Technomate TM-1 Super High Gain

It can't match the bold claims but the Tecnomate still has much to offer

This is a mid-sized LNB which, as well as trumpeting its 0.dB noise figure (complete with a hologram sticker on the body), is sold on the basis of ‘super high gain’, so it should be particularly suitable for installations with a long cable run from dish to receiver or with a lossy DiSEqC motor in the cable.

However, the TM-1 does not have the highest-rated gain of the LNBs looked at here (its specification is in the middle of the range) but it did produce the equal top signal level in the tests so it certainly does produce some signal gain above the norm.

Die-cast shell

The LNB is encased in a die-cast shell, which is in turn enclosed with a plastic cover. It has a standard 40mm neck (the neck makes up half of the LNB’s main body) with a small protrusion at one end for the connector (gold-plated, no less) and a flared feedhorn mouth covered with a yellow cap.

The mouth is quite wide (60mm), which may prove troublesome if you are fitting this LNB as a secondary offset LNB for reception of satellites close together.

The TM-1 is supplied with a rubber boot that clips into the plastic housing and seals reasonably effectively against normal-sized cable (you must remember to put the boot over the end of the cable before the F-connector goes on), although both the boot and the plastic body shell have drainage holes to allow out any water that gets inside. As usual, we’d recommend that you waterproof the connector with self-amalgamating tape instead.

In tests the TM-1 did very well. Although it did not produce the least errors in the signal, it was not far behind the top performer and its signal did produce around 10 times fewer errors than the next best models. Plus, it has that high gain and an excellent signal-to-noise ratio.

PLUS
-Compact
-High gain
-Good performance
Minus
-Wide feedhorn
-Can be expensive

Build ★★★★★★★★
Setup ★★★★★★★★
Performance ★★★★★★★★★★
Features ★★★★★★★★
Value ★★★★★★★★

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