99(c), 99(s), 103(c), 103(s) SL3 & SL5 tuning question

[Arkapigdiesel]

I'm assuming on the 99 & 103 sats of the SL3 and SL5 dishes that I only need to tune the ones that have the 99(c) & 103(c) in parentheses, correct? Why are the 99(s) & 103(s) ones on there if they aren't required to be tuned?

 

[texasbrit]

I'm assuming on the 99 & 103 sats of the SL3 and SL5 dishes that I only need to tune the ones that have the 99(c) & 103(c) in parentheses, correct? Why are the 99(s) & 103(s) ones on there if they aren't required to be tuned?

The 99s and 103s screens show spotbeamed locals so many of them will be low or zero signal, it makes them pretty useless for alignment. Also many of the signals on the 99s and 103s screens come from the same satellites as the signals on the 99c and 103c screens.
Further explanation. 99c, 99s, 103c and 103s are not in fact "satellites". They are groupings of transponders. The 99c screen shows all the CONUS transponders at 99 (which happen all to be from DirecTV11). The 99s screen shows all the spotbeams at 99, the lower-numbered ones are from the Spaceway II satellite in the 99 slot and the higher-numbered ones are from DirecTV11. Similarly for 103c and 103s, with the Spaceway I and DirecTV10 satellites. . Since Spaceway II and DirecTV11 at 99 are so close together, and similarly with Spaceway I and DirecTV10 in the 103 slot, they look to your dish like a single satellite in each of the slots.

That means that once you have dithered the dish to get alignment on 101/119, you can fine-tune using 99c and 103c and once you are peaked on those two, if there are any signals on the 99s and 103s screen that are for you (your HD locals for example) they will automatically be peaked.

 

[Arkapigdiesel]

Thanks texasbrit! That answers my question.