1. TEST REPORT Combo Signal Analyzer
Horizon
• can be used intuitively, manual is not needed
• perfect workmanship
• optimized for the day-to-day work of an installer
HD-STM
• gives all the "Must-Have" informations an installer needs
• very accurate readings and fast reaction to signal changes
TELE-satellite Magazine
Business Voucher
www.TELE-satellite.info/12/01/horizon-HD-STM
Direct Contact to Sales Manager
76 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2012 — TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 77

2. TEST REPORT Combo Signal Analyzer
Tune Your TV Antenna
A Satellite and Terrestrial Meter
with a Very Practical and
Intuitive User Interface
This new signal analyzer tons: except for the naviga- ing the output of a terrestrial card, the USB port and a DC
is bigger than the other Ho- tion arrows and an OK button antenna amplifier. power supply input to be used
rizon meters we have tested in the middle of them, there The Horizon HD-STM is also with the car charger. The SD
in TELE-satellite. No wonder, is an ON/OFF button and four equipped with a car lighter card is to be used to log the
the HD-STM can measure “soft” buttons located near type DC charger, a mains measurements results.
not only satellite DVB-S/S2 the LCD. Their function de- cord with the proper plug for Horizon provides the User
signals but also DVB-T and pends on the current menu your region and an USB cable. Manual in an electronic form
even the old analog TV and and is always displayed on As with every other Horizon – a file in PDF format on
FM radio signals. The green the screen. The last element meter, you do not need any the included CD-ROM. We
case color gives this meter a on the front panel is the signal external power supply unit browsed through it and no-
somewhat military look, but input connector. Along with but connect the mains cord ticed that it is very detailed
fortunately its case is made the meter itself, Horizon pro- directly to the meter. This is and written in a simple style
of ABS plastic, not metal, and vided us with a short piece of very practical as it saves the illustrated with a huge num-
a fully machined Aluminum coaxial cable with F connec- hassle with a separate power ber of screen-shots. How-
front panel. Its weight is also tors on both ends, then an supply unit, all these items ever, for the purpose of this
quite “civilian”. Definitely, F-to-IEC adapter and finally can be stored in the padded test, we decided not to study
you will not strain your neck 2 pieces of 10 dB signal at- case supplied. it in detail but start using HD-
when working with the HD- tenuators for the 5-1000 MHz When you look at the HD- STM right away. In this way,
STM at 2kg. range. The latter ones come STM from the right side you we wanted to check if the
The meter sports 10 but- in very handy when measur- will notice: a slot for a SD user interface was intuitive
12-01/2012
Horizon HD-STM
Perfect choice for an installer who values
a practical instrument.
78 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

3. and self explanatory. Right the factory preprogrammed delicately tilt it and slightly When we switched the HD-
1
after the welcome screen, transponder settings are not turn it left or right to maxi- STM to the terrestrial mode,
you have three menu items: enough for you, you can add mize all the readings which it surprised us by asking in
SAT – to measure a satellite your own custom transpond- the HD-STM is presenting. which region of Poland we
signal, TERR – to measure a ers. The possibility to manu- Meter sensitivity and resolu- live and even in the vicinity
terrestrial signal and SETUP ally add more transponder tion is exactly as they should of which city. That’s because
– to configure the basic set- data when needed, without be. HD-STM measures chan- the test sample Horizon pro-
tings of the meter. Pressing turning to a PC but directly nel power with 0.1 dBµV and vided us with had been cus-
a soft key (a button near the from within the meter menu, MER and C/N with 0.1 dB res- tomized for Poland. Should
screen) you make your selec- is an important asset of the olution. it be bought in some other
tion. The very first screen in HD-STM. Simpler meters of- The HD-STM can be used country, it would be custom-
satellite mode is already a ten do not allow this option. not only in simple installa- ized with the settings suit-
measurement mode. At the If your antenna is not yet tion with a direct connection able for that region. This is
top of the screen, you can set to receive a signal, Hori- to an LNB. The meter is com- quite helpful as you do not
see the name of the satel- zon’s HD-STM can help you patible with DiSEqC switches have to memorize the chan-
lite and a signal strength too. Simply switch it to spec- and DiSEqC motors. Thanks nel numbers or frequencies
2 3 4
measurement result in two trum mode and turn and tilt to that, you can check if your
forms: bar graph and nu- your dish until you see peaks customer has a problem with 1. Main menu
merical. With the left and of signals in the spectrum. a DiSEqC device or perhaps 2. Satellite finder
right arrows, you change the Span of the shown spectrum everything is OK with the 3. Spectrum view
4. Span increased to 960 MHz
satellite until the HD-STM is is adjustable in the follow- switches and a motor but the
5. Span decreased to 120 MHz
able to lock to the signal and ing steps: 60, 120, 240, 480, receiver itself does not gen-
6. Constellation view (DVB-S2)
shows its parameters: chan- 960, 1200 MHz. Once you erate the right DiSEqC com-
7. LNB and cable test result
nel power, modulation er- maximized the peaks in the mands. The HD-STM can also 8. DiSEqC switch submenu
ror ratio (MER) or carrier to spectrum view, you return detect an open circuit and 9. DiSEqC motor submenu
noise (C/N), channel bit error to the previously described short circuit in the cable con- 10. SD card management
rate and post-Viterbi bit er- measurement screen and by necting it to the LNB. This is screen
5 6 7 switching the satellite name also a helpful function. Oper- 11. Setup menu
ror rate. You can also select a
12. Selecting a region in Poland
desired satellite from the list you identify to which satellite ating the functions described for terrestrial TV
which is displayed after you you have just directed your above is quite simple thanks 13. Selecting a city in the region
press the LIST soft key. dish. If this is not the desired to the very logical menu 14. Analog terrestrial channel
For each receivable sat- one, knowing what satellite structure. measurement
15. Digital terrestrial channel
ellite, HD-STM has at least you are receiving now gives The HD-STM can also show (DVB-T) measurement
one transponder stored in you a good hint what to do the constellation diagram for 16. Constellation of a terrestrial
its internal memory. In this with your dish: turn it east- both QPSK and 8PSK. Having signal
way, when the meter locks wards or westwards. a little experience, you can 17. Setting up power supply for
terrestrial antenna amplifiers
to the transponder, HD-STM Once your antenna is look- judge how noisy the signal is
18. Logging measurement
“knows” the satellite name. If ing at the right satellite, you just by looking at the graphs. results in the memory
8 9 10 13 14 15
11 16 17 18
12
80 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com www.TELE-satellite.com — 12-01/2012 — TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 81

4. of the DVB-T multiplexes in
different regions. However,
nothing prevents the HD-
STM to show the whole spec-
trum, channel after channel,
if you so require.
But that’s not all. It is Ho-
rizon’s policy to make vari-
ous settings for their meters
available on their web page.
You just download the most
recent settings dedicated to
our region and install them in
the meter’s internal memory.
To do this, you just need to
install a simple software that
is delivered on the included
CD-ROM. Not only terrestrial
but also satellite data is up-
dated in this way.
The HD-STM can measure
both analog and digital ter-
restrial signals. It can even
show constellation diagram
for DVB-T. Moreover, you can
configure the meter to pro-
vide DC voltage for power-
ing mast amplifier. You have
a choice of 5, 12 or 18 V DC.
The SETUP menu has quite
a number of items. Except for
typical settings like: the units
of channel power (dBµV, dBm
or dBmV) or LCD param-
eters, you can also choose
whether to measure MER or
C/N for digital satellite sig-
nals. We prefer MER as this
measurement is less depend-
ent on meter type and brand.
Choice of menu language is
presently limited to English
and French but this is rather
not a big problem as most
users all over the world are
quite familiar with the English
terms related to measure-
ment technique.
Your measurement results,
no matter satellite or terres-
trial, can be stored on a SD
card as well as downloaded
to a PC. Horizon provides the
necessary PC software on
the included CD ROM. This
is applicable not only to the
values. You can also capture
screens of spectrum or con-
stellation displays.
Summarizing the user in-
terface, we are happy to state
82 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com

5. More on This Manufacturer
Read TELE-satellite’s Company Report:
HORIZON
Signal Analyzer Manufacturer, UK www.horizonhge.com
that everybody who has just two DVB-S transponders). In
basic orientation in TV signal terrestrial mode we had one
measurements will practical- DVB-T carrier and 4 analog
ly not need the user manual. carriers available in our lo-
Perhaps. you may want to re- cation. See the charts in this
fer to the manual when cre- report. HD-STM performed
ating additional transponder quite well – its readings were
entries or to learn how the very close to the results
logging process works but shown by the other two me-
even in these cases most us- ters. In one case, our refer-
ers can do fine without the ence # 2 was unable to lock
manual. The HD-STM firm- to the signal (DVB-S 12615H
ware is really very intuitive. 9180 ks/sec from Atlantic
Our test would not be com- Bird) and it measured only
plete if we did not compare channel power but not MER.
the Horizon instrument with But HD-STM had no problem www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1111/eng/horizon.pdf
www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0801/eng/horizon.pdf
analyzers of other brands. with this signal. Good job! www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0701/eng/horizon.pdf
We selected two quite com- The HD-STM is not a fully
plex and expensive meters as fledged signal analyzer but In this way, HD-STM has eve- Workmanship of the Hori-
our references. We checked it has most of the features rything that is really relevant zon HD-STM is perfect and
the difference in satellite and and functions a satellite and for the installer to do the job it is equipped with a high ca-
terrestrial measurements. terrestrial reception system fast and easy. Of course, it pacity polymer battery. Its
Two satellites were the sourc- installers may need. Hori- can not play video and audio satellite and terrestrial per-
es of signal: HOTBIRD on 13° zon’s policy with this meter of the channel or tell you the formance leaves nothing to
East (DVB-S2 11278 V tran- clearly was: to include all bit rate of video or audio, but be desired. This is a perfect
sponder) and Atlantic Bird 3 “must have” features and to how many installers are ea- choice for an installer who
on 5° West (one DVB-S2 and forget all the “nice to have”. ger to pay for such functions? values a practical instrument.
TECHNICAL
DATA
Manufacturer Horizon Global Electronics Ltd.
Fax +44-1279-417025
E-mail sales@horizonhge.com
Web page www.horizonhge.com
Model HD-STM
Function Satellite and terrestrial antenna meter
SATELLITE:
RF Input range 950 – 2150MHz 40dBµV to 110dBµV
LNB Supply Voltages 13V Vertical 18V Horizontal (21V SCR)
LNB Short Circuit Protection 750mA maximum current limiter
Transponder memory 4000 definitions
Modulation supported QPSK, DSS, QPSK, 8PSK
Satellite Bands C, Ku and Ka
Input dynamic range -70dBm to 0dBm
Symbol rate 1Msps – 45Msps
TERRESTRIAL:
Channel bandwidth Up to 8 MHz
Frequency range 49MHz (VHF) to 861MHz (UHF)
Input levels -92dBm to -20dBm
Analogue measurements Video and Audio levels
Expert Opinion
Very intuitive user interface
Fast reaction to signal change
+ Good sensitivity and measurement resolution
Customized to your country - no useless tran-
sponder data to hack through
Data logging Jacek Pawlowski
TELE-satellite
–
Test Center
Non-compliant with DVB-T2 Poland
84 TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 12-01/2012 — www.TELE-satellite.com