Field crews have relied on Gourmet Entertaining's family of site survey and disn alignment tools for over a decade. The Sat-Site provides a simple means of ascertaining an unobstructed view to the satellite arc prior to dish installation. Arc-Sets assist in dish tracking, feed centering and correcting pointing errors with existing installations. Individual Sat-Sets are ideal for setting the look angle on fixed dishes.
Gourmet Entertaining has recently introduced a new signal level instrument to complements its family of Arc-Set tools. Traditionally, most devices designed for monitoring signal strength at the LNB output include an audio tone and/or meter, and require constant adjustments to compensate for various signal levels. In addition, they don't always stand up well to field use and abuse.
Labeled the Spectrum Analy"zzz"er and affectionately dubbed "The Canary" by Gourmet Entertaining's owner Jim Roberts, the yellow instrument "sings" (generates an audio tone) to guide the user in peaking signals. It electronically adapts to a wide range or signal levels without need for adjustments. In fact, there are no knobs, switches or buttons.
The Canary resonds to varyuing signal levels by changing its tone both in volume and pitch when connected between the LNB and receiver or other power source. For those who prefer to visualize a digital reading or needle movement, there are two jacks that permit the connection of a multi-meter. You can measure either DC voltage (0 to 3 volts) or DC current 0 to 2mA). When the meter is connected and set to monitor current, it mutes the Canary's raather loud song. We found the muting feature to be quite useful when making receiver adjustments inside the home.
Appropriately, the Canary is painted bright yellow. This makes it easier to find when dropped in snow or tall grass. It's also a tough little bird. Shock-resistant circuit components are mounted inside a durable metal enclosure about the size of a cigarette pack. The Canary can survive a concrete landing from a 10-foot ladder without singing the blues.
Sensitivity is very good and more than sufficient for peaking today's smaller C-band dishes operating in a two-degree environment. It performs equally well on Primestar and the Digital Satellite System. The audio volume and tone responds very quickly to minute changes in dish position.
Users will apreciate the Canary's small size, ease of operation and versatility. Unlike many signal level meters, you can use the Canary connected to the receiver inside the home to accurately program polarity and satellite locations. In addition, it can prove useful in troubleshooting. For example, the Canary will sing a song whenver LNB voltage from the receiver is detected. Therefore it can be used to find cable faults between the receiver and LNB, or even tell you when no voltage is present at the receiver's IF input.