plowboy33
Registered: 04/27/10
Posts: 345
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Posted 12/16/10
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#1
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I have a blsa(had it working for three days now), still learning how to use it, steep learning curve, He He. Santa has said he might bring me another toy, a used commercial sprectrum analyzer, nice guy santa. Which is the best for feed hunting and ease of use a avcom psa 37d or a avcom psa 45d? I'm gonna look on ebay with a low budget(less than 500 bucks). Have seen both these units in this price range there. This hobby is gonna break the bank, He He.
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Active, Andrews 10ft solid aluminum, Ajax 180 H to H, Chaparral Bullseye II e/w Norsat 4106A’s and 8115’s Lnbs, Zinwell WB68 Switch . 1.2m Offset Channel Master e/w Powertech DG380 motor and Ivacom QPF 031 Quad Lnb. Azbox Elite, Prof 7301 and OpenboxS9. Inactive, Birdview 8 1/2ft solid aluminum, 10ft Sami. Andrews 6ft solid aluminum, Several 1.1m Primestar’s. 922 4dtv, Drake 1824
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bill68
Registered: 09/24/09
Posts: 74
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Posted 12/16/10
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#2
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I'm still wishing. It's a great toy
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AZB0X Premium HD+ , Pansat 9200HD with DVB-S2 ,CaptiveWorks 600-SW, Pansat 2500 ,9.5 foot C-Band Mesh DISHNET 200 subbed
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crackt
Registered: 05/24/09
Posts: 305
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Posted 12/16/10
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#3
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have you tried sichbopvr with your blsa ?
crackt out,.
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hunted a few BUDS in my day....
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plowboy33
Registered: 04/27/10
Posts: 345
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Posted 12/16/10
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#4
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Quote: Originally Posted by crackt
have you tried sichbopvr with your blsa ?
crackt out,.
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Active, Andrews 10ft solid aluminum, Ajax 180 H to H, Chaparral Bullseye II e/w Norsat 4106A’s and 8115’s Lnbs, Zinwell WB68 Switch . 1.2m Offset Channel Master e/w Powertech DG380 motor and Ivacom QPF 031 Quad Lnb. Azbox Elite, Prof 7301 and OpenboxS9. Inactive, Birdview 8 1/2ft solid aluminum, 10ft Sami. Andrews 6ft solid aluminum, Several 1.1m Primestar’s. 922 4dtv, Drake 1824
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cracklincrotch
Registered: 08/19/08
Posts: 198
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Posted 12/17/10
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#5
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I just bought a PSA-45D off ebay in the last week for $315. Works great. In fact, I don't know how I lived without one! 
Tweaked my dishes with it and I'm getting stuff better than ever.
Now that I have one and have used it for a bit, I figure that lining up a dish without a spectrum analyzer is like doing a four wheel alignment on your car without an alignment machine - you'll get it close, but never perfect.
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Proud to be a subscription-free household - FTA & OTA only
1M on a Sadoun DG380 HH motor at 63.5W
Canadian Satellite Antenna Systems 10.5' BUD - 31.5 to 125W, dual-ortho Chaparral w/Norsat 8515s
AzBox Elite, StarTrak 6 Analog, GBox 3000
Avcom PSA-45D Spectrum Analyzer
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plowboy33
Registered: 04/27/10
Posts: 345
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Posted 12/18/10
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#6
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Quote: Originally Posted by cracklincrotchI just bought a PSA-45D off ebay in the last week for $315. Works great. In fact, I don't know how I lived without one!
Tweaked my dishes with it and I'm getting stuff better than ever.
Now that I have one and have used it for a bit, I figure that lining up a dish without a spectrum analyzer is like doing a four wheel alignment on your car without an alignment machine - you'll get it close, but never perfect.
Yep, Those were the ones I was looking at, hadn't made up my mind to pull the trigger yet. They are low band,as you know, can you tell what the sr is with it?
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Active, Andrews 10ft solid aluminum, Ajax 180 H to H, Chaparral Bullseye II e/w Norsat 4106A’s and 8115’s Lnbs, Zinwell WB68 Switch . 1.2m Offset Channel Master e/w Powertech DG380 motor and Ivacom QPF 031 Quad Lnb. Azbox Elite, Prof 7301 and OpenboxS9. Inactive, Birdview 8 1/2ft solid aluminum, 10ft Sami. Andrews 6ft solid aluminum, Several 1.1m Primestar’s. 922 4dtv, Drake 1824
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cracklincrotch
Registered: 08/19/08
Posts: 198
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Posted 12/23/10
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#7
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I haven't had it long enough to guess transponder symbol rates. I figure with some experience with it one could make an educated guess based on how wide the transponder is.
I have played with it enough to know what an analog transponder looks like. Looks "pointy" rather than flat and wide like a digital one.
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Proud to be a subscription-free household - FTA & OTA only
1M on a Sadoun DG380 HH motor at 63.5W
Canadian Satellite Antenna Systems 10.5' BUD - 31.5 to 125W, dual-ortho Chaparral w/Norsat 8515s
AzBox Elite, StarTrak 6 Analog, GBox 3000
Avcom PSA-45D Spectrum Analyzer
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DeWitt
Registered: 10/01/07
Posts: 112
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Posted 12/23/10
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#8
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I have the Avcom PSA-37D and wouldn't swap it for a good analyzer.
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genpix
Registered: 02/26/11
Posts: 86
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Posted 06/09/12
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#9
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Just bought Avcom PSA 45D off eBay.
Playing with it. And I don't like its sensitivity.
I can see the signal only if I switch to the lowest Ref Level (-50dB, as you can see on the picture). And it shows that my signal is below -80dBm.
While I know for sure that my signal is in -45...-40 dBm range.
I can connect my own DVB-s tuner (which reports signal power in dBm) to the very same coax cable and get about -40dB on the first transponder in this spectra.
What's wrong with this picture?
or is it normal (and I simply don't understand how it works)?
tried to flip the Resolution BW switch into 100kHz.
I can not see anything on the screen (just a noise) in ALL possible positions of Tuning and Span knobs.
Is it normal?
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cracklincrotch
Registered: 08/19/08
Posts: 198
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Posted 06/09/12
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#10
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That's a lot of attenuation there.
I have a modified 6x8 powered switch that I use the 22khz side to power my LNBs. I'll only see that type of thing with my analyzer when I look at the 0khz side of the switch because the 22khz side isn't perfectly isolated from the 0khz side.
If you have any switches in-line with your LNB, try connecting the analyzer directly to the LNB and see what it does then.
You likely bought yours from the same E-Bay seller as I bought mine. I'm very happy with mine. I did change the side buttons because they were worn out and added a second battery because the first battery doesn't last long. I'd definitely buy it again.
__________________
Proud to be a subscription-free household - FTA & OTA only
1M on a Sadoun DG380 HH motor at 63.5W
Canadian Satellite Antenna Systems 10.5' BUD - 31.5 to 125W, dual-ortho Chaparral w/Norsat 8515s
AzBox Elite, StarTrak 6 Analog, GBox 3000
Avcom PSA-45D Spectrum Analyzer
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genpix
Registered: 02/26/11
Posts: 86
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Posted 06/09/12
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#11
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btw, upper half of bandstacked output is even worse (barely visible).
This signal is from the DPP44 (sat 110 is on the LNB connected to port #1, thus it's a bandstacked spectra from sat 110).
My SkyWalker-1 reports signal strength on these TPs between -45dBm and -40dBm. Similar to what Prof-7500 shows (with crazyscan) for both halves of the spectra.
The PSA-45D I received shows an ugly signal above 1500MHz. Did I receive a lemon (and yes, it's probably the same seller on eBay, he's the one who sells them in quantities): h++p://www.ebay.com/itm/110890202585
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CWDM
Registered: 11/17/11
Posts: 259
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Posted 06/09/12
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#12
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Quote: Originally Posted by genpix
btw, upper half of bandstacked output is even worse (barely visible).
This signal is from the DPP44 (sat 110 is on the LNB connected to port #1, thus it's a bandstacked spectra from sat 110).
My SkyWalker-1 reports signal strength on these TPs between -45dBm and -40dBm. Similar to what Prof-7500 shows (with crazyscan) for both halves of the spectra.
The PSA-45D I received shows an ugly signal above 1500MHz. Did I receive a lemon (and yes, it's probably the same seller on eBay, he's the one who sells them in quantities): h++p://www.ebay.com/itm/110890202585
You have the span set too wide to get a good look at everything. I try to keep my center frequency in the target zone and than open up my span setting to look at what I need to, without going to far.
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1.2-meter motorized,2 1.2-meter 103w, 72W. Manhattan 1933.AZ Mini-Me.
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genpix
Registered: 02/26/11
Posts: 86
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Posted 06/09/12
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#13
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I zoomed it out to show the entire spectra (how miserably low it is). I'm not after details in this particular picture. I just need an SA with rated sensitivity.
For comparison, here is a scan made with Prof-7500 on the same coax cable: difference is more then 40dB (!).
added:
when connected to my 1m dish, SkyWalker-1 shows -35dBm signal. But this PSA-45D connected to this 1m dish shows signal even lower then from Dish 1000 (max at -86dBm). So, what kind of details we can talk about if the displayed signal is between -88dBm (the absolute floor showed by PSA-45D) and -86dBm?
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crazycat
Registered: 03/05/11
Posts: 560
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Posted 06/09/12
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#14
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maybe PSA-45D have some setting for level correction ? or maybe input 50 omh ? 
Some time ago some man send me comparision RFLevels btw PSA-45D and TBS6925 and i make for him special build StreamReaderEx-BDA with corrected RFLookUp table for STB6100 (spectrum look like PSA-45D).
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Strong offset dish 0.95m on Powertech DG240 motor + ALPS BSTE8-751B Ku-Universal LNB.
Variant CA-902 0.95 offset dish + 3xDreamSat DS-8 Ku-Universal 13E+4.8E+4W + DiseqC 1.0.
STB: StarTrack SR-X1150CU.
PC DVB: 2 x Omicom S2 PCI (Standard with STV0903BAB and Advanced with STV0900AAC). TBS QBox-CI USB(5980), 6220 PCI-E.
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genpix
Registered: 02/26/11
Posts: 86
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Posted 06/09/12
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#15
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Quote: Originally Posted by crazycat
maybe PSA-45D have some setting for level correction ?
There is a setting in the menu to add some constant (X) to the displayed power.
According to the manual, this constant is used to compensate for known value of signal attenuation (in the coax-cable). As result, PSA-45D will display the signal in real dBm units (as if the signal is measured before the long coax-cable).
I may set X to 40dB, but what's the point? Dynamic range of what I see on the screen will still be 2dB (from -48 to -46dBm, instead of from -88 to -86dBm).
This X offset is for numerical display only. It does not affect actual gain or sensitivity of this SA.
Quote: Originally Posted by crazycator maybe input 50 omh ?
even if such setting (on/off) even existed somewhere in the menu (and it does not), it would cause about 3dB signal attenuation/gain, don't you think so?
no way it can explain 40dB signal loss (-40dB is 10,000-fold signal attenuation).
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