Cant Find NASA on AMC-3/C

[8valve]

Are the NASA feeds up during non mission times ? I have my Coolsat 5000 Platinum hooked to my 12 foot Paraclispe C Band dish trying to receive NASA on AMC-3/C at 87 West. Doing a Blind Scan all the Coolsat finds is; Palm Beach 3.753V no audio or video but a signal quality of 85 Palm Beach 3.764V no audio or video but a signal quality of 85 TV3-3764 AMC-3/C Signal Quality 85, Picture is a Dania Jai Alai Game I assume I am on AMC-3/C since the Blind Scan found the above TV3-3764 AMC-3/C and logged it as such. If NASA is UP all the time, any suggestions whats going on, why I cant find it on a Blind Scan. I did drive the Polorotor to many different positions but no luck on NASA. I know my C band dish is in track as I can receive Birds on each end of the arc. I did look on "THE LIST" on this forum and "LYNGSAT" but cant even find the channels that were found on the Blind Scan ? Thanks 8Valve

 

[beavs2112]

hi 8valve. yes the nasa channels are on most times of the day. the channel that scans as hq4 is the exception. i've never seen programming on it. sounds like you're not pointed at the right bird. my pansat is in the middle of a blind scan so

 

[FaT Air]

Another thread on the subject : http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/233336-how-your-signal-nasa-87w-amc3-2.html sig is weaker than what I remember it being last spring, but is there @ 4000 H 28110

 

[beavs2112]

just scanned AMC-3 C band for ya and the good news is you're on the right bird. i also got palm_beach and tv3 amongst other channels. my quality readings were higher at 99 on those channels and nasa was 66 on my 10 footer. so nasa is definitely weaker. why your coolsat missed the other channels on that bird is a mystery to me. i don't know much about the coolsat but try a manual scan for NASA. there are a lot of other channels ITC on that bird it should have picked up. maybe a reset will work. maybe your dish alignment is off slightly. good luck

 

[8valve]

just scanned AMC-3 C band for ya and the good news is you're on the right bird. i also got palm_beach and tv3 amongst other channels. my quality readings were higher at 99 on those channels and nasa was 66 on my 10 footer. so nasa is definitely weaker. why your coolsat missed the other channels on that bird is a mystery to me. i don't know much about the coolsat but try a manual scan for NASA. there are a lot of other channels ITC on that bird it should have picked up. maybe a reset will work. maybe your dish alignment is off slightly. good luck

Ok, thanks for your post, thanks for verifying I am on AMC-3/C. I drive my 12 foot dish with my old Chapparall Analog Receiver. Its memory positions the dish and runs the polorotor. On my setup, 10 position counts = 2 degrees. Based on that calc, I found the bird on the second scan. Now that I know I am on the right bird, I will check dish alignment tomorrow. May I ask, what is the differences in Manual, Auto and Blind Scans. I downloaded the Coolsat manual from this site. But the manual does not describe the scanning differences. When I did the blind scan today, I saw quite a few places where it shoudl have been logging the channel, quality was 85, yet it did nto find anything except the 3, I mentioned. Thanks 8Valve

 

[turbosat]

8--if you're getting the greyhound racing channels (jai alai, or however its spelled) I believe you are on the opposite polarity. I'll check for sure after this game is over, my c-band motorized is off 87 for right now. Sounds like you're not getting both polarities, I remember the racing channels being opposite polarity from the NASA feeds. With a 12' dish you should be getting a ton of signal on NASA.

 

[beavs2112]

glad you're on the right bird to start hopefully you can access your dish easily. also hoping it's something simple like a loose bolt or something.
don't mind you asking at all as far as the scanning goes remember i'm a newb at this with only 9 months experience at FTA. manual scan usually means you have to enter the satellite location and name and transponder frequency/symbol rate/forward error correction value/DVB-s or DVB-S2 technical information yourself into the receiver and it then scans the satellite for you. for automatic usually means the receiver has the satellite location transponder frequency/symbol rate/forward error correction value/DVB-s or DVB-S2 technical information already in it and it scans the satellite for you after you hit the enter or ok button. Blind scanning generally means the satellite location and name is already known in the receiver ( for example AMC-3 at 87.0W orbital location) but all the transponder frequency/symbol rate/forward error correction value/DVB-s or DVB-S2 technical information is not known. so in blind scan you are basically saying to the receiver i know where the satellite is and so do you so you scan it and tell me what you find.
where it can get really confusing is each receiver model is unique so a "blind" scan on a Pansat model might mean "auto" scan on a Sonicview for example. i will try to look at that coolsat manual for ya and try to figure it out. do you know what model coolsat you have since I think there are several.

Kevin

p.s. good eye turbosat. i think you nailed it, bad servo or wiring??

 

[8valve]

Turbosat & Kevin; Polarity makes sense. Going back to 1980's vintage Chapparral and Houston Tracker receivers/dish drivers, you must locate each bird and save that physical number location. Then you must fine tune each transponder for polarity and save that. So its very possible I am on the wrong polarity with the polarotor. Easy to check tomorrow. I know the Polarotor goes thru its full travelk as I checked that today to be sure it was freely moving. Understand on the Scanning, thank you 8Valve

 

[beavs2112]

excellent. hopefully we can have ya back up running in time for when the next shuttle launches

 

[Tron]

I'm getting the NASA mux at about 55 quality on my Visionsat (~40 ensures no break-up), which is lower than I'd been getting it. There is a branch which may be interfering with 87W, but I'm also reading from other members that its weaker than normal.

If you find NASA before November 30th, you'll be able to watch Discovery's last mission, STS-133.

 

[turbosat]

That was correct on the polarity>the racing feeds are opposite polarity of the NASA channels on 87W. If you're changing polarity by changing from odd to even on an old receiver like I do, just switch channels and it should pop in on the next scan. I got them at 4000mhz......

 

[8valve]

Now good to go with NASA. It was a Polarity issue. Polarotor position was much more critical on 87 W than others. I am a happy camper. Thanks for the help 8Valve

 

[Tron]

Great 8Valve! Enjoy some really great HD (and SD) from space in a couple of weeks!

 

[Mr Tony]

cool. glad you got it working