Fortec Star Dynamic - Fortec Star 80 CM Question

[FTABman0]

Well guys the bad luck reign on the getting new equipment seems to still Plague The B-Man! I just ordered a motorized system off of Sadoun and it came with a bad remote right out of the box! I ordered a Mercury II but wanted to get the new Dynamic and Sadoun made that happen! Got it here the other day and took it out of the box to set it up for a friend and the remote does not work at all! This is not Sadoun’s fault, just a manufacture problem or ruff shipping buy UPS. I did find a small crack in the remote case but there is no box damage so your guess is as good as mine! So disappointment follows since I really wanted to play with this new Fortec! I should have just got the Mercury II since they are discontinuing those; the one I got is still a very solid box! I tried the Mercury II – Classic NA – Fortec Ultra remotes on the Dynamic but no avail, guess it has to be its own remote! So, I wrote Sadoun, and they are going to make it right! That’s what Gold Sponsors Do man, treat you right! I can’t do much of anything to the box though without a working remote. The scan feature needs the GREEN button or POWER SCAN button to work to even get anything channel wise into the box’s channel memory so all I see is the OSD! I can't even set the time without a remote. So, my friend has my old Coolsat 6000 until we get this Dynamic working for her! It seems every STB I get has something wrong or the box just does not work. It’s a FTA curse!

You all can remember the 3ABN dish mishap; the old metric bolt broke and took down my dish in 1 day of setting it up. The famous Coolsat 6000 problem where I ordered 2 brand new ones from a FL dealer and one did not work. And my new CNX Mini had to go back and get replaced because of the receiver not sending USALS commands to the dish, now this new Fortec Dynamic problem. If there is a bad product out there that is manufactured wrong it seems I have got it sent here this year!

Joking aside,

Change of gears..........

Fortec Star 80 CM dish question.......

Does anyone know if the scale on the new Fortec Star 80 CM dishes is fixed? I know that we all had problems with the scale not right in the past and I was wondering if that problem was fixed on the new run models since. I put one up Saturday for a friend and I have the middle of the arc but nothing past 87.0W & 103.0W. I have everything at with great quality from 87-103 West. I suspect the scale is still wrong and I will look where my motor and dish scales are at and adjust them the same in the afternoon today. The new system just went a couple houses down from me so the scale and settings on the dish should be the same. I was just curious to see if they are still stamping these 80CM’s with the scale off still.

 

[Anole]

if it don't work, fix it.

Fortec Star 80 CM dish question.......

Does anyone know if the scale on the new Fortec Star 80 CM dishes is fixed? I know that we all had problems with the scale not right in the past and I was wondering if that problem was fixed on the new run models since.

I think someone ask Sadoun about the elevation scale when he announced the dish.
I believe he was going to check it.

From what I've seen, the long LNB mounting arm is easily tweaked a smidge, causing elevation offset.
It's hard to measure so the user is left wondering.

There is a simple way to fix it, or to assure it is set correctly.
Pick a satellite such as your true south bird.
Adjust the dish elevation 'till the satellite is received.
If the elevation scale is off, tweak the LNB mounting arm up or down as required just a little bit.
Then, reset the elevation, and make sure you get the satellite at the correct reading.
From then on, you can trust the elevation markings.

I thought about this a long time ago, and am using it on a 3ABN dish.
See, I replaced all three of the LNB arms with my own longer, heavy duty supports.
Figure the first tweak is to get the elevation reading properly to guarantee the LNB is in the right place.

 

[FTABman0]

I think someone ask Sadoun about the elevation scale when he announced the dish.
I believe he was going to check it.

It will be interesting to see what they find out. It might have been since corrected.

There is a simple way to fix it or to assure you it is set correctly.
Pick a satellite such as your true south bird.
Adjust the dish elevation 'till the satellite is received.
If the elevation scale is off, tweak the LNB mounting arm up or down as required just a little bit.
Then, reset the elevation, and make sure you get the satellite at the correct reading.

Thanks Anole, I will try that in the afternoon today. On the new Fortec Dish I got the other day, I set it just like mine (my Fortec is 3 years old now) and it is off the arc, I just wonder if it is fixed now since that new one does not track like my old one set the same. Where it is is just 4 doors down from me. I just set it up like mine assuming that it was off still after all this time. I will also try to set it like it is supposed to be just to see if you know. Will let you know!

Another question:

My true south is Nimiq 2, I set the new system up with just a linear LNB. I know the Nimiq birds are circular, is there anything that the linear LNB can see on Nimiq 2? Will I have to put a circular LNB on there to aim it is my question? I never go to Nimiq 2 other than to check my true south sometimes but I have the old trusty Invacom so it is not a issue for me.

Thanks again Anole!

Kevin

 

[Anole]

I meant to suggest the dish be re-tweaked while mounted on a plumb pole.

My reference material claims that from Mineralwells, all the following birds are at the same elevation:

[FONT=Fixedsys] 
..
                   Mineralwells, WV 26150
         Latitude 39° 10.788'N Longitude 81° 31.146'W

           Sat Name Sat Lng  Az(t)  [COLOR=Green]Az(m)[/COLOR] El  Skew
----------------------------------------------------
             [U][URL="http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?page=79+AMC+5"]AMC 5[/URL][/U]   79.0W  176.0  [COLOR=Green]184.3[/COLOR] [COLOR=Green]44.6[/COLOR] [COLOR=Green]-3.1[/COLOR]
           Nimiq 2   82.0W  180.8  189.1 44.6 +0.6  circular
             [U][URL="http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?page=83+AMC+9"]AMC 9[/URL][/U]   83.0W  182.3  [COLOR=Green]190.7[/COLOR] [COLOR=Green]44.6[/COLOR] +[COLOR=Green]1.8[/COLOR]
      Brasilsat B3   84.0W  183.9  192.2 44.6 +3.0[/FONT][FONT=Fixedsys]  C-band   

[/FONT]

... so any of them you can get, should work.

I don't think I'd experiment with the dual-mode Invacom.
It's quite heavy, and you don't need nor want circular.

As to the point of being off the arc...
I believe if you set the motor correctly, (which means it has a scale with some questionable adjustment, too)...
....and THEN adjusted the dish elevation to your true south satellite, (not necessarily to its own scale)...
then both dishes should be equally on the arc.

edit: added links to strong transponders for several birds

 

[FTABman0]

Linear On Nimiq 2!

Thanks for the information Anole!

What I meant with the Nimiq 82 bird was not to try a Invacom on the new system, but is there transponder shooting down a linear signal that I can get to use this bird at all to aim? I do not want really to put a circular LNB on it just to aim in True South but would like to use it to adjust the dish since it is my True South Bird. The LNB on it now is a Sadoun linear LNB standard ship by them and was wondering if there are any linear signals on Nimiq 82 to use for “True South” instead of mounting a circular on there to use to aim in.

Guess I can move mine over there to 82 and switch my Invacom to linear to try to see if anything comes through on linear.......brb.............

Found Thunder Bay TV & CH Montreal and a couple others coming through on the linear side on Nimiq 2 so I guess I answered my own question! There are a few linear KU signals coming down that circular bird!
Of course the "Scramble" is up there but it is locked with 95% Quality!

So I will manually punch in those transponders in on the new system and get Nimiq 2 in there on the linear LNB to use as my True South line up! I just wanted to use this bird as I have set many up here using it by the book as my TS! This is the first setup though with just a linear LNB, so you can see wanting to use 82 for TS how the question arise!

Funny how we tend to try stuff to get around things to find out that it works and could have worked the whole time if we just went and tried! That is why it is a hobby, finding out new things as we go that just puts a smile on our faces!

I found out too that NASA TV comes in on 119 when I go to linear. I did not know that! :up
I assumed you needed a circular LNB for that and is the main reason I bought my Invacom was just for NASA TV! I obviously did not need to get that just for NASA and any old linear LNB would have pulled it in. Unless that was changed recently, if it was I never knew about it. Never tried it either until today!


Sorry if I got a bit confusing in the last post.

Thanks again for the information though, will try your suggestions if all else fails!
Have a great week & I will keep you posted.

 

[SatPhreak]

Everything on 82 is circular but somtimes a linear lnb will pick up the lower freq circular transponders. I've picked up a couple transponders from 82 when doing a scan on 83 with a linear lnb. I've also picked up some on 119 with a *C 60E that is aimed at 123 and tried the second lnb for giggles. The second lnb was aimed at 119 and I figured it might get some of the 118.7 transponders but it got some frome 118.7 and some from 119. I then modified it with a dielectric to change to circular but it wouldn't pick up 12370 for nasa. It got close but would only get up to 12355.

 

[Tron]

As SatPhreak said, the linear LNBFs will pick up some circular transponders (the ones that are in their frequency range), but at a lower quality than the proper circular LNBF would. Its a pain, really, because when you're trying to scan a linear sat close to 119w, you have to deal with some scrambled channels that are picked up from Echo 7.

 

[FTABman0]

Got to playing around with the Dynamic today and did find a way to actually scan satellites into the box without the remote! To scan right you really need the remote for things like: punching in your location for the motor control, the green, red, white & PSCAN buttons I might add would be great but my remote is not working at the moment so playing around a bit with the front STB access buttons I found a way around it to at least get something to come through it!

I used my CNX to move to what bird I want and turned it off, took the coax off and through it unto the back of the Dynamic, got into the menu from the front panel and set up what satellite I wanted, LNB set up and so forth. There is a scroll down function that in the OSD main menu that has just Power Scan and it does not need the remote for that just an OK! Turned the dish to IA 5 and let it go! It only found 27 channels and 7 radio but enough to watch something! I moved it to RTN Ville 10R and did a similar scan for the equity stuff and got all those in time to watch a KOJAK episode! Woo Hoo! I like this box! Better than the Classic NA and much faster scan results too!

But the remote is very much needed so I will eagerly await the remote to get it set up right! Now on the comparison to the Mercury II, not much has changed here other than looks I feel, better layout OSD with a couple changes, I do think the scan is a bit faster but can’t tell you that for sure yet until I get things scanned into it right with the proper remote. Since the Mercury II remote and the Dynamic looks the same you would think that the remote to the Merc would work the Dynamic, I found out that it does not. I hope the box is not really the problem with the remote though but I know for sure that the IR in the remote is not emitting! More on it later!

Update 10/14/2008 8:30 AM I got the remote working! Took it apart carefully, found that the transistor had come unsoldered at the board, working great now! It was damaged out of the box and has a small section of plastic missing from where it snaps together where it got man-handled during UPS shipping but I can overlook that! Works! Setting up and scanning now! Woo Hoo! Funny thing is it still will not control the Merc II? Stumped there, unless they are coded different although the look alikeness. All the buttons work what more you you ask!

 

[rv1pop]

That means two receivers can be in the same room and both work off there own remotes! Great DEAL! Kids in the youth hall!