Televes H45 critique thread

Huevos

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rolfw said:
My meters are in my profile, I've had several and by far the best all rounder is my Televes H45 Compact HD, but not everyone would want to pay that sort of money for a meter. My Satlook NIT is several years old now, but still does an excellent job for sat hunting, but I also require a high quality Terrestrial meter, hence the Televes.
Forgetting about price differences, if the H45 was only capable of satellite, not terrestrial, what would you choose, a Satlook NIT Color HD or the H45? Or maybe between the new Combolook HD and the H45 as is? To be honest what I'm really getting at is the difference between the spectrum functions and the usefulness of NIT.
 

rolfw

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The H45 has NIT, but it needs refining, I guess it is something which the designers didn't think was that important and probably because installers like me had no input at the design stage.

Haven't tried the Colour NIT, so not sure whether it still has the analogue spectrum and hence the real time fast sweep speed.
 

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rolfw said:
The H45 has NIT, but it needs refining, I guess it is something which the designers didn't think was that important and probably because installers like me had no input at the design stage.

Haven't tried the Colour NIT, so not sure whether it still has the analogue spectrum and hence the real time fast sweep speed.

Hi Rolfw! You said "the H45 has NIT, but it needs refining". I suppose you don't know the Satellite Identification function of this multimeter. I think this will change your mind about the usefulness of the H45 for satellite TV installations:

1. Set the Analizer mode.
2. Set Satellite band.
3. Press key 6 and then the Sat Identification function starts up (or go through the menu: Analizer-Measures-Sat Id).

In few seconds, the name of the satellite your antenna is pointed to is shown on the screen. No need to tune any concrete frequency. The multimeter does everything.

This function has been improved in some firmware version time ago. So you should update your H45 to the latest firmware version to be sure you enjoy the best performance of the meter.

_http://www.televes.com/ficheros/setup_Actualizador_H45_1.60.00000.zip

Please, try this and tell us your impressions.
 

rolfw

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I am aware of it, in fact had the meter upgraded from compact, to compact HD a couple of months ago at Televes UK. It is at present less than perfect.

Don't get me wrong, I love the meter, but my old Satlook NIT still beats it on sat recognition.
 

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rolfw said:
I am aware of it, in fact had the meter upgraded from compact, to compact HD a couple of months ago at Televes UK. It is at present less than perfect.

Don't get me wrong, I love the meter, but my old Satlook NIT still beats it on sat recognition.

I'm sure you love the meter, cause it's a pretty nice tool, but it's a pitty you use different equipment for terrestrial and satellital tv signal. I don't really understand why you don't prefer Sat. Identif. function in H45. I think it works fine, and you can see all the satellite band spectrum while you are pointing your antenna and the meter is identifying the satellite at real time. In old firmmware versions it sometimes got wrong, but now it always tells you the truth.

Let me suggest to check anyway your firmware version, cause maybe they upgraded your meter model but not its firmware.
 

rolfw

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I normally do use the H45 for everything, as for most of the satellites I can identify them from the spectrum shape. Updated the satellite tables a few nights ago and the upgrade to compact HD from Compact involved upgrading the firmware, so it will have the latest on board. Also remember that mine is the compact not the Advanced, the Advanced was too much money for the extra features it provided, although it is significantly faster.

The reason I keep the Satlook NIT is that I'm reluctant to get rid of a good meter that will not sell for much and that the spectrum on the Satlook NIT is analogue so no matter how fast you pan the dish, it still keeps pace. So I use it for motorised installations, as it will drive the dish, which the Compact HD won't (really should have this for the price) and the refresh isn't quite fast enough to keep pace with the motor movement, even if I use a seperate DiSEqC controller.
 

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rolfw said:
the spectrum on the Satlook NIT is analogue so no matter how fast you pan the dish, it still keeps pace.
Rolf, what do you mean by this? That Satlook is the one with the B&W CRT display isn't it? Do you mean it keeps the whole spectrum up to date all at once? With my Satcatcher there is no lag but the spectrum analyser does a PLL sweep so only one part part of the spectum is bang up to date.
 

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He means the full spectrum is processed and displayed in analogue form so essentially, real time.
 

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The spectrum display rate of my Satlook Combolook's CRT screen appears to be about three times per second, probably the same as Rolf's Satlook. More than enough when doing a search across the arc.

Not as fast as my old Metrix - couldn't see any discrete changes, just appeared as a continuous amplitude display (maybe because it had a smaller range to sweep).
 

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Llew said:
couldn't see any discrete changes, just appeared as a continuous amplitude display (maybe because it had a smaller range to sweep).


Yes, behaved the same as my old pro felec MC30A :)
 

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rolfw said:
I normally do use the H45 for everything, as for most of the satellites I can identify them from the spectrum shape. Updated the satellite tables a few nights ago and the upgrade to compact HD from Compact involved upgrading the firmware, so it will have the latest on board. Also remember that mine is the compact not the Advanced, the Advanced was too much money for the extra features it provided, although it is significantly faster.

The reason I keep the Satlook NIT is that I'm reluctant to get rid of a good meter that will not sell for much and that the spectrum on the Satlook NIT is analogue so no matter how fast you pan the dish, it still keeps pace. So I use it for motorised installations, as it will drive the dish, which the Compact HD won't (really should have this for the price) and the refresh isn't quite fast enough to keep pace with the motor movement, even if I use a seperate DiSEqC controller.

My H45 Advance does have Motor Control function for motorised installations. There's no solution for that if your Compact doesn't. But about the spectrum refreshing speed, I can suggest you something: Go through the menu to Analizer-Advanced Measures-Sweep. Then you can choose between Precise Sweep, Normal Sweep and Fast Sweep. If Normal Sweep is not fast enough for you while moving the dish, try with Fast Sweep. You will notice an important increment in the spectrum speed. Less precise trace, but I suppose still more precise than in analogue instruments.
 

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Haven't got the advanced measures function on the compact, so no joy, it's advanced only. :)

Would have loved to go for the advanced, but couldn't justify the additional expense for the relatively few additonal features, the motorised functions I can do with my little DiSEqC control unit..
 

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.... whilst were talking Televes, has anybody had poor service when making enquiries re: repairs etc at Televes UK ?.
I had a FSM 500 upgraded about 8 years ago and had a bit of a run-around with them at that time with poor communications etc but eventually got the work done.
Fast forward to the present day, last Thursday in fact, i sent them an email enquiry re: a service / firmware upgrade to the same meter. As of this afternoon there has been no acknowledgement to my enquiry so i decided to ring them. I was told the service engineer was busy with a customer and that they would ring me back within half an hour. Did they ....NO. Not impressed, is it just us having the poor service , praps it's time to try Promax
 

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Hi John, I had my H45 meter in for repair recently and perhaps it didn't help that it went in at the end of July, but it appears the whole of Spain closes down for the month of August (where it had to go for repair). I think Rob at Televes in Wales has too much on his plate, as return phone calls rarely come and although I asked for details on possible upgrade of the meter to full HD at the same time, nothing was forthcoming.

Anyway, I've now upgraded to a Promax as per my signature and will be selling the H45.
 
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John

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Hi John, I had my H45 meter in for repair recently and perhaps it didn't help that it went in at the end of July, but it appears the whole of Spain closes down for the month of August (where it had to go for repair). I think Rob at Televes in Wales has too much on his plate, as return phone calls rarely come and although I asked for details on possible upgrade of the meter to full HD at the same time, nothing was forthcoming.

Anyway, I've now upgraded to a Promax as per my signature and will be selling the H45.

Ah right , thanks for the reply. Yes it was Rob that should have rung back bless him .... thinking about it i think it was Rob that dealt with the 1st upgrade 8 years ago . The snag is though the FSM500 is unusable at the mo due to a unfortunate interruption of a RS232 software download that it didn't like. I think it just needs re-flashing and would hope that Rob's dept could do that. (un-less anybody knows of any recovery software/program that could be done by a third party)
 

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Apologies for OT, Spoke to Warren & Rob the other day at Televes UK re: the Televes FSM500 and yes he's still rushed off his feet. Rob's going to see if it will re-flash on his bench and not have to send it off to Spain. It should be with him today so fingers crossed.
 
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