coisado said:
So it looks like i should ditch the pci card for now and set it up with a stb. what are the diferences for set top boxes? Would the little cheap ones work as well as the more expensive. I know that I would want one with power scan. I just want some information before i go plunking more cash into this sinking boat of a hobby. I guess i would be less reluctant to purchase it if I had already had some kind on success.
The Fortec Lifetime Classic NA is a good receiver with blind scan. It's $129.00 plus shipping from our sponsor Sadoun (link is at the top of the page).
It's good to have both a STB and a pci or usb receiver. I use the usb one (a DVBWorld) to watch 4:2:2 feeds that the STB can't decode. I'm not sure if the card you have decodes the 4:2:2 feeds or not.
That said, before I'd give up on the card I'd setup the dish on the tripod, hook the C output of the LNB to the receiver, and point the dish at 119 (177.7 degrees on the compass, 42.8 elevation). Set the LNB freq to 11250, the transponder to 12370 V, SR (symbol rate) to 20000, and look for the NASA channel. Using the DSS satellite gives you a much stronger signal to work with and eliminates having to set/tweak the skew on the lnb.
If you can get that working there's music available on that sat on transponders 12268 H, 12297 H, 12326 H, 12384 H, 12399 V, 12443 H, 12472 H, 12486 V, 12501 H, and 12516 V. Also Angel One TV (a religious channel) on 12428 V.
Once you've done that you can play with the software to get familiar with it before you move on to finding other satellites.