OK, thanks for the encouragement. Following are some questions that I have. If you can answer one or all via this listserv or privately, anything will be appreciated.
As a beginning point...I already had an old 10' fiberglass dish and an analog Uniden UST-4500 receiver that I purchased at a garage sale about 10-11 years ago, installed it, used it a few times, and then got too busy to use it even once for the last 10 years. But now I have a little more time. So... wanting to modernize, a couple of weeks ago I purchased used equipment from a satellite dealer which I found online. I purchased a SuperJack XL 3024 actuator, a 500' roll of dual RG-6 cable with a bag of 100 cable ends, a crimping tool, a Chaparral Corotor II Plus feedhorn with C and Ku LNB's, and a cheapo satellite finder meter. I also purchased a used Coolsat 5000 Platinum from ebay (for $20). The SuperJack actuator had a shattered rotating magnet and loose reed sensor which I have since fixed. I connected my receiver, monitor, etc. at the dish site using a long extension cord so that I can see what is going on with the dish. I can turn the dish around with the Uniden receiver and can find satellites and see some channels. So here are some questions...
1) When I rotate the dish by holding down the E or W button of the Uniden analog receiver, it turns the dish in short spurts (go, stop, go, stop...). With the stop and go it seems like it takes forever to go from horizon to horizon. The motor stops every 1/4 turn as it advances. Is this the way it is supposed to work? When the dish turns, how much does it advance in degrees or fractions of a degree every time it nudges forward?
2) I have no idea what satellite I'm watching. Is there a way to tell which satellite I am aiming at other than seeing what channels pop up using the Coolsat 5000 Blind Scan function and then trying to compare what I see to a list of known channels from a known satellite? And...where can I find that list?
3) How many and which channels from each satellite should I receive if I have average quality C and Ku LNB's and my dish is aimed and tuned properly? Should I receive ALL of them (assuming FTA) or just some of them?
4) I have both a C and Ku LNB on the Corotor feedhorn and both are connected via a short (for testing purposes) dual RG6 cable to a 4x1 diseqc switch which goes into the back of the Coolsat 5000. Since the Coolsat seems to do all the work of tuning the channels, how can I tell which channels are C and Ku? How do I even know that I actually am receiving Ku band channels?
5) The Corotor II Plus manual (step 5) says that I should attach the alignment arrow to the Ku-Band elbow..." so that I can align the Corotor correctly according to the polar axis of the dish. Since I purchased a used Corotor I have no alignment arrow so I don't know what they are talking about, and the drawing in the manual doesn't make any sense. So, what is the correct orientation of the feedhorn?
6) When I saw channels on the monitor, some of them came in pretty well (China, Spanish language, Health, etc.) but when I aimed at a satellite that was showing 70's re-runs (which I happen to want), the video came in rather choppy and blocky and I couldn't seem to rotate the dish or adjust up or down to improve that reception. Maybe I have to adjust the feedhorn, but the manual is not all that clear on how to do that. Any clear suggestions would be welcome.
7) Should I run the dual RG6 cable all the way to the house with the 4x1 diseq switch at the receiver or should I run a single RG6 cable to the house with the 4x2 diseq switch at the dish? If one is preferred over the other, why?
8) I have more questions but I'll stop there to see what happens.
Again, any help will be appreciated. Huertaaj
