Ikusi, the well respected RF technology brand from Spain, has sought to ensure MATV antenna, satellite and cable technicians are equipped with nothing short of one the most well featured and advanced pieces of test equipment produced to date.

When we received the new DSA-800 Professional Combined Analyser from Ikusi, it was clear that this was indeed a professional product, as the name implied.

Our testing ground was a room full of RF technicians along with up and coming Pay TV installers training for their Certificate III in Telecommunications Digital Reception Technology. Both the novices and professionals put the DSA 800 through its paces in the classroom.

What was immediately noticed is the big (6.5”) and bright colour 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD screen displaying all the information you need and more. Big real estate on this screen means that a variety of diagnostic information can be displayed simultaneously where many other RF analysers have to scroll through endless screen pages or readouts, to gain all the info required to measure an installation.

One of the issues with using any screen (apart from E-Ink) in full sunlight is reflection, or washing out of the screen. Fortunately the brightness and anti-glare TFT of the DSA 800 is assisted by a neat built-in-hood that is a part of the protective cover, making the unit’s display quite visible outside.

In this big screen world the size of the screen was appreciated, however the fact it is a touch screen concerned some of our evaluating group as they could see it getting quite possibly damaged from tools on belts, dirty fingers and the like.

There is also some question whether the supplied stylus pen is really any use, particularly in the field. Rather, many installers/technicians would take the least route of resistance and either use the ‘touch encoder wheel’ or the touch screen directly with a fingernail.

Speaking of the scroll wheel, most of the iPod savvy users in the group loved the touch encoder wheel and found it very responsive, along with the enter button making the DSA 800 very quick to navigate through menus and pages.

For many installer technicians, particularly those associated with the Pay TV industry, time is of the essence, so an RF analyser that can ‘scan’ available spectrum quickly and accurately is favoured. Within a couple button pushes from start up, the DSA 800 is lightning fast at picking up the TV images and information in the spectrum you are searching for. Quick alternate changes can be made with a tap of the touch screen to change any view out to what is required, for example ‘Span’.

The ability to touch the screen in the spectrum enables it to show the frequency at that position. This feature will be handy trying to fault find/rectify RF modulation issues for example.

Another very useful feature is the ‘echo reading’. When trying to pin point single frequency networks with different transmission towers in a similar geographical location, you will be able to see the strongest transmission displayed easily for that location you are working in. With signal strength, the most commonly used feature – a simple ‘fail’, ‘marginal’ and ‘pass’ flag is offered, but of course should there be further issues, the DSA 800 can drill down to look at the problem.

A handy memory feature is multi-faceted either running in automatic or manual modes, plus the ability to log data along the way for reporting at a later time. This may come in useful where a client maybe shown the potential problems on the ground justifying an upgrade of their RF system for example after prior testing at the antenna roof location.

However, being up on the roof or literally hanging on to a gutter as many technicians do from time to time, may present an issue with the DSA 800. It is by comparison physically larger than many other analysers on the market, plus comes in at 2.1kg so is on the heavier side of some meters.

Battery life is quoted by Ikusi at 2 to 3 hours; however we exceeded this figure, perhaps attributed to the fresh new batteries on board our sample unit. No doubt this would vary on the ‘amount and type’ of use at the time.

Apart from RF inputs, the DSA 800 also features an optional add-on for Bluetooth communications and also a built in USB input for firmware updates (the unit tested was firmware updated from Spain for Australian conditions, just prior to our testing). This sort of flexibility would be expected on a quality unit such as this. The build quality is excellent.

It should be noted that, uniquely, the Ikusi is one of the few RF analysers on the market today that features the full gamut of RF TV services offered including terrestrial analogue and DTV, Satellite TV, and the rarer Cable TV measuring capabilities. So it should do according to the testing group, with the price tag of around $10,500 this is one serious meter!

The Ikusi DSA 800 is the Swiss army knife of RF analysers, but you’ll pay Swiss prices to get it, meaning that a young Pay TV installer might struggle to afford such a unit and secondly reap the full capabilities of the DSA 800.

There is no doubting the ease of use with the DSA 800, but this is really for the big players, RF professionals who understand and would fully benefit from the information the DSA 800 can provide, and that it certainly does in glorious widescreen splendour.

Thanks to Mike Stothers and his students for helping with this review.