Dsam tips needed

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Hello all ive been cruising around here for a while but first time poster. Well finally after 3 months of being on order (and stuck at the mexico border) my Dsam 3300 finally arrives. I've been using a Rhode&Schwartz fsh6. I watched most of the tutorials and read the little quick start. The only thing i don't have on it is the home cert, sweepless sweep and reverse align. of course i told our Inventory manager to order it with home cert but i got docsis 3.0 option instead of home cert which hopefully i can get added in short order. Was just wondering if anyone had any quick tips or anything i should know about the meter. Thanks in advance.

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Im sure you will have more questions as you use it but what in general were you looking for? I think its  a great meter, a HUGE step up from the 2600s. Battery life and start up is great, ease of use is there.


For tracking BER issues I suggest using the DQI test as opposed to just checking the QAM.

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My contribution would be to make sure your channel plan is accurately built. All digital channels should be set to the proper modulation, all DOCSIS channel set as such, etc.
Use all 12 spots on your tilt and miniscan screens, to get a full picture of the flatness of your signal.

Make sure you have good quality coax jumpers and keep the connections tight. Avoid using pushons for anything other than quick level checks. DQI, ingress tests, etc must be done with snugly threaded connections.

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Avoid using pushons for anything other than quick level checks. DQI, ingress tests, etc must be done with snugly threaded connections.

I'm sure many will scowl at me for saying this but I don't agree with the "don't use push-on" statement. I've been using push-ons on my meters for 12+ years and have yet to get bogus readings. I have had to replace the push-on a few times over the years but as long as you make sure it's in good shape you should be OK. Will you get a more reliable/guaranteed connection with a threaded connector? Yes. But in my opinion 99.9% of the time a push-on will be fine.

But definitely make sure you have your channel plans set correctly & use all 12 points in the scans as mentioned before.

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Avoid using pushons for anything other than quick level checks. DQI, ingress tests, etc must be done with snugly threaded connections.

I'm sure many will scowl at me for saying this but I don't agree with the "don't use push-on" statement. I've been using push-ons on my meters for 12+ years and have yet to get bogus readings. I have had to replace the push-on a few times over the years but as long as you make sure it's in good shape you should be OK. Will you get a more reliable/guaranteed connection with a threaded connector? Yes. But in my opinion 99.9% of the time a push-on will be fine.

But definitely make sure you have your channel plans set correctly & use all 12 points in the scans as mentioned before.

The main reason I say that is for running DQI or other impairment-sensitive tests. The high frequency OTA signals present today will get thru almost any shield weakenesses. We have hi-level 4G-LTE signals up close to the cell sites, and DQI/MER on channels 116 and 117 will look bad thru a push-on at a ground block, where threading the fitting will result in good MER.

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Avoid using pushons for anything other than quick level checks. DQI, ingress tests, etc must be done with snugly threaded connections.

I'm sure many will scowl at me for saying this but I don't agree with the "don't use push-on" statement. I've been using push-ons on my meters for 12+ years and have yet to get bogus readings. I have had to replace the push-on a few times over the years but as long as you make sure it's in good shape you should be OK. Will you get a more reliable/guaranteed connection with a threaded connector? Yes. But in my opinion 99.9% of the time a push-on will be fine.

But definitely make sure you have your channel plans set correctly & use all 12 points in the scans as mentioned before.

The main reason I say that is for running DQI or other impairment-sensitive tests. The high frequency OTA signals present today will get thru almost any shield weakenesses. We have hi-level 4G-LTE signals up close to the cell sites, and DQI/MER on channels 116 and 117 will look bad thru a push-on at a ground block, where threading the fitting will result in good MER.

+1

I have had the push on mess up DQI.

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thanks guys thats the kind of stuff i was looking for. I appreciate it.