So what is available for the avid satellite DXer to buy now?

The New Wave 9000 covered so far.

Huth, a German satellite receiver producer have available the Huth 4060 DP V which advertises an auto symbol rate function. As of yet I have failed to get a hold of one of these receivers to test.

However, I have tested the Humax 5400, which boasts a search system of a kind. The Humax menu offers you several different satellites, each with a set list of symbol rates, to which you can add four further symbol rates of your own choosing. The receiver is then set off in its search mode.

It will search all of the symbol rates you inserted using every value of forward error correction. For example, a symbol rate of 5632 will be checked against every possible forward error correction ratio.It will then go to the next symbol rate and do likewise, and so on through the symbol rate list.

It will do this every 6MHz!

At this point it is worth reminding you that both polarities of the signal, Vertical and Horizontal have to be searched too. If you consider the KU Band spectrum, which runs from 10.700GHz to 12.750GHz, this process, checking through some 16 Symbol rates each with five different forward error correction ratios, can take a long, long, time.

I searched the Satellite NSS K at 21.5 degrees west, using the longest list of symbol rates already hard stored in the receiver, and four of my own choice. The receiver was set to search at 0800 Hrs and at the same time next day was still searching. In fact the procedure took some 36 Hours to complete. UGH!

One of the problems is that you cannot set the frequency search parameters that need to be searched. NSS K visible frequency spectrum here to the United Kingdom is 11.450GHz to 11.750GHz, and also12.500GHz to 12.750GHz. The Humax insists on searching from 10.700GHz to 12.750GHz complete. So a lot of wasted searching takes place. In fairness the system is designed to search the likes of the Astra 1 Series of satellites and HotBirds. This is a very poor and wasteful way of DXing. DXing can be likened to fishing, you only get a bite when the fish are there, or frequencies are in use.

The Humax IRCI 5400 produces good video and audio, but its menu system and the way it stores downloaded channels is derisory. Again this receiver fails to delineate by satellite, and you have to really work hard to sort the channels into the five favourite channels categories. The reason for the Humax IRCI 5400 satellite receiver being popular is definitely not for its setting up, but because it's on board Irdeto Cam (Decryption device) can be hacked to also decrypt the Viaccess and SECA encryption systems! And with cards arriving on the scene with massive memories, it has huge potential for the pirating trade.

What the whole thing comes back too, is that to DX an auto symbol rate receiver is an essential item.

New Wave 9000 receiver review

I have been assessing the New Wave 9000 receiver.

I blew the New Wave 9000 up!

It, as I write, is still with them up in Sterling, and I rather suspect that the excellent Pat McGrorty at RSD will have seen it by now. Basically it is the same receiver as the RSD ODM 302, but in a different case. The only change is that the CAM access is now on the front instead of the rear as with the RSDs. The answer given by RSD for the CAM access on the rear, was for me, a sound one, and that is... it stopped little fingers nicking it to play with. Pain in the backside otherwise, especially when installed in a cabinet. The only thing I could fault the receiver with is as follows...

1. It only gives you the frequency that you enter, it does not, (as does the Nokia) adjust to the correct frequency.

2. SRs are constantly incorrect, (RSD as well), 6111 appearing as 6117, 5632 = 5640, 6666 =6671, 13333 = 13343, 27500 = 27531, but you soon get used to that and learn to adjust.

3. It is very lenient with the symbol rate. By this I mean, and this harps back to the previous paragraph, take for example on W 2 you have two, close by, TPs. One that occurs as 6666, the other 6400, if you are not careful it will jump the void and 6400 transmission will arise on the 6666 frequency and visa versa. The only way around this is to enter the FEC and store it. Like wise with 5700 and 5632.

4. The 9000 we had did not like the NTSC signals. It was this that brought about its demise. Every time I struck an NTSC signal, the receiver crashed. It was through being distracted that I accidentally left the receiver on an NTSC signal, as I said this causes the receiver to crash and then reboot itself. It obviously got fed up with doing this and died. I was only away from it for some 2 minutes!

5. Recovering from the menu is a chore; there is no quick way out. No matter how many buttons you have pressed to get in, you have to do that many presses to get out.

6. It is possible that this receiver has a slightly improved threshold.

7. The latest software is more stable. This improved from 2/11 onwards.

8. When zapping channels, the receiver has tendency to jump the odd channel now and again.

9. Channel recovery is very slow compared with some receivers today.

10. Using the ASIUS search does not reveal all TPs on the principal Astra 1 and Hotbirds.

11. The good news is I have a data base of over 1500 feeds that I am prepared to send to anyone who can load their receiver by computer. These cover the birds in the KU Band from 45 East to 45 West.

12. More good news is that it will hold a grand total of 3,999 SCPC or 3999 channels of any kind.

Basically you can store as many channels as there are TPs, making it an excellent feed hunter.

13. This version does not support a conventional positioner.

Where many other manufacturers obfuscate on TP Memory, RSD and New Wave are honest. Manufacturers give you how many channels, but are loath to tell you how many TPs are available to achieve that amount. I remember the early day Humaxs and Nokias proclaiming great channel figures, (They still do it today). The early Humax only having 100 TPs, you soon filled the thing up on Astra 1 and Hotbird alone! To that end I have asked the glossies to publish TP availability on receivers they test. Telesatellite International is still halfhearted about it, and "Wot Sat", well need I say more.

Thoughts on the Dreambox

I have not seen the Dreambox yet - but have read deeply about it. My first observations are, if you cannot find a SR and FEC with it, then no matter how sophisticated and wonderful the glossies make it, is just another entertainment receiver.

I derive from the written word that the reason for not incorporating a total search, in other words searching a complete bird for all that is present upon it, is the time this would take to carry out. But this is a sad case of spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

Surely a limited search facility such as RSD/New Wave/Nokia carry out, would then make this a correctly named Dreambox. Until such time the Dream needs reconsidering.

However, it has the makings, regardless of early bugs, of being an excellent "entertainment" receiver. The Hackers, who cream themselves over the mediocre, dreadful Humax receivers will have a field day with this. To that end, I think it will bring about the demise of many encryption systems, resulting in nearly everything going to Videoguard, or something of that sophisticated ilk.

One wonders if we really want such an extensive channel memory?

I know by experience with over 200 feed channels on the RSD ODM 302 stored on W 1 alone, how long it can take to zap through that bird. I have a database on my computer that records, at this moment in time, nearly 500 feeds, just on this bird alone. By the time you get to end of the bird, something has been missed somewhere. It's the age-old case of just how much info do you want at any one time.

As a feed hunter I think the money would be better spent on a spectrum analyser, which I hasten to add, I do not use.

But the Dreambox's expansion appears limitless, and of course its upgrade ability means that it will not need replacing until the electronics die. Looking at that statement again, all that you may need is component replacement.

Maybe satellites will go this way in the not so distant future. A shuttle type craft will fly around them, refuelling them, updating circuitry by board replacement, etc. The options become limitless. At the moment I reserve judgement until I can get my hands on one and give it an "Honest" review and not a glossy.

I read in an antipodean satellite magazine that Nokia were going to re-issue the Nokia 9500s, but with double the previous models memory. If you remember back to those early days, I think it was Bentley Walker who did this to those that they sold, bringing the wrath of Nokia upon them, and, of course, voiding the warranty!

We still need a decent DXing receiver. Maybe a computer-based board is the answer, or an off computer one that can be very closely allied to a computer. I am sure there is someone out there who can write a programme to use all the attributes of a computer and make a satellite receiver work properly for DX purposes.

A report by Roy Carman [10 December 2002].