Another BUD Saved

[Vestal]

Hello everyone,

Today the wife and I went and picked up a 10’ Sami from a kind Gentleman about three miles from our home.

The pole the dish was setting on had no concrete in the hole so I don’t think it would track the arc very well.

The dish passed the string test so I hope it will make a good signal catcher.

It took about an hour and half to dismantle and load it up.


A few years ago we scraped a 10’ Unimesh (before I ever heard of FTA) that we had used before going with the pizza delivery. Luckily we did not take up the pole and now we have a good base for the Sami.

So I have a C-2 LNBF from Satellite AV and a Vbox-X from Galaxy Marketing ready to be installed.

We got the dish put back together and set on the pole today, so in the coming days I will work on tuning in the dish and hopefully I will be able to catch some Tribe games.

If y'all don't mind, I might have a few questions when I start tuning this thing.

Take care

 

[HIFI]

SWEET!!!!

 

[coinmaster32]

Nice looking dish. The sami's are a simple design, easy to assemble. Very good dish. Actuator looks ok, what kind is it?

 

[Vestal]

Nice looking dish. The sami's are a simple design, easy to assemble. Very good dish. Actuator looks ok, what kind is it?

The actuator is a Super Jack II +

I went out a hooked it up to the VBox and it seems to be working OK.

 

[comfrey]

Excellent, Congratulations on your fine looking dish.

 

[Vestal]

Thanks guys,

Now for a question: Is the focal length measured from the end of the LNBF tube or from the sensors inside the tube?

 

[truckracer]

a guy just gave me another 10' sami mesh!!! cant wait to go get it!!

 

[upnatm]

Thanks guys,

Now for a question: Is the focal length measured from the end of the LNBF tube or from the sensors inside the tube?

Don't go near the probes, measure from the rim of the opening. Fine tuning comes later.

Ideally, the signals are focused 1/4" inside the tube (feed horn) and are then guided to the probes.

Keep at it, Cheers.

 

[Vestal]

Thanks upnatm,

Hopefully I can get some time to work on this thing soon

Take care

 

[Vestal]

Getting ready to try pointing this dish.

My true south Sat.is 82W so I will have use 83W to for the initial pointing and The List shows one C-Band transponder on this Sat. Has anyone checked this transponder lately to see if it is still active?SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - 83.0°W AMC 9 C

Thanks

 

[phlatwound]

It's been about 2 weeks, but at that time I was locking the tp in The List (with PA Cable Net), loud and clear, on my beat up 10' mesh dish. That channel used to be on 72W but it's been on 83W for several months, at least.

 

[Vestal]

Thank you phlatwood, just wanted to make sure it was still there before looking for it.

Take care

 

[Vestal]

Well I had a chance to try to find the transponder on 83W today with no success after three hours.

Will have to try again in a few days.

 

[phlatwound]

Well I had a chance to try to find the transponder on 83W today with no success after three hours.

Will have to try again in a few days.

Maybe someone can look sooner, but if not, if I get a chance this evening I will swing my BUD to 83W and see if that tp is still lit up.

 

[phlatwound]

Vestal, just checked and it is still there, here is the info:

83W AMC9 C
3805 V 4166
V4096 A4097 P4096 SID1

90% S 70% Q on Openbox S9, 10' mesh w/Poloarotor and CalAmp MiniMag LNB.

Presently showing a very informative infomercial for the Genie Bra (audio optional) .

 

[Vestal]

Thank you for checking again Phlatwound.

Does this transponder require manual PID entry? I am using a Fortec Star Dynamic receiver and cannot enter these manually, or I don't know how if you can. I will have to use the AZBox if the Fortec will not work.

Have a great day

 

[phlatwound]

You're welcome, glad to try and help.

No, manual PID entry should not be required, I just posted all the info I had. I didn't try blind scanning it in, just entered the freq/pol/SR in the Openbox, did a manual tp scan, and it popped right in.

 

[Vestal]

If y’all don’t mind, could you check the settings I’ve been using?

My location is ZIP Code 24210

Latitude 36.78
Longitude 81.90

Dish Pointer says my True South Sat is 82W but I am trying for 83W (no C-Band on 82W)

Dish Elevation 47.3

Declination chart says 5.8

Polar angle 41.5

GEOSAT PRO C-2 LNBF with the skew 0 at 9 o’clock when looking from the back of the dish. I originally had it at 9 o’clock looking at it from the front of the dish.

The focal length sticky shows the Sami 10 Ft. to have a focal length of 45.6” I calculated it to be 45.9”

Receiver LNBF setting at 5150

Anything stand out that I need to correct?

Thanks

 

[Vestal]

Hello everyone,

Well the Sami is tracking the arc.

I spent about six hours trying to find my true south satellite with no luck and then I read through Dee Ann’s thread again and another thread about declination and figured out that I was using the wrong elevation. I was using the elevation given by Dish Pointer and then subtracting my declination value from that. Should have subtracted the Dish Pointer value from 90.

After waiting for the sky’s to clear, we’ve had a lot of rain here lately, I set my elevation and declination to the correct values and swung the dish to were I thought 83W would be and there it was.

I worked my way west from 83W and found sats down to 121W. Did the push down and pull up on the dish test and didn’t have to make any adjustment.

I will try some fine tuning in a few days but right now I am going to watch a Baseball game.

A big thank you to everyone that has shared their knowledge on this site.:

Take care

 

[Anole]

well worth it, after all

I read through Dee Ann’s thread again and another thread about declination and figured out that I was using the wrong elevation.
... I set my elevation and declination to the correct values and swung the dish to were I thought 83W would be and there it was.
I worked my way west from 83W and found sats down to 121W.
...the Sami is tracking the arc.

Well, I'm glad that thread did someone to much good.
And on a 10' dish, at that! - :up
Congrats -