6200 channels and nothings on

[pappapump]

Reading the link, and what a nice link it is!
Yeah, where i live loads of people want to ditch their cable, and all other pay tv setups. a lot of them have gone back to antenna.
Most just want some Tv to watch and having all those cool FTA stations would be perfect.
A lot of our customers have very little interest in any type of premium channels and most are using basic cable.
So, while this may not be for everybody, It definitely has piqued a lot of interest for many of our customers who visit regularly and are waiting along with me for this sat to be set up properly and VIEW whats out there before they buy. I was hoping to beat Christmas with all of this, but thats just not doable now.
Theres always Tax season!
Whats a barker channel?
And, no thanx, i have radio for music, and TV for sat lmao!

 

[voomvoom]

Whats a barker channel?

A barker channel is a channel that lets you know what satellite you're on. They are mainly found on DBS satellites or "New" satellites.
pappapump, have you seen this site:
http://www.lyngsat.com/
Go there and click on America (61w-160w), then click on a satellite (such as IA6 @ 93w) and see what's available for FTA. Just remember 4 digit #'s are for C-band and 5 digit #'s are for ku-band.

Al

 

[pappapump]

Yes, I got lyngsat my first week.
Thats what made me decide to try FTA.
OK, so here I am at work today.
I applied all the settings I was given including icebergs 10750 for linear.

My specs are, Coolsat Pro 4000,SG-2100 diseqc, h-h motor, Invacom Quad Polar LNB with 40mm horn,Weingart 30 inch dish, and a technostat T-S777 diseqc 4X1 switch. My TV is a RCA XL-100. My motor is mounted on the pole which came with the weingart Dish and is mounted on the side of our building.
My location specs are, lat 30 deg, 13.140'n, long 93 deg, 21.834'w. Zip 70663

There is only 1 question I have left to ask.
When I look for my TS sat, am I supposed to be on 0 with the motor, or do I set TS AFTER I enter my Location in the motorized menu?
My software on the coolsat says Telstar 6 is my 93 deg TS,

 

[Mr Tony]

poppa pump

Here is another (easier to read) list fo the stuff on KU band
http://www.global-cm.net/MPEGlistKuBandUS.html

as noted above, a barker channel is either a channel with a still picture to let you know you're on the satellite or I call the preview type chanenls on Dish/ExpressVu "Barker channels" (channels that play a loop of something)

the motor ashould be at 0. Since you have a true true south (IA6 at 93W) you leave the motor at 0 and aim that way.

The Coolsat might still call the satellite by its old name, Telstar 6. I know my 5000 does that

 

[pappapump]

Yes, Mine does that too.
Hey, since you also have the coolsat, do you think I should flash the box with a new factory patch?
I don't know if you read about my blind scan problem, or my possessed motor swinging al the way east, but it's annoying.
Either way, I'm going to use the Box that the fta guys send me when I start again. Turns out that with the settings you guys gave me that the side of the bldg im mounted on is wrong. My far west axis bangs the wall at about 120 or less.
Ok, then according to what u said, I set the motor correctly.
I'll need to raise a pole now since I have some friendly trees facing me now.

 

[Mr Tony]

If the box is new, see if the new software is actually an update. Some boxes are getting shipped with the newest software

 

[pappapump]

I'ts supposed to be new, but I saw some stuff that looked wierd when I pressed the blue button on the remote.
Factory reset didn't clear it either.
Wow according to that link you sent, My ts sat have very little to see.
93.0 West IA-6 (Intelsat Americas 6)
FEEDS
H-11836 1086 3/4 07.179 1160 1120 CLASSIC ARTS SHOWCASE
V-11865 1115 2/3 03.516 0308 0256 UNIVERSITY NETWORK
I hope i can get at least one of those after I fine tune.

 

[Mr Tony]

11865 V 3516 is University Network (Dr Gene Scott)

Very strong signal

another one is 11710 V 14320
CBS feeds

 

[pappapump]

Perfect.
Im welding a temporary pole on a 4 leg setup now.

 

[pappapump]

Well, locking in my TS sat was a bust because of this huge pine tree which, as it happens is sitting right on my 93 deg.
But since you people have pretty much given me a fairly complete understanding of HOW all this works, I was able to use my far left and far right satellite to view some stations.
Yes, TRUE fta stations. It's amazing what happens when you change that frequency.
I got to watch some wierd japanese stuff.
I only got 5 or so viewable channels off the nimq2,3 g something sat but its the first sign of progress we ever had.
I left blind scan running with the preselected sats that showed signal when I left today.
I finished that temporary mounting pole. I'm pleased to report, that its ugly tall and usable.
Oh, Iceberg, I get what the single and universal lnb selection is, but whats the ocs selection for?

 

[Tron]

Tron, the mounting bracket on the weingart is too close.
It clamps right on the bent arm on the rotor, with a bolt that fits exactly through both the clamp and the rotor pole, leaving me nearly no room to set elevation.
Should I buy a different model of dish?

I've used that same dish in New Orleans on an SG-2100 motor with no problems, so something must be off... Can you take some pics of the setup so we can see if everything is installed properly?

 

[Mr Tony]

poppa

I really don't know what OCS is for...I know it has something to do with C-Band

 

[pappapump]

Well, I can take the photos, but I can see one thing for sure that I did wrong.
I used to install dish networks and direct tv and when I started we used the bolts to set elevation, and the BOLTS were the markers.
Don't know how they do it now though
ANYWAY, I have been using the bolt head as my elevation marker this WHOLE time!
It was just by pure dumb luck that I took a real close look at the grid and saw that itty bitty ARROW!
For cryin out loud why didnt they paint it red or something?
I've been sitting on 25deg elevation the whole time!
But the good news is, today was a great sucess since I properly locked on the sat with lawyer TV.
I took the tip about the barker channels and since I was on a sat (105) which HAS one, I was able to determine which direction to go.
SOOOOOOOOO I locked in on 30 ele, went backwards to the next good signal very slowly and it was next in line going backwards.
It wasn't clear, but it was there.
I zeroed it in and did a blind scan to see if i had the right one and there it was.
Thanx to Icebergs channel guide I was able to match the programs to the sat.
Thats where it sits right now, tomorrow I'll try again since I'm almost lined up.
Another wierd thing is that even with my compass I had just plain old south wrong somehow.
Now the dish is pointing 45 degrees counter clockwise from where I had it b4.
So now when I lock a sat NOW, its the RIGHT one.
Telsat 6 is still proving to be a bit of a pain to get locked in right but I'm very close. From what I can tell Im at or between amc-4 and Ia-5 right now.
The signal meter helps a lot since I can hear it squeal no matter where I am.
Ok, heres another thing that may have caused my sat motor tracking to drop out, let me know if im wrong on this.
Some of my sats were manual setting and some were usals.
When I set em all to usals and single the problem went away when I selected all Sats for Blind scan.
What do ya think?

 

[pappapump]

By the way tron, how close to me are you?
Sounds like you have close to what I have with your setup.
I took the dish off the bldg and put it on a pretty solid iron pole made from hi-lift car jack stands and a engine hoist center frame.
Funny thing is, when I set it on the gravel it moved a lot, then I put it on our slanted driveway and the stoopid thing was true as a medeval knight!
Plumb BOTH ways, and I hadn't even adjusted it yet.
Some things just amaze me.

Whoa! you want pictures? look at yeahwhynots post.
His 4th picture from the left is exactly like my setup.
Here is the shortcut to the photo.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=6380&d=1134930337

See how you can't move the elev on the dish itself very far?

 

[pappapump]

Hmmm, now I have 3 channels, wgno,onn and vyvx educational programming.
All 3 are very clear and i have about a 70 on signal.
I don't see how this is possible though since wgno is listed on a sat at 74 deg.
The only thing that comes to mind is my elevation settings again.
The motor is set to 30 deg dead on, but what about the dish itself?
I saw someone say somewhere that the setting should be 20 something.
But if the angle is already set on the motor by the bent pole, then shouldn't the dish mount be exactly parallel to the motors mounting pole?
If I had no motor the mounting pole would be straight up and down.
The latitude would be set on the dish bracket itself.
Even in the 0 position the pole is at an angle on the motor, so I already have an angle set that I have no control of.
I am trying to make sense of all this with the motor and getting nowhere.
The installing a motor guide uses a motor that doesnt look like mine so that doesn't help a lot.
So lets say im on the IA-6 sat, my angle on the motor is set to 30 deg, and I should be getting a signal.
Turn that around and use the same settings on a non-motor setup, my dish is still supposed to be set to 30 deg right?
But how is that possible when the motor adds to that angle?
I tried the dish at 30 deg with no motor to begin with before I bought one from the satguys, and the dish was pointed much lower when mounted.
I write this, hoping you can see why the angle thing makes no sense to me unless the motor pole is straight up and down just like a regular non-motor mounting pole.

 

[Katrinasucks]

>Another wierd thing is that even with my compass I had just plain old south wrong somehow.

Um... PP... Didn't you say it was attached to a steel building? ;-)

 

[pappapump]

It was, then I moved it to the steel pole I mentioned earlier.
No matter where I stand in the yard the compass changes a few degrees.
I just finished an hour ago, and it seems that I managed to lock in that 93 deg satellite.
It's not the most perfect signal, but the blind scan started at the first Sat in the list and Immediately started picking up stations. First time that sat ever got anything.
I left it on blind scan and locked up for the night.
I'm going back tomorrow to see what I got.
Another thing I don't understand is why I need to set the TS sat to 0 on the motor before I usals my dish.
If I do that, when the dish swings to the coordinates it'll always be slghtly off.
If I understand correctly, the TS satellite of course has to lock on as good as possible with the motor set to 0.
But when I move on to the next Sat it will change settings, then when I come back to the TS sat it will always be slightly off.

 

[Tron]

I'm in Metairie (northwestern New Orleans suburb), not too far from you. I have been using the 30" Winegard, but since Katrina I've been preparing to install a 36" dish which should pull in weaker signals better. My Winegard needs a paint job since it got scratched moving it around after Katrina, and I'm not sure how to strip the old baked enamel from it before I repaint it.

Don't worry about true south if you have USALS. Just make sure your motor is at '0', hook up the receiver, set up each satellite using USALS (enter your longitude and latitude), and the receiver will automatically tell the motor how far east and west to go to hit a given satellite from its '0' position. Once it moves to a satellite, then you can peak your signal by slowly moving the entire motor/dish assembly east and west until you hit the signal. Just make sure your dish elevation is at 25. Also make sure the motor is set to 30 on the LATITUDE scale side of the bracket (looking from behind the motor, that scale is the left side of the bracket).

To answer your question about the motor shaft, yes it is at an angle. This angle is calculated in the manufacturing process so that the motor shaft properly tracks the satellite arc as it moves east and west. It also automatically skews the LNBF correctly (by tilting the entire dish) for the satellite the motor is aimed at. This is why you set the LNBF at '0' skew when the dish is on a motor. You'll notice that when the motor is aimed at a satellite to the far east or west, the entire dish is tilted left or right. When the motor is at true south, the dish is not tilted. The angled motor shaft is why dish elevation when mounted on a motor is different from dish elevation when the dish is fixed on a pole.

Set the motor elevation at 30 on the LATITUDE scale (left side of the bracket), and tighten that down. Once you set the motor elevation at your latitude, don't touch it when you are peaking the dish. Set the satellite dish elevation at 25, and tweak that if you need to change the elevation for a better signal. On the Winegard, the scale is a bit off, so you might try 23. You'll want to keep the motor loose on the mounting pole so you can move it east and west to peak your signal. Keep it loose enough to move it but tight enough so the motor doesn't fall down the pole. Once you peak the signal on the satellite you've moved the motor to using USALS, tighten the motor to the pole and you're done. If you're peaked correctly, you can move the dish (using USALS) to any given satellite in the arc and the dish will be pointed dead on.

 

[pappapump]

Ok, I finally nailed the TS, LOADS of stations added and viewing is great.
You guys werent kidding about moving VERY slowly!
All thats left to do is fine tune it all in using the dish tilting and I should pretty much get them all.
I would say that im hitting 75% of them perfectly and 25% marginally.
I think I'm a little off to the east side but thats no problem now that I have the original GOOD position marked on the pole.
THANX so much you satellite gurus, NOW I feel a WHOLE lot better this Christmas day.
Your patience is appreciated.

 

[Mr Tony]

glad its working out fo ya