Well I haven't tuned or built many dishes in my 23yrs working cable, maybe 20 or so and a few dual feed upgrades to existing birds real pita to peak 4 lnbs and get good signal on all transponders. I was taught to use a tv and a volt ohm meter on the receiver. Worked great back when there was free to airs on most c-band birds and thats all I was ever taught. A few years later I'm given the helm due to attrition and nobody wanted the job,I really didn't neither but it was really a no choice deal at the time. Anyway these days there are no fta left and things just seemed to get harder and harder to actually identify what bird your actually on imo. Then came the dual feeds, stupid idea if you ask me, at best its a compromise. In the last 6 or 7 years with all the encryption changes and such the birddog looked like it may save me considerable frustration and it has. I hit amc 18 today after going back in with a calmer frame of mind and a little tweaking whamo locked on and no doubt about the bird so I didn't look STUPID when it came time to authorize. So yeah I think they're worth the dough if your gonna have to mess with tuning in these new birds. I know there are other ways to do it and if I did it more often I'm sure I'd become more proficient. If anyone cares yes the birddog will "find" on amc18 .
This is CABL.com posting #215757. Tiny Link: cabl.co/m4h7
