I use a $10 cheapie analog sat meter in line with one of the LNBs and a STB video feed of the Q signal out to an 8" LCD velcroed to the pole. I have found this to be the fastest most accurate way.

**Bobby67fb** · November 26th, 2008

I bought a meter with the speedometer stlye gauge. imo its usless cause you dont know what sat your on, tried it for about 30 seconds.

bill of oz · November 26th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby67fb

I bought a meter with the speedometer stlye gauge. imo its usless cause you dont know what sat your on, tried it for about 30 seconds.

your reciever tells you what sat your on.....most satellite finders/meters are strictly for fine tuning the signal/Q.....not for actually locating a satellite

**RagingBull** · November 26th, 2008

I have to laugh sometimes. First time I ever set up a dish I went to a place like dishpointer.com plumbed my mast and set the elevation and skew as per the website. I used a $10 meter with a battery and peaked the signal. When my receiver came the next day I had a 95% tune on both sats and that was on a dish500 with DP Quad LNB.

If the dish is plumb and the elevation and skew are set you should only need to sweep back and forth and the sat will be the right one most of the time. Then just confirm on the STB. Granted you can usually fine tune a little better with the STB meter but especially for single LNB a cheapie sat meter is all you need.

rhino1616 · November 30th, 2008

pretty good advice, overall whats your opion on picking up linear sats, good or crappy?