Adventures in Satellite Hunting.....30°W

[Inno]

The skew should be clockwise when facing the front of the dish.

That is neg. 38.2°, still clockwise?
I'm going to take another picture of a long level against the face of the dish (top to bottom) and the protractor on it. I think it's low enough but I can make it lower with the mount it is on.

 

[Bob2011]

This is a time when one of those $10 sat finders comes in handy

 

[Inno]

I may be a little low based on that reading as shown in the picture, it's more like -14°. Although I have tried higher and lower to no avail. The last pic is looking toward the direction I believe the satellite is in from just behind the dish.

 

[Inno]

This is a time when one of those $10 sat finders comes in handy

You mean the one that goes inline with the coax and has a needle and a little beeper.........I have two of them. Tried one last night but the mosquitoes got the better of me.

 

[linuxman]

That is neg. 38.2°, still clockwise?

Yes

 

[linuxman]

Okay, Here is how I always did it.

Leave the dish at the elevation you have it since it seems to be lower than what you need.

Find a known good transponder from Iceberg's list, or someone can post one for you.

Get that set in your receiver in the setup menu where the SQ meter shows.

Make darn sure that your LO setting is correct at 10750. I wasted 45 minutes one time trying to get hispasat because I had the LO set at 10600, and couldn't get a smell of a signal.

Make a mark on the mast and a corresponding mark on the dish, and slowly, and I mean slowly pan back and forth from that mark at least an inch on the mast.

If you get no signal, raise the dish ever so slightly, and try again. Keep repeating until you have the signal.

It is slow and painful, but it works.

 

[Mikey11]

After looking at the pics again I can tell you 100% those trees are not in your way at an elevation of 8.5, your prob lem must be in your aim or your settings, are you sure you are selecting a strong active TP while aiming? Which TP are you selecting? What are all of your other settings? What is the make and model number of your lnb? This is either an aiming problem or an incorrect settings problem

 

[Inno]

I am using 11882 V 27500. The LNB is an original Star Choice dual output LNB, I don't know much more about it than that. I do know it works as I was able to lock 58°W with about 98% quality this past Sunday.

I will do as Linuxman says, I have changed my skew to be clockwise, I think I have the dish at the required elevation. I left the chain saw in the barn tonight and re-mounted the LNB as the plastic mount was pretty floppy. I shored it up with some all-round. It's pretty much dark out right now and the mosquitoes should be starting soon but once they're done I'm back out there!

 

[Inno]

I made some progress although I'm not quite there yet. I changes my settings as per Linuxman's posts, LO now set to 10.750 and skew set correctly. I found a spot where the signal strength seemed just a little higher and the direction was right. So I switched to a different receiver (coolsat 5000) which I know is good and has a pretty quick blind scan. So I did a blind scan and as it was working away I noticed at certain frequencies the quality meter would jump up to 30-45 but not sufficient for a signal lock. Now what I need to do is figure out what symbol rate it was scanning when the meter jumped. None of the frequencies corresponded to any from 30°W or anything around it which I thought was strange. I am now too tired to think to hard about it, I do my best thinking in the morning..........when I have to go to work..........I will theorize more about it then. Any ideas as to how to find out the symbol rate? I can narrow it down by scanning below 7.500 or above 7.500. I really just want some indication that I'm pointing at the right satellite and I will find out what is in the way and what I can do about it.
K, now I'm rambling. Off to bed.

Oh, one more thing if this would help, at my disposal I have a Coolsat 4000 pro, a Coolsat 5000 and a Pansat 3500SD. The 4000 was bought really really cheap and I have not had a chance to flash the firmware to factory.

 

[Bob2011]

You mean the one that goes inline with the coax and has a needle and a little beeper.........I have two of them. Tried one last night but the mosquitoes got the better of me.

Yes, they should get you in the ball park. If you're using the receiver to find it, the cubavision transponder or the one with the russian channel STS/CTC are the most powerful. I get 90% of 30w on a Dish 500 20" dish down here in New York.

Also looking at your pictures make sure the bottom of the dish clears the porch railing and the trees. It may just take raising your dish a foot or two to make the difference.

 

[linuxman]

I made some progress although I'm not quite there yet. I changes my settings as per Linuxman's posts, LO now set to 10.750 and skew set correctly. I found a spot where the signal strength seemed just a little higher and the direction was right. So I switched to a different receiver (coolsat 5000) which I know is good and has a pretty quick blind scan. So I did a blind scan and as it was working away I noticed at certain frequencies the quality meter would jump up to 30-45 but not sufficient for a signal lock. Now what I need to do is figure out what symbol rate it was scanning when the meter jumped. None of the frequencies corresponded to any from 30°W or anything around it which I thought was strange. I am now too tired to think to hard about it, I do my best thinking in the morning..........when I have to go to work..........I will theorize more about it then. Any ideas as to how to find out the symbol rate? I can narrow it down by scanning below 7.500 or above 7.500. I really just want some indication that I'm pointing at the right satellite and I will find out what is in the way and what I can do about it.
K, now I'm rambling. Off to bed.

Oh, one more thing if this would help, at my disposal I have a Coolsat 4000 pro, a Coolsat 5000 and a Pansat 3500SD. The 4000 was bought really really cheap and I have not had a chance to flash the firmware to factory.

Just my humble opinion, but I would use the Pansat to do the tuning. It has a pretty stable meter, and will lock the transponder at about 20 SQ.

Another thing, if you think you are close where you are, let it do a blind scan, and see what it brings in.

 

[Inno]

I did let it do a blind scan and all I saw were some blips on the quality meter but it did not find any transponders. I will try the Pansat this evening and see what happens.

 

[Inno]

Also looking at your pictures make sure the bottom of the dish clears the porch railing and the trees. It may just take raising your dish a foot or two to make the difference.

I wondered about that, I have installed many a dish in my day but never one at this low elevation. It's usually the obstacles above the dish I have trouble with.

 

[Inno]

A few pictures that may clarify the angle wrt the trees. And because I know you all like looking at pictures.

 

[linuxman]

I did some calculating here this afternoon, and everyone here knows how good I am at math. :yikes:

But, if your dish has a 22 degree off-set, the elevation across the front of the dish from top to bottom should read 13.5 degrees if you have an 8.5 elevation for Hispasat.

If your dish should happen to have a 24 degree off-set, then your reading on the face of the dish should be 15.5 degrees.

Take it from there, but I always start extremely low and work my way up. On my Primestar dishes, they always had an elevation adjustment bolt, so I would pan sideways and give the bolt 1/4 turn which would raise the dish about 1/2 a degree.

A lot depends on the off-set angle of your dish. I'm sure you'll get it to come in. Patience is a virtue, and this hobby taught me lot's of patience.

 

[Inno]

I am well aware of the patience required.........in a previous job I installed Star Choice dishes (among other tasks). The early Star Choice receivers were slow to respond........and that's a huge understatement. Yes, I think your math is correct. Fatherhood is what taught me patience but it has been helping out in many aspects of my life! lol
And I'm about to embark on it again.
Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace, Grace was a dirty girl who never washed her face..........that is something my Mom used to say.........and she got it from her Mom........

 

[hd fan]

One strong advice, make sure you use 2/3 FEC for the CubaVision TP since most receivers has that as 3/4 but they changed it a couple of years ago I think.

 

[Inno]

I don't think the FEC is something I can change is it?

Well I think the satellite must have fallen out of the sky, that's the only explanation I can come up with. I don't usually fail like this. Ok, I'm willing to admit it MIGHT be something else............I think I need to get a little higher up. When my elevation gets so low I see an increase in signal strength which I believe is my LO freq. bouncing back at the dish from the nearest surface, in this case the deck railing. I can probably get some 3" OD pipe from a neighbor (seems like something he would have) and weld it to the base I already have. I'm thinking another 6' or so should be sufficient.

I have too much time invested to fail now!!

 

[FaT Air]

Hook up the Pansat- re-aim dish to 58 - measure angle of the LNB support arm. That Measurement and knowing what dishpointer says for 58's elevation should allow calculating at what the support arm angle is required for 30W. (Here we don't require knowing the dish "offset" angle._just the "AIM") Although, I think, as I type this, that you measured the dish face when aligned on 58? should result in the same the same. Dishpointer also outputs the Azimuth. Calculate the difference in Azimuth between 58 and 30. use a drafting protractor in the top lip of the dish while aligned to 58, to see where 30 should be.

 

[linuxman]

I don't usually fail like this.

I have too much time invested to fail now!!

You haven't failed!

You simply have not finished the job yet.

Check everything. Make sure you can pull in signals on another satellite with that LNBF and the settings in the receiver.

Next widen the search pattern. Swing the dish 45 degrees from your center mark if you have to, but do it slowly.