Aiming a motorized dish?

[AcWxRadar]

Zamar,

please check out Sadoun's web site and ask if he has any Fortec Star Dynamic receivers left and if not, ask if he has any Fortec Star Fortunes available.

I will back you 110% on either one of these receivers! I guarantee that you will notice the difference and if you do not appreciate either one of them, I will buy them from you at your cost and I will pay for the shipping charges. I think that once you get one of these receivers in your hands and start playing with it, you won't want to part with them. However, I will make you a deal. If you buy one or the other Fortec model and you don't like it, I will buy it from you and pay for all the shipping charges.

I really want you to compare the operation of the Fortec Star receivers against the Sonic View and I am so confident that you will appreciate them that I will guarantee your satisfaction by buying it from you.

If you purchase one of these receivers through Sadouns, I know that he will stand by the warranty and guarantee, but I personally have such a high opinion of them that I am also willing to back them in this way.

I need and want a few more of these Fortec Star receivers, so I won't be out anything except an additional shipping charge. I was going to buy a few more for my friends anyway, so there is no problem in my mind to let you investigate one first. If you don't like eithe of these receivers, you are out nothing. Send me a PM if you are interested.

RADAR

 

[zamar23]

AcWxRadar
The reason I've got SonicView 360 Elite is 2 tuner design with parallel 2 USB-drive recording ability for a reasonable price, which Fortec doesn't seem to currently have. I still hope to get it to work with some input from SonicView and Invacom tech support, but I keep my mind open for other choices as well. Especially now, when current satellite signal quality and transmission technology is fast becoming obsolete, which may also affect clear channels rather soon.

 

[andyb2]

If you can't get a signal then it can only be a few things

1-user error (most common)
2-bad lnb
3-bad reciever
4-bad cable or ends

Hook another lnb up and try for 82w again.The thing is so powerfull it cant be missed.

 

[zamar23]

That's an interesting observation. SV tech support claims, if I got S from the LNB, tuners are OK. Invacom's tech support says, they sell thousands without any returns, but no way to check. Since I am getting S=60, its hard to blame the cable. Now I've got it: its ME!

Regardless, its quite an educational thread for many newbies...

 

[Lak7]

Now I've got it: its ME!

Now that that's out of the way, time to lock a signal!

Try for 82, it's got a big signal.

 

[mikelib]

Zamar23,
Haven't heard from you in the last couple of days, I would like to know if you were successful in locking in any satellites?
Mike Lib

 

[AcWxRadar]

AcWxRadar
The reason I've got SonicView 360 Elite is 2 tuner design with parallel 2 USB-drive recording ability for a reasonable price, which Fortec doesn't seem to currently have. I still hope to get it to work with some input from SonicView and Invacom tech support, but I keep my mind open for other choices as well. Especially now, when current satellite signal quality and transmission technology is fast becoming obsolete, which may also affect clear channels rather soon.

Zamar,

Hi again! I understand why you want the SV receiver. You cite legitimate reasons for this which I agree with. But, I think that there is a better reciever out there than the SV. Somebody sent me a SV 360 Premier to test and I could not get it to pull in the true FTA channels or navigate the arc very well.

In all honesty, I really think that these SV's are meant to be hacker boxes. I don't like that. I don't like that at all. If you desire a TRUE FTA receiver, the SV 360 is not what you want. They advertise it with all these peks and ammenities, but if you cannot pickup the legitimate channels (FTA) with it, what good does it do you?

I understand that the Coolsat boxes can be hacked in the same way, but they at least work with true FTA signals, the SV does not. Or at least it does not function very well.

You may take my reccomendations as you wish, but I personally do not like that fine line of legality and I do not like a receiver (STB) that doesen't do what it is advertised to do.

Please play it safe and correct.

Gordy (RADAR)

 

[AcWxRadar]

By the way, my offer still stands if you want to try a Fortec Star receiver. I'll buy it if you'll try it! If you don't like it, you send it on to me and you are out nothing. I am very confident that you will appreciate it, but I will offer this just so that you can test this receiver first hand without any monetary committment up front.

I am going to order one anyway, no problem to have them deliver it to you first so that you can play with it first and if you like it, you can keep it and pay me for it later. I will order another receiver for myself. Just let me know if you are interested, I would really like you to see the difference and report back here with your
own personal results.

What do you think? It is a pretty good deal all around, in my opinion. Send me a PM if you are interested.

Gordy

 

[zamar23]

Sorry guys for some delay!

I was busy researching and testing, and did identify the problem I have - I selected Dish mount point on a balcony incorrectly, so beams from sats were obstructed in various level in all dish positions by either upper balcony or rebar. I reported these findings on another forum. Its amazing, how much you can learn from selecting all components on your own and finally mounting and aiming a motorized system yourself! Just a short time ago I felt like a newbie, and now I posted my own Tutorial on mounting and aiming a motorized system in a confined space. I'll post it here shortly. Generally, understanding basic sat topics like Clarke Arc, azimuth and elevation angles, transponders and coverage zone, Offset Dish and LNB work and specs, a Sat Receiver functionality range, is a must for motorized system setup. Your feedback and suggestions on the Tutorial are appreciated.

As to SV 360 Elite, I agree 100 percent with AcWxRadar - this receiver was not designed for a motorized setup. More precisely, it has good hardware, but its firmware needs to be tweaked a lot and finalized to allow using it with a motor and for weak linear sats. It seems this task was not on the agenda for its coders at all. Neither SV support team knows a lot if anything about Motorized system setup. On top the receiver's firmware has several major bugs affecting its performance that were reported by me in detail in a different place, which has a better section of Bug Reports and Tutorials for this receiver. I have to say however, the receiver has almost perfect picture, if you can get it on the screen, and very sensitive excellent tuner. As to catching linear sats in general, I was able to get a few channels on some birds like Galaxy 25 and 19 despite my bad mount setup, and will try to revisit the issue after moving the dish mount and re-aiming the system. While moving along the arc, I senced to be around a linear sat, when S level changed to a continuous pulse profile around a given value like 60, so I felt getting a variable signal on top of LNB voltage and scanned. Q level on this receiver stays firmly at 0 at dish setup (except for the strongest 119W), while Q may stay 20-to-100 after switching to a channel depending on sat. I had Q=0 for 110W at setup, and Q=100 firm after switching to its unscrambled channels. I'll try to re-post the reports here later. This forum is one of most popular on FTA topic in general. To add about SV line-up, they cut the corners by not giving separate output ports for each tuner, so that's not really a 2-tuner fully functional receiver. They also didn't specify to include Ethernet Port, and now selling a Serial-to-Ethernet Dongle for extra $100, while similar generic dongle on EBay costs $5.

AcWxRadar: as to your proposal to look at Fortec Star, as I said, I trust you completely on that. The problem however is, all these receivers are about to get obsolete without HD, DVB-S2, 4-2-2 support, so it gets real pain to use with an HD TV pretty fast. I'd say, SD receivers are now better suited as complementary units. May be it wasn't the right choice in a longer term anyway. I'll think about your proposal though.

Thanks to everyone for help and support!