1. TEST REPORT Satellite Signal Analyzer Horizon NanoSat
Horizon NanoSat
A small but powerful
signal analyzer for the
do-it-yourself digital
satellite system
installer
The days where an offset antenna and LNB required a sizable
withdrawal from your bank account are over. The two or three
work hours that an installer needed to set up and align an
antenna system are also fading away. Today the trend is more
towards doing it yourself and thanks to more powerful DTH
(direct-to-home) satellites, this is easily possible. But there
still remains one problem: if you‘re using a cheap signal level
meter you‘ll quickly realize that while
turning the antenna, this meter will
consistently display signal peaks. As
a simply hobby installer, how are you
supposed to know which one of the
many satellites in orbit your
antenna happens to be
pointing to at that
moment?
There are several more or
less good Internet web sites
that can calculate azimuth
and elevation values for
your antenna but even that information
isn‘t as simple as it sounds. won‘t get you
In the end only a few of us very far if you
have the good fortune to want to receive the
have their desired satellite ASTRA2 satellite at 28.2°
directly to the south (to the east. Up until now many of
north if you live in the south- us resorted to using a signal the digital receiver would be to and could further adjust
ern hemisphere). For the level meter, a digital satel- connected and the different the antenna as necessary.
average European, depend- lite receiver and a satellite transponder entries would But not everyone is lucky
ing on where he lives, the transponder list. The trans- be scanned for a usable enough to be able to install
southern-most satellite ponder list was used to pre- signal. If you had a little luck their antenna on a balcony
could be EUTELSAT W3A at program the receiver with and the signal quality dis- or in a backyard; some have
7° east, EUTELSAT W2 at the transponder data of var- play on your receiver lit up, to install it on their roof.
16° east or ASTRA at 19.2° ious satellites. If the signal you now at least knew what This problem requires a dif-
east. Unfortunately, this meter identified a satellite, satellite you were pointed ferent solution.
62 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 12-01/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com

2. 12-01/2010
HORIZON NANOSAT
Ideal for the speedy alignment of
satellite antennas
■ TELE-satellite Test Editor
Thomas Haring adjusting a
90cm offset dish using the
NanoSat
Naturally, there are an lyzer that could cost as much
assortment of professional as a small used car? That‘s
signal analyzers on the doubtful, and if he did, then
market such as those we he could also afford to have
have here in our test facility, a professional installer do
but would a normal end-user the work for him. Even an
who needs to do a one-time enthusiastic RV‘er would balk
antenna alignment spend at such a large investment;
the money on such an ana- he would find other means to
www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2010 — TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine 63

3. TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/...
Download this report in other languages from the Internet:
Arabic ‫ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/ara/nanosat.pdf
Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/bid/nanosat.pdf
Bulgarian Български www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/bul/nanosat.pdf
Czech Česky www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/ces/nanosat.pdf
align his RV satellite antenna If you‘re installing a satel- German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/deu/nanosat.pdf
English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/eng/nanosat.pdf
to his desired satellite. If you lite antenna, you would also Spanish Español www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/esp/nanosat.pdf
Farsi ‫ﻓﺎﺭﺳﻲ‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/far/nanosat.pdf
look at a professional signal be running a cable from the French Français www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/fra/nanosat.pdf
Hebrew ‫עברית‬ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/heb/nanosat.pdf
analyzer a little closer, you‘d receiver to the LNB. Greek Ελληνικά www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/hel/nanosat.pdf
quickly notice that it operates Croatian Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/hrv/nanosat.pdf
Italian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/ita/nanosat.pdf
through dozens of functions Horizon was very clever Hungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/mag/nanosat.pdf
Mandarin 中文 www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/man/nanosat.pdf
that are more geared for the here: the NanoSat is Dutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/ned/nanosat.pdf
Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/pol/nanosat.pdf
professional user but are installed between the LNB Portuguese Português www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/por/nanosat.pdf
Romanian Românesc www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/rom/nanosat.pdf
otherwise not really needed and receiver inline with the Russian Русский www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/rus/nanosat.pdf
Swedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/sve/nanosat.pdf
when aligning to a DTH sat- coax cable. The cable from Turkish Türkçe www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1001/tur/nanosat.pdf
ellite. The British company the receiver is connected to Available online starting from 27 November 2009
Horizon, familiar to our read- one of the F-connectors on
ers for its innovative line of the NanoSat while the coax lyzer and one single large to first highlight some of its
signal analyzer products, cable included in the Nano- button to select the desired functional capabilities. The
recognized this problem and Sat package is connected satellite. The entire unit is NanoSat comes with internal
designed a completely new to the second F-connector protected in a very practical memory with the capacity to
signal analyzer. Its basic on the NanoSat and routed pouch that can be kept on store transponder data from
requirements were simple: to the LNB. The receiver is the analyzer since there are up to four satellites. The
it must be extremely easy to then turned on, thus supply- cutouts for the display, the NanoSat came delivered to
use, it must support the end- ing power to the NanoSat via button and the connections. us with the data from ASTRA
user as best as possible while the coax cable. The selected A detailed user manual is 19.2° east, HOTBIRD 13°
installing an antenna and it channel doesn‘t matter; the also included that clearly east, ASTRA2A 28.2° east
has to be affordable. The NanoSat can work with either and precisely describes the and ASTRA2D 28.2° east
end result was the NanoSat. 13V or 18V. functions of this new Hori- already pre-installed. The
zon signal analyzer. And to NanoSat consistently scans
Everyday Use You won‘t find an assort- make sure that the end-user for active signals from one
The NanoSat is a light- ment of buttons providing wastes no time in getting to of these four satellites. If it
weight device and at access to a multitude of fea- work, Horizon also included recognizes one of these sat-
14x9x4cm is not all that tures or operational modes, a satellite IF cable as well as ellites, it first displays arrows
big. It‘s a featherweight at and wouldn‘t you know it, a USB cable in the package. to indicate the direction to
230g thanks in large part to you really don‘t need them! Also very practical are the the desired satellite, that is,
the absence of an integrated What you will find is an easy- two protection plugs to help whether the antenna needs
power supply. No power to-read 128x64 pixel LCD prevent damage to the con- to be turned to the east or
supply? You must be asking display at the top of the ana- nectors. Before we continue to the west. The number
yourself at this point, how testing the NanoSat, we‘d like of arrows shown indicates
could this possibly work? how far the antenna is from
The answer is quite simple. the desired satellite; four
arrows represents the fur-
thest distance, three arrows
is closer, two arrows is very
close and one arrow sug-
gests the antenna is nearly
on top of the desired sat-
ellite. Once the antenna
is aligned with the proper
satellite, an audio tone can
be heard allowing the fine-
tuning of the antenna. On
the right side of the screen
are signal bar graphs; the
higher the bar graph, the
better the received signal.
If the signal strength is as
high as it will go, that is, the
64 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 12-01/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com

4. bar graph display can‘t go used an antenna with suffi-
any higher, simply tighten cient gain, we were not able
the screws and your antenna to achieve a full-scale read-
is perfectly aligned. ing on the signal quality bar
graph. There‘s a very good ■ Satellite configuration data being
For our tests we used a reason for this: Horizon has transferred from a PC to the NanoSat
Kathrein CAS90 90cm offset no idea what size antenna will
antenna. Not much effort be used with their NanoSat of Europe wants to use the ellites such as TURKSAT 42°
was needed to connect the meter so if it gave a full-scale NanoSat or what if some- east, THOR 1° west, SIRIUS
signal analyzer to the LNB display above a certain MER, one wants to align their 5° east or EUTELSAT W3A
and receiver. We loosened then with a larger antenna it antenna to some other sat- 7° east. Thanks to the USB
several mounting screws would be nearly impossible ellite? Horizon included a interface, the NanoSat can
and started adjusting the to find the optimal antenna USB interface in the Nanosat be used anywhere in the
antenna. It was quite clear position. Instead, the Nano- exactly for this reason. With world and can be repro-
that for us here in Vienna Sat adjusts itself based on the help of the included USB grammed by the user as
the southernmost satellite the measured MER and the cable, the NanoSat can be often as needed.
was Eutelsat W2 at 16° east signal level and reduces the linked with a PC. Software
and that we could very easily signal quality display cor- containing configuration We here at TELE-satel-
find the very popular ASTRA respondingly. So the goal data from various regions lite were quite impressed
19.2° east. But we wanted when tuning the antenna is can be downloaded from with Horizon‘s NanoSat. It
to approach this task as not to get a full-scale read- the manufacturer‘s website. is small, handy and simpli-
would a beginner and began ing on the meter but to get By the time the NanoSat is fies the alignment of a sat-
to adjust the antenna arbi- the highest possible read- introduced to the market, ellite antenna for beginners
trarily. ing and adjust the antenna preprogrammed settings as well as for professionals.
accordingly. for the Americas, Asia, Aus- It is also perfect for use in
We set up ASTRA 19.2° tralia, Africa, etc. will be aligning RV antennas. It was
east on the signal analyzer The user manual also available. Also being worked never this easy to quickly
as the desired satellite and describes the fine adjust- on is configuration data for and precisely align a satel-
then started to move the ment of the antenna very other popular European sat- lite antenna!
antenna. The user manual clearly. As soon as the cor-
recommended adjusting the
elevation setting to roughly
rect satellite is identified,
the user is instructed to
Expert Opinion
5-10° below what the actual move the antenna just far +
antenna elevation angle enough to the east and west Small, handy, completely reliable and easily
should be. We then began until the signal is lost. The expandable thanks to the USB interface. Measure-
moving the antenna from point in between these east ments were correct and even with a professional
east to west or vice versa. and west limits is the optimal signal meter there was no noticeable improve-
Thomas Haring
After each movement from azimuth setting. The same ment in the signal. Its lightweight 230g made it TELE-satellite
Test Center
one side to the other, the procedure is used for eleva- especially easy to handle. Austria
elevation was slightly raised tion and LNB skew.
and the antenna movement -
repeated. To our surprise, After this first triumph, we None
the NanoSat meter using this wanted to make sure and
method showed quite clearly try it again. This time we
that we had passed HOTBIRD switched the NanoSat to the TECHNICAL
13° east and that we had to ASTRA2A 28.2° east position DATA
Manufacturer Horizon Global Electronics Ltd., Unit 3,
move the antenna to the east and managed to also find
West Side Flex Meadow Harlow, Essex, CM19 5SR,
to find ASTRA 19.2°. this satellite in no time at all. United Kingdom
It became clear that even a Tel +44 (0) 1279 417005
The displayed arrows professional signal analyzer Fax +44 (0) 1279 417025
were quite helpful and over used in this special appli- Web www.horizonhge.com
just a short period of time cation would not do much Email sales@horizonhge.com
fewer and fewer arrows better for us. We adjusted Model NanoSat
were shown until the audio the antenna in both cases Function Handheld Satellite Meter for fast and easy Dish Alignment
tone came on indicating with a professional signal Frequency range 950~2150 MHz
we had found ASTRA 19.2° meter and could not notice- Reception Mode DVB-S
east. We quickly fine-tuned ably improve the signal. Items included Carry case, USB cable, Sat-IF cable, 2 protective barrels,
the antenna and discovered Satellite region packs download via Internet
something very interest- Naturally, the next ques- Dimensions 140x90x40mm
ing: Even though ASTRA is a tion that comes to mind is Weight 0.23kg
very strong satellite and we this: what if a user outside Display 128x64 Pixel LCD
66 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 12-01/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com