Echostar9/Telestar13 = T5-Ku ??? Noob Question

[Morbius56]

I'm sure someone can explain this one to me, so here goes. Got the dish(30") mounted yesterday then ran out of daylight. Today hooked the receiver (Pansat 3500) to the lnbf adjusted the elevation to pick up Echostar 9 which from reading it has a strong signal. Slowly moved the dish and and it came right up with 85% quality. I thought WooHoo!!!!!. This is too easy. Alright im off to another one. Changed the receiver to start at the top with T5-Ku. Slowly moved the dish again and the quality shot up to 85% again ( didnt touch the elevation). Man! This is easy. Right after that it all fell apart. T5-Ku had the same stuff as Echostar. So are they that close or is it a bleed from Echostar? From what i could tell they are quite a distance away. After that i tried a few different satellites and couldnt get a thing after moving the elevation and azmuth (except for that Echostar which i can get with no effort ,but does nothing for me). So someone give me a hint of what i can change to get T5. Also with a dish motor here is a quick question. Lets say I start wth Echostar as a refence with the motor hooked up could i use that as the reference point and find the FTA stuff from there.

Thanks
Mike

40.57 - 81.39

 

[PSB]

What channels are you getting/hoping to get on 121w ?

 

[Morbius56]

After the shock wore off that i actually got a signal i realized what it was after the scan. I was after T5-Ku ,but ended up with Echostar stuff ,so my question still is why did i get that on the T5. Are they that close or is the signal that strong that it bled over to T5. I did bump the dish west(ish) and got a few music channels. I'm new so bear with me if this seems like an ignorant post. After doing a bit more looking (Lyngsat) the music channels i picked up were from Telstar5 ,but no video. is there something in the transponder section (Pansat 3500) i should be tweeking or any other ideas. Also thanks Pete for opening this thread back up. The first post may have seemed like a hacking post ,but it wasn't. I'm just slightly confused about whats going on and thanks for all the other questions that were asked 'cause now i know im not the only one that has 'em.

-Mike


P.S. Whats a good motor to buy. I'm eyeing the sg-2100

 

[PSB]

The SG2100 motor is a great choice, I have used the same one now for over 2 years without a problem.

What kind of LNBF do you have any numbers on it? What L.O. are you using?

 

[Katrinasucks]

>Lets say I start wth Echostar as a refence with the motor hooked up could i use that as the reference point and find the FTA stuff from there.

With USALS yes. Set the motor at TS then (via USALS) tell it to move to E9. (It can be pointed due north at this snapshot in time, that doesn't matter.) Then YOU point it to where E9 really is.

Now the motor thinks it is on E9 and via your dish pointing experience it really is.

That's the way its been explained to me and it better work that way because I have a motor arriving tommow. ;-)

 

[Morbius56]

THe LNBF # is GFK 668. Not much info on the net for it. Actually only one web site and there was no info for it. The LO is 9 -12 ghz if i understanded was L.O. is. Skew at 16

Unfortunatly my pansat has 1.2 ,so im guessing that idea with the motor won't work ,but i have been wrong alot so far.

 

[Katrinasucks]

The Pansat 3500 supports USALS.
Skew is determined by which satellite you are aimed it.
The GFK 668 is universal, L.O. 10600

 

[Tron]

Once you add the motor you would set your skew on the LNB at '0' (the LNB would be mounted straight up and down), as the motor shaft automatically sets skew when it moves the dish. 'Skew' setting in the receiver's setup screen doesn't mean anything, it is for a BUD (Big Useful/Ugly Dish).

The Pansat 2700 (and I believe 2500) also support USALS.

 

[Mr Tony]

the 1500, 2500, 2700, 3500, 5000 & 6000 all support USALS

 

[Morbius56]

Great info on the motor. I'm learning more everyday. Now here is the final question ( for a while). Since im sitting on 121 W with 90% quality im gonna move over to 123 W (Galaxy 10) where i can actually see something . So give me a rough guess in inches how far I need to move the dish and is there a formula for figuring out degrees/inches?

Thanks for everyones help
Mike

 

[charper1]

A 2 deg bump is VERY small. With my motorized setup I count by "pulses". Most satellite setups should allow you to bump the dish E or W one click at a time, I call this pulse. I would GUESS 7 - 9 pusles ON MY SETUP moves me 2 deg.

 

[Morbius56]

My dish is fixed ,so im looking for inches or mm. Are we talking less that a 1/4 of an inch?

 

[charper1]

The tinyest of bumps, waiting a few moments between each bump to check the signal until you get where you want. That is about the best I can say. I would say less than 1/4".

 

[Morbius56]

WooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks eveyone. I finally got something to watch. Galaxy 10!. Now the next thing is to move it away from a tree that seems to be a problem and get a motor. One thing i noticed is depending on the transponder i cant get any signal. I had to switch to another transponder (3) to get any signal. Couldn't get anthing on TP1. And i had that dish all over the place. Is there a "sticky" for transpoder help? Also im just getting started looking at motor info ,so i figured out where my south sat is (another Echostar ) and if i understand all i have to do is line it up with that and then move to the next one. Here is the million dollar question. Lets say i move the dish to the next sat then move the motor manually to line it up then the reciever (3500s) should know where it is next time i want to go back to it ? I'm assuming that none of the bolts will have to be loosened just move the motor. Any "sticky" for that too?
Thanks again everyone
Mike

 

[neil_kc1]

how many inches is hard to tell. the easiest way is to go to lyngsat and find an active transponder on g-10. and set that transponder as the one your receiver is looking for. then bump your sat west until you see the quality and strength meter spiking. once you get a strong signal and quality, scan that transponder only to see if it is the correct channel and satellite. if so save you location and do a blind scan of the satellite.

 

[Tron]

Here is the million dollar question. Lets say i move the dish to the next sat then move the motor manually to line it up then the reciever (3500s) should know where it is next time i want to go back to it ? I'm assuming that none of the bolts will have to be loosened just move the motor. Any "sticky" for that too?
Thanks again everyone
Mike

Once you have your motor set properly on the arc, there should be no need to move it by hand at all. Just change satellites in your receiver, and the motor will move the dish to the proper place.

If you're still setting up your motor, then you'd want to keep the U-bolts loose so you can pan east and west to peak your signal. Once you've done that (use USALS to move the motor to a given satellite and then peak it), tighten up the U-bolts. There should be no need to move it again if its properly aligned.