This concerns the Free-to-Air satellite system I purchased from Sadoun. I am very disappointed in it. For the reasons that follow, I do not recommend that anyone buy their system.
About 2 years ago I purchased the Sadoun so-called motorized system. At first I only attached the dish to the horizontal pole, and kept moving it back and forth until I found the signal for satellite Galaxy 19. My wife was then happy at being able to watch some Asian stations.
After a year I decided to install the motor on the dish, so that I could watch other satellite stations. That was five (5) months ago, but I still cannot pull a signal from any other satellite! I have probably spent 50+ hours on this project since November, including calls to Sadoun, several calls to Glorystar, and climbing up on the roof about a dozen times to make adjustments. I will say that the engineer for Glorystar has been very helpful, and without him I never even would have found Galaxy 19 using the motor.
I will make some specific observations in bullet format regarding the numerous problems I have encountered, as follow:
a. The so-called “system” is not a compatible set of parts. The dish is made by one manufacturer, the motor is made by another manufacturer, and the receiver is made by yet another company. The scales on the motor are in 5 degree increments, which makes it very hard to find a correct setting when only 1 degree makes a difference at trying to aim at a satellite some 20,000 miles up in space. Also, although the motor I was sold has several pre-set satellite positions, they are all satellites over Europe, and the list does not contain any satellite capable of being received in the USA. Finally, the receiver I was sold is not the latest model.
b. There are no detailed instructions on how to set up the receiver & motor. The booklet they provide does not go into that type of detail. Neither are any detailed instructions on-line. After getting only a little help over the phone from Sadoun, I had to call Glorystar, and their engineer walked me through menu screens and steps until I could finally get set up to receive Galaxy 19. But still no signal. So I then needed to send photographs to him so he could see if my motor & dish settings were correct. As the dish scale did not have any hash mark on it to tell me exactly where to set the angle, it turned out I was off about 3 or 4 degrees, which was enough to cause me to miss the satellite signal completely.
c. Once I was able to pull Galaxy 19's signal, I thought that I would be okay from that point forward. Note there is a button on the menu to save, or “store” the motor/dish position, so that you should be able to find it again easily. But this is not the case. Almost every time I turn the receiver off, I lose the signal when I turn it back on. If I was lucky, it would only takes a few clicks on the remote to find the signal again. If I was not lucky, then I had to climb up on the roof and do the back-and-forth drill with the motor until my wife told me she was getting a “quality” signal.
d. Several weeks ago I decided to try to connect with a different satellite for the first time I did some research online and then picked one satellite on the menu. I started clicking a few degrees to the west of Galaxy 19. But I could never obtain a signal from it. This turned out to be another disaster, as then I had then lost Galaxy 19 again.
e. So I went back up on the ladder and started using the buttons on the motor until I finally got a quality signal for Galaxy 19. We watched it for a week or so, but then I had to pull the power cord from the receiver due to going away on a vacation. When I returned and plugged the receiver in, the stations weren’t there anymore. I never pushed any buttons that would have caused the motor/dish to move, but it must have moved anyway. It has now been over a month since we returned home, and despite a couple hours with the menu screens and remote, I still have not been able to find Galaxy 19's signal again.
In summary, all of this has led me to conclude that I paid over $300 for some Chinese-made junk that does not work as advertised. Unfortunately, I procrastinated on putting up the motor, so now I am out of warranty. I would strongly urge anyone who is thinking of buying a Sadoun motorized FTA system to reconsider. There should be some other companies out there who, although they might charge a little more money, will sell you a truly integrated system that has up-to-date software which will work without undo effort and frustration.
About 2 years ago I purchased the Sadoun so-called motorized system. At first I only attached the dish to the horizontal pole, and kept moving it back and forth until I found the signal for satellite Galaxy 19. My wife was then happy at being able to watch some Asian stations.
After a year I decided to install the motor on the dish, so that I could watch other satellite stations. That was five (5) months ago, but I still cannot pull a signal from any other satellite! I have probably spent 50+ hours on this project since November, including calls to Sadoun, several calls to Glorystar, and climbing up on the roof about a dozen times to make adjustments. I will say that the engineer for Glorystar has been very helpful, and without him I never even would have found Galaxy 19 using the motor.
I will make some specific observations in bullet format regarding the numerous problems I have encountered, as follow:
a. The so-called “system” is not a compatible set of parts. The dish is made by one manufacturer, the motor is made by another manufacturer, and the receiver is made by yet another company. The scales on the motor are in 5 degree increments, which makes it very hard to find a correct setting when only 1 degree makes a difference at trying to aim at a satellite some 20,000 miles up in space. Also, although the motor I was sold has several pre-set satellite positions, they are all satellites over Europe, and the list does not contain any satellite capable of being received in the USA. Finally, the receiver I was sold is not the latest model.
b. There are no detailed instructions on how to set up the receiver & motor. The booklet they provide does not go into that type of detail. Neither are any detailed instructions on-line. After getting only a little help over the phone from Sadoun, I had to call Glorystar, and their engineer walked me through menu screens and steps until I could finally get set up to receive Galaxy 19. But still no signal. So I then needed to send photographs to him so he could see if my motor & dish settings were correct. As the dish scale did not have any hash mark on it to tell me exactly where to set the angle, it turned out I was off about 3 or 4 degrees, which was enough to cause me to miss the satellite signal completely.
c. Once I was able to pull Galaxy 19's signal, I thought that I would be okay from that point forward. Note there is a button on the menu to save, or “store” the motor/dish position, so that you should be able to find it again easily. But this is not the case. Almost every time I turn the receiver off, I lose the signal when I turn it back on. If I was lucky, it would only takes a few clicks on the remote to find the signal again. If I was not lucky, then I had to climb up on the roof and do the back-and-forth drill with the motor until my wife told me she was getting a “quality” signal.
d. Several weeks ago I decided to try to connect with a different satellite for the first time I did some research online and then picked one satellite on the menu. I started clicking a few degrees to the west of Galaxy 19. But I could never obtain a signal from it. This turned out to be another disaster, as then I had then lost Galaxy 19 again.
e. So I went back up on the ladder and started using the buttons on the motor until I finally got a quality signal for Galaxy 19. We watched it for a week or so, but then I had to pull the power cord from the receiver due to going away on a vacation. When I returned and plugged the receiver in, the stations weren’t there anymore. I never pushed any buttons that would have caused the motor/dish to move, but it must have moved anyway. It has now been over a month since we returned home, and despite a couple hours with the menu screens and remote, I still have not been able to find Galaxy 19's signal again.
In summary, all of this has led me to conclude that I paid over $300 for some Chinese-made junk that does not work as advertised. Unfortunately, I procrastinated on putting up the motor, so now I am out of warranty. I would strongly urge anyone who is thinking of buying a Sadoun motorized FTA system to reconsider. There should be some other companies out there who, although they might charge a little more money, will sell you a truly integrated system that has up-to-date software which will work without undo effort and frustration.
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