Complete newbie

[northgeorgia]

Hi FaT Air! I tried using his dish (and oops! Yes, I did mean to say dish not receiver, haha), but my S10 built-in signal meter isn't so good, so I have a simple analog one that hopefully will help me out when it comes later this week. However, I suspect the LNB on that dish never worked...when I asked my brother a few weeks ago about why he never got the dish hooked up, he said that the installers could get the regular Direct TV signal but couldn't get a signal for the Filipino channels. But I'm going to give it another go when the meter arrives (unless it arrives today, can't do anything with these storms, haha!)

 

[cyberham]

[QUOTE...he said that the installers could get the regular Direct TV signal but couldn't get a signal for the Filipino channels....)[/QUOTE]
So this suggests it has a circular LNB anyway, so it may not be useful for your FTA work.

 

[northgeorgia]

It has both circular and linear...I've been connecting to the linear one to try out FTA but no signal

 

[FaT Air]

When aligning, using the receivers Quality (Q) meter, the receiver has to be set to an active transponder. If it's a itinerant TP and it's not active, you'll see nothing. The receiver's lnb freq must match that of the LNB. Check TheList for active transponders to use. The Signal Intensity meter on the Openbox should read around 45 on an operational LNBF, even not aimed at a satellite. It should increase when Q is obtained. Make all adjustments small, and wait a few seconds for the receiver to "Lock onto" the signal and display Q. I haven't seen a Q meter that's instantaneous like an analog meter.(which can get you close, but not right on like the receivers Q meter. Make sure the receiver is OFF when connecting/disconnecting anything on the coax. Good luck in finding the elusive "First satellite".

 

[northgeorgia]

Just an update...I got a Traxis DBS3500 on flea-bay, and I'm having better luck testing this one than I did with my Openbox s10. I believe the Openbox was really just a clone and seems to be temperamental. On my Openbox, I never got a reading on the Dish Network signal, but with the Traxis, I am able to get the Dish 101 channel (plus all the listings of the scrambled channels). I'm looking forward to playing with the real FTA dish once the weather clears up a bit! Now I feel confident when I can't get anything this time it'll be newbie error

 

[cyberham]

... Now I feel confident when I can't get anything this time it'll be newbie error

Yeah, your confidence is building. That's important. Use good equipment. Smartest thing I did was to dump a new Sonicview receiver I bought to change instead to my current Coolsat. Your results will only be as good as the combination of your equipment and knowledge. Are you swinging that dish today?

 

[northgeorgia]

Your results will only be as good as the combination of your equipment and knowledge. Are you swinging that dish today?

Hopefully on Friday or Saturday. Not today, as it's going to be 28 degrees F. Balmy for some parts, but not here in Georgia, brrrr!

 

[northgeorgia]

Longsuffering

Ah well, still no luck. All I can get with the Chaparral Universal LNB is a reading of 9-11% signal on Signal Quality, and 0% Signal Intensity, regardless of where I point the dish. I think dish pointing must be the most difficult thing to do!