Galaxy 18 help

[Onjai]

Hi everybody!
I've learned a lot over the past week about fta. Lots of trial and error. I'm hoping you can help me locate Galaxy 18 at 123W.

My system:
VS2000 Ultra
33" Digiwave dish
Digiwave DGL990D Ku band LNBF

Location:
Lat. 49.8564
Long. -97.2615

I set my receiver on Antenna setup with these values:
Satellite: Galaxy 18
LNB power: ON
LNB type: Standard
LNB Freq: 10750
22KHz: Off
Tp Freq: 11720
DiESEqC: none
Motor: Off

Pointed dish to approx. 208Deg azimuth(mag) as described at dishpointer.com (This is a cool site!)
Skewed LNB about 20 deg clockwise (from behind dish)
Elevation: about 30 deg.

Cannot receive more than 20% signal strength. Have spent hours moving the dish side to side and up and down in very small increments (about 1/4" at a time) and cannot get more than 20-30%. Q signal shows some movement but very unstable, 0 - 30% and it bounces constantly! Any suggestions? What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!

 

[Lak7]

(about 1/4" at a time)

When panning the Dish on the pole Left to Right, 1/32" is about 2 degrees, move very slow.

Cannot receive more than 20% signal strength.

Signal Strength or Quality?
Signal Strength indicates that the LNB has power and usually around 50-80.
You are looking for Quality.

Get it back to where you had the Q bouncing, and try adjusting the Skew.

 

[Onjai]

Signal strength never reaches above 20-30%
Quality did bounce around 0 - 30% but very unstable.
Tried skew, no change in either signal or quality strength.

 

[eurosport]

20-30% is too low for signal strength, as Lak7 said, it should be between 50-80 or so. That's probably why you can't get the quality up. I'd check the LNB and coax connections carefully.

 

[Mr Tony]

according to thelist I get this
123.0°W Galaxy 18 C/Ku
27.6° elevation
208.9° azimuth
20.2°L skew


so sounds like elevation is off on the dish....also alot of dishes the elevation marker is off

try and use this transponder...much stronger

12077 V 3680

 

[lownote2]

probably a silly question, but is your LOS (line of sight) ok? Your elevation is pretty low up there. I would think you'd be ok with a 33" dish, but maybe you need a bigger dish too way up there. G18 can be hard to hit. Take your time and move it slowly in very small increments and watch your meter. Also another gimmie.... but make your your mast/pole that the dish is mounted it is plumb and level. If it's not level it's going to throw off eveything and you'll have a difficult time.

 

[Onjai]

Thanks eurosport84: Coax connections are new. I cut and re-threaded the ends. LNB has two ports. Does it matter which port I use?

Iceberg, 20.2°L skew, does this mean twisting the LNB left while facing the dish? Will the skew angle affect signal or quality strength?

 

[Onjai]

The dish is mounted on the roof and line of sight is good. I know for sure that the mast is off about 15° off vertical, I thought I could compensate for that by increasing the elevation of the dish. Question: after an adjustment is made to the dish alignment, how long should I wait before making the next adjustment?

 

[Lak7]

Are you using RG6 cable?
Skew 20deg Left, counterclockwise, while looking at the Dish from behnd the LNB"
You---->LNB------->Dish

 

[Onjai]

Same cable that was left behind from an old bev install. Thanks for confirming the skew direction. I had it set properly. Will over skewing degrade signal and quality or just quality?

 

[Mr Tony]

this is if you are in front of the dish facing itskew needs to be this way..

just want to make sure you have it aimed right...20 degrees can mean the difference of no quality versus a signal

 

[Onjai]

Iceberg. Thanks. My LNB was skewed too much.

Question:
When I power the receiver and set the freq for G18, should signal always be at 50-80%? regardless of whether the dish is aligned for max quality?

Would moving the LNB out farther improve signal %? Right now the LNB is flush up to the mounting bracket as recommended in the installation instructions.

 

[Lak7]

Signal Strength should always be there, even if you put your hand over the white plastic on the LNB. It's Quality you are looking for.
Are you using any switches?

Right now the LNB is flush up to the mounting bracket as recommended in the installation instructions.

Can you post a Pic?

 

[Mr Tony]

that should be fine is the LNB is flush. Most of my LNB's are flush against the LNB holder

 

[Onjai]

LNB is flush, i.e. furthest it can be away from dish. I'm am not using any switches.
Could it be another problem if I am not getting 50-80% signal out of the LNB?

What I'm gathering here from all of your comments is that % signal strength is related only to the LNB and not dish position or LNB skew. Is this correct?

If I place a multimeter and measure VDC at the receiver, should I be seeing the 13-18VDC?

 

[Lak7]

Do you have a small piece of pre-made RG6 cable?
You could remove your LNB and bring it to the receiver, and connect it with with the small RG6 cable. You should see good signal strength.
New equip. is usually not the problem.

 

[Onjai]

Never under estimate a cabling problem. Thanks Lak7:up, followed your tip, pulled the LNB and found that it works fine and as a result located a break in my sat cable. Sig strength is now 80%, but still having trouble pinning down G18 at either 11720 or 11800 or 12114. I saw a thread yesterday that also asked about G18 and it seemed that Iceberg was the only person that was able to lock on to G18. Anyone else able to lock it with a 33" dish?

 

[Lak7]

You should have no problem getting G18, it just takes time.

 

[andyb2]

I get a lock(on one tp, forget the number) but not a great one in Southern Ontario.I was using the digiwave 1189s but it sucks at getting any Q as I have found with most lnb's from digi.When I bought the fortec 33" it came with a sat radar lnb that I have never heard of but it doubled the quality to 45.Someday I'll have money to get the qph-031 but for now I'll wait till the rain stops and go give the dish a few nudges.

 

[DishDigger]

Just "tweaked" my dish this afternoon - getting 90 - 97% Q on G18. Of course I'm MUCH further south (abt 110 miles south of Memphis, Tn) and using a 31" Fortec dish & standard LNB with a Coolsat 6000.