Any idea what satellite I found?

[mbarnes]

Trying to set this DirecPC dish up with the new Coolsat 6000 (clone?) is getting to me. First I found about 70 TV channels, all scrambled. From the looks of it, probably Dish 119.

I found another satellite and did a blind scan. This one came up with 4 radio channels.
11.812V -
Radio 11 4

11.863V-
Radio 21500 1186
Radio 40000 1186
Radio 40001 1186

I haven't heard anything on the last three, but the first one sounds like it is giving news stories in French. I can't find anything even close on Lyngsat. I'm guessing I looking at around 110? I think I am a little down from 119.

I've scanned about six signals so far. The only thing that has registered is what looks like most of the channels from TP2 on 119, all scrambled, another location with "Television 1" and "Television 2" also scrambled, and one with these four radio stations.

When I go to Dish Settings on the menu, if I select a satellite I have done a blind scan on and found channels, the level stays at about 95-97% all the time. It does not vary while moving the dish even though the Sat Finder gets no signal. When I find a good signal with the sat finder, I do a blind scan. The Quality bar periodically jumps way up as it scans. If it really does think it found something, it will turn green for a bit, but doesn't always put anything in the list.

Unfortunately I no longer have access to the nice equipment I used when doing this at the radio stations. Just a $40 sat finder and the receiver. Apparently the receiver gives no useful information until it finds a channel to look at.

Any tips on setting up these things?

Thanks,

 

[Cham]

Sounds like one of the Anik satellites. Anik F1 and F2 both have Ku and some FTA in the clear. Most ITC stuff on these sats is French.
C.

 

[mbarnes]

Yeah, I'm leaning towards Anik F2. The Radio 11 channel has 3 subchannels. Sub 1 is Canadian Press feeds, some are English on the right and French on the left simultaneously. Interesting to listen to. Sub 2 is the feed for AM640 in Toronto.

Well, now I know it works and hopefully where I am at. Now maybe I can tweak it to where I want to be.

 

[meinename]

Ah, the recent memories....

If I had to venture a guess I would say Anik F1 @ 107.3W but checking lyngsat both F1R and F2 are DCII not DVB.

mbarnes:
switch to a scrambled channel and hit the info button twice and post what the CAS field says here.

As for the best method of finding anything...
I do the following:
Use a cleaned, fresh list of transponders and satellites like the one I posted in this thread. Upload it to your Coolsat using the serial cable. This makes ID'ing a Sat a breeze, since sats tend to use different Symbol Rates on similar frequencies.

I use a cheap "squealer" meter to tell me I'm on something. One like this...
I turn the dB dial down to the noise floor (where the meter squeals but nothings there) and then a touch back so it stops squealing.
When it starts squealing I keep going until see the needle peak. I work the dish back and forth turning the dB dial down so as to find the "center of the signal"

Next I turn my attention to the Coolsat. I prefer the [(menu) button --> Installation --> Manual scan] screen as the place to aim with. Lets me flick through satellites and their transponders while I'm aiming.
I line up E-W using a vertical transponder.
Then switching to a Horizontal transponder I fix the skew and elevation.
This is my best friend when it comes to skew...

I'm used to a Coolsat 5000 but I have spent some time with the 6000
My 6000 reads about 3% higher than my 5000

Here's some Coolsat Quaility meter numbers it took me awhile to learn. (Been aching to post these numbers for some time but haven't had a decent reason )

<17%   = nothing
19-20% = something but many possibilities why nothing, just know something is off by a bit. This is a good start.
25-30% = Right frequency, wrong symbol rate. You're probably not where you think you are. Or the symbol rate has changed, go recheck your info.
60-63% = You're almost there keep tweaking. (Normal screen will probably say "No Audio/Video")
66-70% = ok you can stop but you'll want to keep going if you can go higher.
70-72% = As good as it gets... on a 5000
>72%   = It's BOOMING IN.

FEC threshold 
(these do matter; otherwise you'll be staring at "No Audio/Video" alot)

1/2 =>60%
3/4 =>64% (you'll get used to seeing 63%)
5/6 =>66%
7/8 =>69% (aim for 70% or more)

I stopped blindscanning awhile ago since it took too long trying to find stuff. (I'm not a feedhunter yet.)

Remember Red meter means "nothing", Green meter means lock :up

 

[mbarnes]

As for the best method of finding anything...
I do the following:
Use a cleaned, fresh list of transponders and satellites like the one I posted in this thread. Upload it to your Coolsat using the serial cable. This makes ID'ing a Sat a breeze, since sats tend to use different Symbol Rates on similar frequencies.

What method is used to send these .ndf files to the Coolsat over the serial cable? Is it just an xmodem upload or something? What are the normal connection parameters? Most of this type stuff I've worked on before use either 2400 or 9600 8N1 (except Comstream, which uses 1200 7O1). These days almost anything built after 2000 has an Ethernet port and you just tftp, but it doesn't look like the FTA stuff has caught up with technology quite yet.

Lots of good info there.
Thanks.

 

[Mr Tony]

that would have been AnikF2 that you were on

111.1

 

[mbarnes]

I figured it was F2. I bumped and tweaked a little and ended up on 121 with a congratulatory message about having a new Dish system. Another couple tweaks and bumps and another blind scan and I had a whole bunch of new channels. The elusive 123 has been found and scanned. The main goal of all this was initially just to see if I could do it. Mission accomplished.

Thanks for all the help. I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for the great folks on this forum.

 

[Mr Tony]

sweet

G18 is pretty cool. Nice to have the RTN channels

 

[mbarnes]

I use a cheap "squealer" meter to tell me I'm on something. One like this...
I turn the dB dial down to the noise floor (where the meter squeals but nothings there) and then a touch back so it stops squealing.
When it starts squealing I keep going until see the needle peak. I work the dish back and forth turning the dB dial down so as to find the "center of the signal"

I also use one of these "squealer" sat finders. (I've gone through about five of them.) I find it annoying they are so cheaply built. The "sensitivity" adjustment stinks. The audio tone varies in volume. For us old people I either hear the sound or I don't, level changes aren't there. The more sensible method is IMHO to have the tone vary in frequency. The stronger the signal, the higher the pitch of the tone. One of the best sat finder type meters ever built was the Bulz-I-Meter. The audio changed in pitch, there was a five position switch for rough sensitivity and a knob to fine tune the level. It had a DC block switch and also would work with 70 MHz IFs. Unfortunately, they quit production on them about eight years or so ago.

 

[meinename]

What method is used to send these .ndf files to the Coolsat over the serial cable? Is it just an xmodem upload or something? What are the normal connection parameters? Most of this type stuff I've worked on before use either 2400 or 9600 8N1 (except Comstream, which uses 1200 7O1). These days almost anything built after 2000 has an Ethernet port and you just tftp, but it doesn't look like the FTA stuff has caught up with technology quite yet.

Lots of good info there.
Thanks.

I really don't know anything about serial transfers once the link is setup.
All I use is a program called Coolsat Loader. Funny enough, I'm a Linux user myself. Enjoyed Redhat and Ubuntu to date.
Unfortunately, I've not spent too much time with serial connections to be of any use...

As best I can tell the Loader automates 3 otherwise manual operations that the Coolsat does not automatically do by itself. The transfer, erasing the old and saving the new channel list. It also allows overwriting the factory channel list.

I just tested "Coolsat Legacy Loader v2.6" on Ubuntu 8.10 through Wine 1.0.1
Worked fine... I figure you can figure out the transfer process from there if you don't like that method right away.
I'll upload the Loader to this post within a minute

EDIT:
Loader uploaded to this post

And as for "squealer" tone I can't tell the difference from a short distance at that frequency. It's either squealing or it isn't!

 

[gillham]

Unfortunately I no longer have access to the nice equipment I used when doing this at the radio stations. Just a $40 sat finder and the receiver. Apparently the receiver gives no useful information until it finds a channel to look at.

Any tips on setting up these things?

You need to have the 6000 setup and looking for one of the strong transponders from The List or at least a *known* transponder for the satellite you're hunting. For example on 123° you might have it set for 11800/V/26657 while you're looking for the satellite. Unless the receiver is actively listening for a specific transponder it won't give any useful information. Once the receiver gets a bit of signal from that transponder (or a very similar one) you should see signal quality go up.
a receiver & TV out by the dish so you can watch the quality meter.

 

[mbarnes]

You need to have the 6000 setup and looking for one of the strong transponders from The List or at least a *known* transponder for the satellite you're hunting. For example on 123° you might have it set for 11800/V/26657

Dumb question time. I know what 11800 and V mean, but what does 26657 refer to?

 

[Mr Tony]

symbol rate

most of the time when we post info we post it as frequency/polarity/symbol rate (I try to note it in my posts for newbies)

 

[gillham]

Dumb question time. I know what 11800 and V mean, but what does 26657 refer to?

It is the symbol rate. You should have something like the attached photo.