How Much S and Q is Enough for IA5 97.0W?

[jsattv]

After fighting off pneumonia & hernia surgery the last 2 months, I finally was okay enough to get up on the roof yesterday to adjust my 1 meter (39 inch) Fortec Star dish with Stab HH120 motor. My major problem when the cold weather hit in January, had been too low a signal level for all channels on 97.0W - my South Bird. Before I went up, the only transponder I could get any response at all from was 12007 which was S =57 and Q = 10 %. (ViewSat Receiver). Ran the Sat Receiver thru my VCR on this Transponder and went up and started by tilting the Dish Slightly up without even loosening the Elevation Bolts. The Dish did move up just a bit. Previous elevation setting had been about 32 degrees.

Came down the ladder & to my surprise 12007 had improved to S = 67 and Q = 88 to 100%!! Checked a whole bunch of other transponders including IceBergs' recommended - 12152 which had S = 71 and Q = 61, and 12177 was S = 71 and Q = 75. Performance on every channel I checked on 97.0W was much improved.

My question: are these Q levels of 75 for 12177, and 61 for 12152 okay? That is, how do you know when you've reached the best performance possible?? And does this means I need to rescan each Satellite again?

 

[SatelliteAV]

The Quality level seems adequate for Galaxy25 (IA5), but check the weaker transponders like 11966. If the quality remains 60+% then it should be fine. Though I would expect higher Signal Quality readings with a one meter dish and an Invacom.

How high of Signal Quality is optimal? Since each system is slightly different .... Keep adjusting until it won't get higher!

You should only need to rescan to receive the latest update of channels available.

 

[Mr Tony]

12177 is pretty much what my Pansat 1500 gets. 12152 seems a smidge low. Normally both of those are the same quality.

But as SatAV said, each receiver can read different. As an example, here is the threshold for various receivers I have
Pansat 1500 30
Coolsat 5000 63
Coolsat 8000 25
Fortec Ultra 40
Viacast 2000 25

so as you can see its all over the board. I would check 11966 (Russia Today). That TP seems to be pretty low compared ot the others

 

[jsattv]

Thanks IceBerg & Satellite AV, my levels for "Russia Today" on 11966 are S = 71 & Q = 45, but it seems rock solid now, where previously it was breaking up and pixillezing before. Boy IceBerg that is quite a difference in the Quality levels re the various Receivers! Guess I'll leave the Dish alone for a while and try some more Sats.

Very cloudy snowing and overcast today, but as soon as it gets sunny I'll try for the Benchmark or hardest Sat to get for me up here in Winnipeg, that is SBS6 74.0W and Ohio News Network.

 

[Mr Tony]

Very cloudy snowing and overcast today, but as soon as it gets sunny I'll try for the Benchmark or hardest Sat to get for me up here in Winnipeg, that is SBS6 74.0W and Ohio News Network.

Its heavy clouds and raining in Minneapolis and my numbers are lower than normal. If we get a clear day that will be the true test

As for ONN, that is really low right now for me

 

[jsattv]

How Much S and Q is Enough for IA5 97.0W?

Its heavy clouds and raining in Minneapolis and my numbers are lower than normal. If we get a clear day that will be the true test

As for ONN, that is really low right now for me

Thanks IceBerg. Tried for ONN late this evening and got it as well as 3 other services (wild feeds?): TandBerg Svcs, News 12, & Auto 13.5 MHz. The feeds didn't last very long, and never did pick up Auto 13.

ONN at first was Pixellizing - then it came in. But Q for ONN is only at maximum up to 16%, & more like 10 to 12%. Would this be about right for Winnipeg, Canada? I thought someone previously had posted that we (Winnipeg) were on the very edge of the reception range for ONN?

 

[Mr Tony]

I know the V side off SBS6 is bad here in Minneapolis and the H is better but maybe you are on the fringe.

 

[jsattv]

How Much S and Q is Enough for IA5 97.0W?

I know the V side off SBS6 is bad here in Minneapolis and the H is better but maybe you are on the fringe.

Thanks IceBerg a quick question: How do you sort out V side and H side on any Satellite? Do I look up H and V for each Satellite on Lungsat Listings?

Also on my receiver when scanning in the Sat Channels, the only choices are: Sat Scan (F1), Blind Scan (F2) - which I always use, Scan Multi-Sat (F3), & Blind Option (F4). Is there a way to separate V and H side, and why would I want to do this?

 

[Mr Tony]

Thanks IceBerg a quick question: How do you sort out V side and H side on any Satellite? Do I look up H and V for each Satellite on Lungsat Listings?

pretty much. Lyngsat showsit on the maps. and sadly they dont show it for SBS6 but I remember the V lines ran just north of Minneapolis. Tghere were 42,40,38 etc right by each other which emant the signal dropped off dramatically.

Also on my receiver when scanning in the Sat Channels, the only choices are: Sat Scan (F1), Blind Scan (F2) - which I always use, Scan Multi-Sat (F3), & Blind Option (F4). Is there a way to separate V and H side, and why would I want to do this?

each box is different. All my boxes with blind scan have an option for H, V, or both (this would be the Fortec, Pansat & Coolsat).

2 reasons why I could see someone doing just one polarity
-they have the box slaved to a big dish which most will only do one polarity at a time. Most of the older LNB's the polarity is controlled by the C-Band box.
-some satellites seem to mainly use feeds on one polarity. As an example, AMC9 mainly uses H polarity. Also it seems like AMC1 does that too. AMC6 likes to mainly be V polarity. So no need to blind scan both sides.

 

[jsattv]

Thanks for the great info Iceberg. With todays' cloudy, cold (-12 C last night), & windy weather, the Dish is not working again. I think it got knocked out of kilter again. S values down to 58 and Q = 0 as was before for 97.0W. Guess its back up on the roof again when the weather gets better. I'm wondering if this time (when it gets warmer), I should mark the current Elevation, then undo the bolts, move it up a tad, and bolt it back down?

 

[Anole]

...could it be . . . ?

I thought the current wisdom was that Viewsats didn't drive motors so well.
Is the ViewSat Extreme Receiver an exception to that?

Any chance any of your problems are related?

I hear so much good about the brand but that one nagging problem keeps me off 'em.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Viewsat Extreme receivers also suffer from CVMCS - Confused Viewsat Motor Control Syndrome.

Before climbing on the roof, try resetting the receiver and reloading a few satellites. I agree with Anole, this sounds like CVMCS.

 

[Mr Tony]

Viewsat Extreme receivers also suffer from CVMCS - Confused Viewsat Motor Control Syndrome.

ok thats funny
might want to patent that

 

[jsattv]

How Much S and Q is Enough for IA5 97.0W & FDESS

ok thats funny
might want to patent that

Got back up on the roof yesterday, it was a beautiful blue sky sunny day, but very windy and extremely cold - eyes were watering from the wind chill up there. This time instead of just tilting the Fortec Dish, I undid the Elevation Bolts and moved the Dish up about 1.5 degrees. Came down and had signal on 97.0W - Q values on Russia Today (11966) were peaking at about 52%. (It was 40% last week).

Went back up again and moved Elevation on Fortec Dish scale up 1 more degree. No picture this time, so moved it back down 1 degree. So at least now I know with this Fortec Dish, HH120 Stab Motor, and ViewSat Receiver, 31 degrees is too low & 34 degrees is too high. Checked ONN on SBS6 74.0W and it was coming in great, in fact this evening its Q values for ONN @ 11741 = up to 37%, the best I've ever seen!! AMC 1 - Pentagon channel @ 12100 was at Q = 31% Max. So everything is looking okay for now.

But colder -20 degrees is forcast for tomorrow evening which should be a real good test of how the Dish is set and how it holds up. I'm hoping it doesn't shift down again, unless it has - FDESS, - Fortec Dish Elevation Shift Syndrome. Maybe the whole problem was due to not tightening the Elevation Bolts enough, but how tight do you go? They are really tight now.

 

[Anole]

...the Elevation Bolts... how tight do you go?

Right to the point where they break, then back off about 10%
Of course, some may argue it should be 5%, but I like to leave a bit of room for error.

 

[jsattv]

Not sure what you mean Anole, but the tightness of the Elevation Bolts is such that the white paint is peeling off the Indicator Settings on the 0 - 90 degrees Dish Elevation settings.

Another comment is that the "Indicator Mark" or Pointer on the Parallel Pole is very hard to see even in bright sunlight on the Fortec Dish (maybe blindness is setting in with old age), so I carefully used a thin felt marker to be able to see this "Pointer better". Bottom line on the whole elevation thing is that SatCalculator freeHostia, and Stab web Elevation calculator said that the Dish Elevation with a Motor for my location should be 22.7, when in fact it turned out to be 33 degrees. This made it extremely difficult to capture 97.0W. New people starting in this wonderful hobby should be made aware that Dish Elevation -at least for a Fortec Star Dish, can be as much as 10 degrees out, to avoid a lot of frustration.

 

[Anole]

10º? yikes!

Well, I was making a joke about how hard to tighten the bolts...

...and as for the Fortec dishes, they have been reported to be off elevation quite a bit, here on the forum.
I have one out back right now, set up on a pole in a 5-gallon bucket of cement, that's blown over.
I'm not going to be a bit surprised if it's off somewhat more than it used to be.
That long LNB arm is certainly subject to "outside forces", if you know what I mean.

I generally use the settings just as a starting point and don't much worry about the actual readings.
But maybe I'll see about re-tweaking the LNB arm and bring mine in to 1º..2º or so.