G26 signal strengths

[nhulst]

A while back, I posted a thread on Sadoun's forum talking about the difficulties I've had lately, mainly on G26. CBS Newspath was the strongest signal up there at the time I got into FTA about a year ago, and now I am struggling to get a signal that is even usable. Meantime, the opposite has happened with Macy's--it's absolutely booming right now.

My previous setup used a Fortec Star 80 cm dish and an Invacom LNBF. I was just about ready to invest in a 90 cm dish when I happened upon a free Direcway dish and LNB. I set that up today. New dish and new LNB, and exactly the same results as before! The only thing common between the two tests is my receiver (Mercury II with the 1.53 software).

Two questions:

Can anybody with access to G26 please post your signal strengths for CBS Newspath and Macy's? I know the exact values won't be meaningful from receiver to receiver, but the difference between the two on the same receiver is what matters here.

Is my Mercury II on its last legs? It's only a year old.

 

[brentb636]

5:31 PM EDT
CBS Newspath 46%
Macy's 4 76%

Mercury II, 1.53 firmware, 80cm Fortec Star dish, Invacom qph031 .

[edit]
CBS Newspath q=59% Macy's 4 q=83%
VisionSat IV200, 90 cm Fortec Star dish, Invacom qph031

 

[phlatwound]

7:45 CDT
CBS Newspath, 62-66%
Macy's 4, 70-76%

Visionsat IV200, 39" 3ABN dish, Techsat Tracker II LNB, clear sky in the Ozarks hill country.

 

[Mr Tony]

CBS...69-70
Doc Scott...69-70
Macy's...79

Coolsat 5000, 30" dish, Sadoun dual LNB

 

[nhulst]

Thanks very much, everybody. At least my observation about Macy's being stronger held true. I spent some more time tweaking this evening and still can't get a usable picture on Newspath... oh well, try again tomorrow. Luckily I've been wanting a PCI card anyway, so soon I'll have something to compare the Mercury against.

 

[asmodee]

I haven't really watched tv/messed with my dish for a couple months, but I noticed this same problem 2 nights ago. I could get Macy's, but CBS newspath was much lower... in fact it was around a Q of 3-5, which basically made it impossible to watch. I don't recall what it used to be, but it was watchable last time I tried.

This was on an 85cm dish with an Invacom Q31 and an Sv-4000.

EDIT: newspath is working fine for me now, it's about the same Q as macys.

 

[brentb636]

Check to see whether or not the skew is set correctly. I bumped my lnbf last month while cutting the grass, and it spun a little in the holder. Made for some low, but useable channels. I didn't think much about it, until a ran into a totally unuseable channel. That's when I checked it, and remedied the situation.