My Setup:
36” Fortec Star Dish
Invacom Quad LNB
2x1 DiSEqC switch
LNB1 – Linear
LNB2 - Circular
SG2100 Motor
50’ RJ11 Premium Coax
Skystar 2 PCI DVB-S card
OS1- Vista 64 Ultimate
OS2-XP MCE 2005
So my dish’s location is 33.1098243988075 N 117.242466135638 W
I have mounted the dish & motor on a plumb 1-5/8” pole using a Perfect Vision PVEM1 Eve Mount.
Yesterday I pointed the motor at true south and swept the sky and I could see that it was aligned right because my analog signal meter picked up a bunch of birds as I swept the sky. My first victory!
Now I have to figure out how to tune this thing to where I can actually get a picture. I used the “satfinder” program to get a list of satellites
The first thing that confused the hell out of me is that I used this site (as recommended) http://satcalculator.freehostia.com/ and put in sg2100 and my location and it told me to have an azimuth of 117.24. This is according to my compass pointing out into the west. It also told me that I should have a motor elevation of 33.11 degrees which is contrary to the sg2100 manual that says it should be 57 deg. What this site did agree on was the dish bracket angle of 24.6 deg (obtained from subtracting the declination angle of 5.4 from 30 deg).
Right now the SS2 card Isn’t capable of turning the motor, so I am manually turning it myself. So I have to figure out.
1. What bird to point at
2. How to set my receiver
As far as I can tell the bird that is closest to true south me is Satmex 5. But really I would be happy pointing this thing at anything that would give me a picture.
I wanted to do it with my the Setup4PC program that came with the SS2 card. After I can lock a signal with this I will move on to other fun DVB programs that require32bit XP.
So my questions are:
(1) What DiSEqC settings do I put? I am assuming that Simple A will select LNB 1 on the switch which is hooked up to the linear LNB, and Simple B will select LNB 2 on the switch which is hooked up to the circular LNB.
(2) What does the Switch frequency mean? Does that have anything to do with my DiSEqC 1x2 switch?
(3) How do I determine if I should be using linear or circular LNBF’s based on the lyngsat charts? I know it’s the L/R/H/V in the first column but I don’t know if the L stands for Linear or Left, and I don’t know if the R stands for Radial or Right.
(4) Do the LNB settings change for each satellite I want to look at? Or they change just based on if I’m searching for a linear or circular signal. I don’t know if I should pick 10750MHz, 11250MHz, or what.
In setup4PC I have been going to the “status” page then manually tuning in there. I know if somehow I pick the right settings I will be able to lock a satellite. All the settings that came with Setup4PC seem to be in the eastern hemisphere, so I have to manually setup my own. (5) Or I can I use some INI file that has the satellites for the western hemisphere already defined?
Failing that, I need to know which of these manual settings:
a. Transponder (MHz)
b. Symbol Rate (kS/s)
c. FEC
d. Polarity
e. LNB Frequency
f. LNB Selection (22khz?)
g. DiSEqC
That I should enter in order to tune something from one of the satellites. I think I would be best for me to try Echostar 7 or Satmex 5.
Thanks for going through my TL;DR post, Appreciate your help!
36” Fortec Star Dish
Invacom Quad LNB
2x1 DiSEqC switch
LNB1 – Linear
LNB2 - Circular
SG2100 Motor
50’ RJ11 Premium Coax
Skystar 2 PCI DVB-S card
OS1- Vista 64 Ultimate
OS2-XP MCE 2005
So my dish’s location is 33.1098243988075 N 117.242466135638 W
I have mounted the dish & motor on a plumb 1-5/8” pole using a Perfect Vision PVEM1 Eve Mount.
Yesterday I pointed the motor at true south and swept the sky and I could see that it was aligned right because my analog signal meter picked up a bunch of birds as I swept the sky. My first victory!
Now I have to figure out how to tune this thing to where I can actually get a picture. I used the “satfinder” program to get a list of satellites
PHP:
Sat Name Sat Lng Az(t) Az(m) El Skew
-------------------------------------------------------------
*** All Satellites 61W - 160W ***
EchoStar 3 61.5W 110.4 96.9 20.0 -51.7
Rainbow 1 61.5W 110.4 96.9 20.0 -51.7
Brasilsat A2 (incl. 5.8 deg) 63.0W 111.5 97.9 21.2 -51.2
Brasilsat B2 65.0W 112.9 99.4 22.8 -50.5
Brasilsat B1 70.0W 116.8 103.3 26.9 -48.4
Nahuel 1 71.8W 118.3 104.7 28.3 -47.5
AMC 6 72.0W 118.4 104.9 28.5 -47.4
Galaxy 12 74.0W 120.1 106.6 30.1 -46.4
SBS 6 74.0W 120.1 106.6 30.1 -46.4
GOES 12 75.0W 121.0 107.5 30.9 -45.9
AMC 5 79.0W 124.7 111.2 33.9 -43.5
DirecTV 3 81.8W 127.5 114.0 36.0 -41.6
Nimiq 2 82.0W 127.7 114.2 36.1 -41.5
Brasilsat B3 84.0W 129.8 116.3 37.6 -40.1
XM Roll 85.0W 130.9 117.4 38.3 -39.3
AMC 9 85.0W 130.9 117.4 38.3 -39.3
AMC 3 87.0W 133.1 119.6 39.7 -37.7
Galaxy 9 91.0W 137.9 124.4 42.3 -34.1
Galaxy 11 91.0W 137.9 124.4 42.3 -34.1
Nimiq 1 91.0W 137.9 124.4 42.3 -34.1
Brasilsat B4 92.0W 139.2 125.7 42.9 -33.2
Telstar 6 93.0W 140.5 127.0 43.5 -32.2
Galaxy 8I (incl. 1.0 deg) 95.0W 143.2 129.6 44.7 -30.1
Galaxy 3C 95.0W 143.2 129.6 44.7 -30.1
Telstar 5 97.0W 146.0 132.4 45.7 -27.9
Inmarsat 2 f2 (incl. 1.7 deg) 98.0W 147.4 133.9 46.3 -26.8
Galaxy 4R 99.0W 148.9 135.4 46.8 -25.6
DirecTV 2 100.8W 151.6 138.1 47.6 -23.5
DirecTV 1R 100.8W 151.6 138.1 47.6 -23.5
AMC 4 101.0W 151.9 138.4 47.7 -23.2
DirecTV 1 101.0W 151.9 138.4 47.7 -23.2
AMSC 1 101.1W 152.1 138.5 47.7 -23.1
DirecTV 4S 101.2W 152.2 138.7 47.8 -23.0
AMC 1 103.0W 155.1 141.5 48.5 -20.7
Solidaridad 1 (incl. 2.8 deg) 103.5W 155.9 142.3 48.7 -20.0
AMC 2 105.0W 158.3 144.8 49.3 -18.0
G-Star 3 (incl. 11.5 deg) 105.0W 158.3 144.8 49.3 -18.0
G-Star 1 (incl. 6.0 deg) 105.0W 158.3 144.8 49.3 -18.0
MSAT 1 106.5W 160.8 147.3 49.8 -16.0
Anik F1 107.3W 162.2 148.7 50.0 -14.8
Anik E1 109.2W 165.5 152.0 50.5 -12.1
DirecTV 6 109.8W 166.6 153.0 50.7 -11.2
EchoStar 6 110.0W 166.9 153.4 50.7 -10.9
EchoStar 8 110.0W 166.9 153.4 50.7 -10.9
Anik E2R 111.1W 168.9 155.3 50.9 -9.3
Solidaridad 2 113.0W 172.3 158.7 51.2 -6.5
Morelos 2 (incl. 4.4 deg) 114.9W 175.7 162.2 51.4 -3.6
XM Rock 115.0W 175.9 162.4 51.4 -3.4
SatMex 5 116.8W 179.2 165.7 51.5 -0.7
Anik E2 118.7W 182.7 169.1 51.5 2.2
DirecTV 5 119.0W 183.2 169.7 51.4 2.7
EchoStar 7 119.0W 183.2 169.7 51.4 2.7
EchoStar 5 119.0W 183.2 169.7 51.4 2.7
EchoStar 9/Telstar 13 121.0W 186.9 173.3 51.3 5.7
Galaxy 10R 123.0W 190.5 176.9 51.0 8.7
Galaxy 5 125.0W 194.0 180.5 50.6 11.7
Galaxy 12 125.0W 194.0 180.5 50.6 11.7
Galaxy 13 127.0W 197.5 183.9 50.1 14.6
Telstar 7 129.0W 200.9 187.3 49.4 17.4
Satcom C3 131.0W 204.1 190.6 48.7 20.0
Galaxy 1R 133.0W 207.3 193.8 47.9 22.6
Satcom C4 135.0W 210.4 196.8 47.0 25.1
GOES 10 135.5W 211.1 197.6 46.7 25.7
AMC 7 137.0W 213.3 199.8 46.0 27.4
AMC 8 139.0W 216.2 202.6 44.9 29.6
Inmarsat 2 f3 (incl. 1.9 deg) 142.0W 220.2 206.6 43.2 32.7
EchoStar 1 148.0W 227.5 213.9 39.3 38.1
EchoStar 2 148.0W 227.5 213.9 39.3 38.1
TDRS 9 (incl. 7.4 deg) 151.0W 230.7 217.2 37.2 40.4
TDRS 10 (incl. 6.2 deg) 151.0W 230.7 217.2 37.2 40.4
EchoStar 4 157.0W 236.7 223.2 32.8 44.4Right now the SS2 card Isn’t capable of turning the motor, so I am manually turning it myself. So I have to figure out.
1. What bird to point at
2. How to set my receiver
As far as I can tell the bird that is closest to true south me is Satmex 5. But really I would be happy pointing this thing at anything that would give me a picture.
I wanted to do it with my the Setup4PC program that came with the SS2 card. After I can lock a signal with this I will move on to other fun DVB programs that require32bit XP.
So my questions are:
(1) What DiSEqC settings do I put? I am assuming that Simple A will select LNB 1 on the switch which is hooked up to the linear LNB, and Simple B will select LNB 2 on the switch which is hooked up to the circular LNB.
(2) What does the Switch frequency mean? Does that have anything to do with my DiSEqC 1x2 switch?
(3) How do I determine if I should be using linear or circular LNBF’s based on the lyngsat charts? I know it’s the L/R/H/V in the first column but I don’t know if the L stands for Linear or Left, and I don’t know if the R stands for Radial or Right.
(4) Do the LNB settings change for each satellite I want to look at? Or they change just based on if I’m searching for a linear or circular signal. I don’t know if I should pick 10750MHz, 11250MHz, or what.
In setup4PC I have been going to the “status” page then manually tuning in there. I know if somehow I pick the right settings I will be able to lock a satellite. All the settings that came with Setup4PC seem to be in the eastern hemisphere, so I have to manually setup my own. (5) Or I can I use some INI file that has the satellites for the western hemisphere already defined?
Failing that, I need to know which of these manual settings:
a. Transponder (MHz)
b. Symbol Rate (kS/s)
c. FEC
d. Polarity
e. LNB Frequency
f. LNB Selection (22khz?)
g. DiSEqC
That I should enter in order to tune something from one of the satellites. I think I would be best for me to try Echostar 7 or Satmex 5.
Thanks for going through my TL;DR post, Appreciate your help!
