I just jumped into FTA. Digiwave (HD-9003PVR)

[rv1pop]

I've seen some members brace a bucket & pole to the railing on their deck.
Just a thought.

Im not crazy for concrete, but you buy a few 60-80 lb bags of readi-mix and stir it up with some water right in the bucket/pail/tub of choice.
It's cheap; you follow instructions on the bag; works first time.
Keep the pipe short.

Maybe this isn't best for you.
Might want to consider alternatives.
What about a small pallet?
Just bolt the foot and leg of the dish mount to it.
If there are extra braces for the pole (leg), attach them to the pallet.
Drop a few cinder blocks on your pallet to hold it in place.
Sorry if this has been mentioned - too many similar threads.
.

Cinder block, etc. are ok, But for temporary use - less than 5 years maybe, a skid or pallet, with the tripod or mast fastened to it, solidly. Fill milk jugs with water - easy to lift, fill and empty, on the pallet to hold it down and steady. I suggest putting that together, drag it around the yard with the receiver and TV and see if you can get anything. Most of the people I know and help are "Type A, analytical", like me, so we over plan - then find our 1st premiss was off - so if we had just experimented first - the job would be complete in a day!

Ooops EDIT-- Oh,yeah... My reason to post, I travel with a piece of 3/4 inch plywood 30 by 36 inches (well under 1 m square) with the mast foot mounted to it, bolts come up through from the bottom for the stabilizing braces. It takes 30 seconds to attach everything, 3 minutes to fill the water jugs and another 2 to 3 minutes to level the mast. Then the work of aiming - which, with 2 to 300 aims on the road completed, usually takes less than 10 minutes. So in about 15 minutes after I park the motorhome, I can watch TV.(Even at Wal-Mart in Macon, GA.)

 

[ChrisW6ATV]

rv1pop-

I do not want to hijack this topic, but I would like to know more about setting up an FTA dish while RV camping. Have you discussed or described your setup in any other posts or topics? Or, should I just start a new topic about it? Thanks.

 

[rv1pop]

I have done a lot of posting about it, but not a thread all by itself. It probably is not in good taste to hijack this thread, however, If you locate a system at home as if it were a mobile location, when you locate the best location, locating the permanent setup in the best location for you home location is so easy.

IT IS HOT so my "being ridiculous" humor just had to re-locate to the forum... GROAN!!!! That and having another feral cat having her babies in my space - at the Ham Shack doorway--- Then wanting us to help her set up housekeeping - in the motor home!

If I can find my camera agian, I will take POSED pictures of setting up and do a little RVer advice - maybe even some solar power advice. I have run my genarator for about 10 minutes in the last 2 weeks - to run the saws and pump a little water. Everything is on the solar / batteries.

 

[Anole]

Rv1pop
I remember you'd posted many good RV suggestions.
Thought you had a dedicated thread.
If not, how 'bout putting all your great ideas over in a new thread in the FTA Shack? :up

 

[rv1pop]

Anole, I guess I will have to figure out how to do searches! But right now the weather is nice and I have to get the outside walls up before snow files agin -- or before the temp drops too low for the concrete ) .

Just to add an edit. I am really enjoying solar power and being off grid. I ran the generator for 25 minutes to cut top and bottom plates and studs for 48 feet of wall. I had to find the can of gas... So my power bill for last month and so far this month - less than 5 gallons of gas. Who was bad mouthing pay-back issues? And That does include recording an hour of satellite TV every day and watching the recording on my GeoSAT a couple of times + an hour or two of ham radio.

 

[mrpeter105]

Anole: Thank you for your tips about bracing and such. I was considering that when rv1pop posted his suggestion. I used that.

I must say that I originally thought about mounting it like that to a skid but I thought it wouldn't be high enough. When rv1pop posted his idea I tried it again. This time I got a piece of plywood and mounted the pole/braces on some 2x8's which are mounted to the plywood board. There is enough clearance for it to stand. So thank you rv1pop for spurring me in the right direction.

So I did this and stuck this on top of the skid and loaded some blocks on it to hold it down. I've attached the lnb and coax to the house. I had to use a 25ft and a 50 ft piece mated with a coupler. I then used a 3ft cable going through the wall to mate a 50 ft inside cable to the outside cable. I unplugged the receiver and attached the cable to it. I also adjusted the dish for where I think G19-97W should be and adjusted the skew of the lnb according to Dishpointer with a skew of 17.4 deg clockwise. According to Dishpointer you do this referenced from behind the dish. So standing in front of the dish it is counter clockwise.

I admit that there is some tall grass starting about 5ft in front of the dish and that it kind of points somewhat towards some trees.Ok. So then I booted it up and up and picked the satellite at 97W labelled Ku_GALAXY 25. I changed the lnb type to 10750. Here are the parameters

lnb type 10750
lnb power 13/18v
22khz auto
toneburst none
diseqc1.0 none
diseqc1.1 none
motor none

So, I selected that satellite and did a scan. the parameters were as follows

scan mode blind scan
crypted all channels
service type all

I did this and it didn't pick up anything. There was not even any indication that it detects anything at all. There is a quality meter in the dish setup menu but it never shows any indication of any signal. It is always at zero.

So that's where I am at this time. I will have to play around with it to see if it's some bad coax, lnbf or what. The lnbf has 2 outputs and I tried sides.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

P.S: I realize that my aim could be off so that I will have to play around with that. Although if you are near enough to where it should be I would have expected to at least register some signal even if your off a bit. Also even though there are some vegetation issues I would have expected to detect some signal even though it wouldn't be enough for a lock. I will try to play with it more tomorrow and see if I can tweak the aim.

P.S2: Also changed the 22khz to off with no change in results. From googling this parameter should be set to off.

 

[Lak7]

Although if you are near enough to where it should be I would have expected to at least register some signal even if your off a bit.

Nope. When aiming at something in "outer space" you don't have much room for error.
If you are confident you have the Dish Elevation correct, make small moves East and West - like 1/32".
You are looking for the Quality meter to light up - it's not a "satellite" meter. You need to have the proper Transponder selected in the receiver for it to light up.
Think of it as a Radio - a radio does not tell you there is a Station available, you tune the radio and it will react sooner or later.
Here is a link to a list of know active Transponders......
http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?page=97+Galaxy+25
Look in the Receiver's Transponder List for "Ku_GALAXY 25" and pick a Transponder that matches (or nearly) then slowly, ever so slowly move the Dish around, watching for the Quality Meter to light up.

 

[rv1pop]

My habit for searching... Set up receiver to 97w for Daystar or TBN. Get the elevation angle from a chart (most any will work) and set my magnetic angle finder to the bottom of the LNB arm. There is a couple of degree offset, but I usually forget it and which way, so I just start there. I have the receiver at the dish. I swing the dish back and forth very slowly watching for picture. if I do not find one I go up a degree or less and try again - and again - and again until I am up 5degrees or so. If no Joy I go back to the original and go down, repeating. If I remember rightly the angle of the arm i low by about 3 degrees, so It never takes long to find a signal. ONCE I FIND ANY SIGNAL, finding the bird I want is usually quick and easy. Other full-timers often try to tell me I am doing it wrong - then gasp at my finding the signal so fast.

But then again, when you have set up 200 times... And just a side note - a quick site survey== when you set the angle on the LNB arm, if you look up the bottom of the arm at the sky and if you see the sky NOT the trees or the mountains, you should find a signal! I will NEVER set up a dish without the receiver at the dish. Any job not worth doing - is not worth doing over!

 

[Anole]

All this chatter has gotten me to look behind my local grocery store for a new plastic pallet.
So far none have followed me home, but it's just a matter of time.
Right now my pictures are all taken at night, and of 8 pallets stacked and plastic-wrapped together for easy handling.
About 4' square. ?Soon. Very soon.

 

[mrpeter105]

Guys, thanks alot for your input. I will try to grapple with it in the coming days. In the meantime here is something I did. In one of the stickies titled "I need a strong transponder to aim my dish" it lists some transponders that will help. For G19 it had one of them in the transponder list. I was aiming a bit but not as methodically as you guys are saying. My movements were quite large in fact. I would then run in the house and check the signal quality meter. Nothing. So I wondered if maybe the receiver was a dud. Well upstairs there is an abandoned Bell satellite installation that my brother used before he moved out. The box that he used was a 3100 receiver.

Anyways I thought maybe I could test this box. The strong transponder list lists anik f1 at 107.3 deg and anik f2 at 111.1 deg. Looking at the dish installation on the chimney I figured its got to be one of those sats. So I created two sats in the list and inputted the relevant strong transponders for each. I then hooked the box up to his old satellite dish and observed the signal quality meter, Nothing. So this time I did a scan and it found a couple of transponders. These are their parameters

11945 H 19999
11928 V 19999

This gave me 29 scrambled channels. The channels have some labels such as cctv, drgtv, funtv, jiangtv, lsttv, color, filmy, geotv, ptc and a bunch labelled pr0xxx, where xxx are numbers. These were from a blind-scan. I originally did a scan, I think a default scan and got CBC, Citytv etc but I deleted those. Again all scrambled. I will try again tonight and see if I can replicate those channels with a default scan.

With the satellite selected I then noted that the signal quality meter did in fact show 83%. Also going into the transponder list it indicated signal quality for the transponders that the blindscan found but not the ones from the sticky. So from this I know that the box at least works. Not sure why the ones in the sticky list didn't work.

I then thought that I should try to lock onto the satellite from Bell, using my dish system, to verify that my system is working. I tried for a bit but got nothing. I'll try again later.

Note: I'm not looking to pirate satellite signals. I just want to verify
that everything is working on my end. Since the bell sats have stronger signals they should be easier to find. Also if I can't get 107w or 111w then I doubt that i'll be able to get 97w from the dishes current location. Once I verify that my system is working then i'll be more confident going after the weaker fta sats.

Thanks

All advice appreciated.

P.S. I also noted that the lnbf can be slid an inch or so towards or away from the dish in its holder. Is there any preference? Could this be part of my problem.

P.S.2: I checked Lyngsat and both 107.3W and 111w have a frequency entry for 11928 so i'm not sure which satellite the Bell dish is looking at. I should also note that the Bell dish seems to have like 2 lnbf's. Not sure if it does but with the 2 sats that close that would make sense.

 

[jorgek]

mrpeter105,
As mentioned previouly you should really have the receiver and monitor at the dish where you can instantly see the changes as you gingerly move the dish. Otherwise you will totally frustrate yourself. I have a spare receiver and I use a laptop connected via a video capture device to view the sat, also it allows me to check with dishpointer.com to verify my settings and sathint.com for latest transponder info.
Typically moving the LNB to and from the dish in the holder is not critical and should not affect the signal. What is more important is to ensure you have the correct skew and that the skew is in the proper direction. I usally ball park the skew and tweak it later for max Q.

PS. Video capture device was $29.00 at Computers Canada.

 

[Lak7]

I also noted that the lnbf can be slid an inch or so towards or away from the dish in its holder. Is there any preference? Could this be part of my problem.

I start with LNBF closest to Dish, and tweak if necessary - I have never really seen a difference.

I checked Lyngsat and both 107.3W and 111w have a frequency entry for 11928 so i'm not sure which satellite the Bell dish is looking at.

When you have a lock on 11928 transponder, look at the Scan Rate - what is listed? - 19510(107.3) or 20500 (111.1)

 

[SatelliteAV]

Moving the LNBF fore/aft typically will change the Signal Quality reading only by +/- 10%. The rotation (Skew) of the LNBF in the holder is critical to be within +/-5/10 degrees of the required setting. While stronger transponders will come in with the incorrect skew, weaker transponders will not lock with incorrect skew setting.

It is nearly impossible to aim a dish without a TV next to the dish showing instant feedback. I have been installing dishes for over 30 years and it would be pure luck if I aimed a dish with this method!

There is an easy way to find a satellite signal, then there is every other way that a newbie may think of to shortcut the process.

 

[rv1pop]

Was it last winter? Or two winters ago ---?? A Neighbor, well 4 miles away wanted to get his system back up. There was about 3 feet of snow on the ground and we could not get out and in. So he came over with his tractor, ran me into town (13 miles) to get groceries and on the way back, stopped at his place. I took his receiver out to the dish and in the blowing snow at about 15 degrees, locked in 97W in 3 minutes. This was after he had worked at it for most of three days, with his meters and all - Yeah a Dish Network installer -! He had bumped the fence post the dish was on while plowing snow. He had rotated the dish and adjusted the elevation -- A LOT. When we say receiver at the dish --- we have good reason. The angle finder on the arm brought the LNBF down about 2 inches. Rotated the dish, got a weak signal on the TV. Adjusted elevation again -- about 1/2 degree, readjusted skew and tightened it all down. It is till working.
"Nuf said.

 

[jorgek]

rv1pop,
Any ham radio operator will tell you antenna work is always done in the worst of weather. Here in Canada we get lots of snow also but I avoid going up on the roof in bad weather.

 

[catamount]

P.S.2: I checked Lyngsat and both 107.3W and 111w have a frequency entry for 11928 so i'm not sure which satellite the Bell dish is looking at. I should also note that the Bell dish seems to have like 2 lnbf's. Not sure if it does but with the 2 sats that close that would make sense.

Bell dishes point at 82 and 91 with circular lnb's and a lof of 11250. Shaw direct points at 107 and 111. they use digicypher so you won't pick up any of there transponders with a FTA receiver. Bell transponders start at 12224

 

[mrpeter105]

Guys, thanks once again for all your advice. Here's what I did. I got a portable lcd tv and boosterpack/inverter. I hooked everything up. I also input the strong active transponders for 97, 99, 107, 111, 123, 125 from the sticky previously mentioned for each satellite. I then started scanning for them going back and forth and up and down. Not once did the signal meter ever register anything other than zero. I also moved the dish to a couple of other positions. So i'm now thinking that the lnbf is defective. Before connecting/disconnecting the lnbf to the box , I always turned the switch at the back off and unplugged it. Apparently if you don't do this you can toast the lnbf. During the scanning/moving dish, even if you just sweep by the sat briefly, it should at least give something other than zero. So i'm going to return this lnbf and get another one.

Lak7:

When you have a lock on 11928 transponder, look at the Scan Rate - what is listed? - 19510(107.3) or 20500 (111.1)

I don't recall it listing the scan rate. According to catamount Bell is at 82 and 91. I now think that the satellite his dish is pointed at is 91 if not both. When I hooked it up to his dish I left the LO frequency at 10750. So I think that that is the reason the received transponders are in the 11k range. Also that's the reason that the active strong transponders for 107 and 111 listed in the sticky didn't show anything on the signal quality meter. Also there is no entry for nimiq 6 in the sticky. Sorry about the mixup.



So i'll try another lnbf and see what happens.

Thanks

 

[FaT Air]

. During the scanning/moving dish, even if you just sweep by the sat briefly, it should at least give something other than zero.

Really the answer there is No. Better to Pan dish E - W in small, stepped, increments and wait a while for the receiver to "lock on" to the signal to display Quality. 10 seconds is not unreasonable.

 

[mrpeter105]

FaT Air:

Thanks for that. I wasn't aware that you had to wait up to 10 seconds to let the signal register on the meter. I just found that out when I was surfing Sadoun's website where they had instructions that mentioned that. So I went out there and tried again for 125w and 123w this morning. I went about 4 degrees above the stated elevation angle and 2 degrees below, in 1 degree increments. I also went east to west about 20 degrees in about 2 degree increments. I counted to 10 for each step. Still no signal.

I did a test on the lnbf to receiver circuit that I think points to a defective lnbf. I have a device called a "Live Wire" GVD-505A non-contact voltage probe, 12-600 vac. It's the size of a medium boxcutter. What it does is it beeps and blinks a red led in the presence of an electrical field. You turn it on like a transistor radio where the on switch is rotated more which increases the volume. In this case you turn it on and you can increase the sensitivity by rotating the switch some more. As the field gets stronger the probe beeps faster. So I thought I could compare the working lnbf in my brothers system with my lnbf and see if there were any differences. I hooked up the receiver to my brothers dish and turned on the probe. At the lower end of the sensitivity scale and about an inch away from the coax the probe was beeping at a pretty good rate. I then tried it on my system and the difference was significant. In this case I had to maximize the sensitivity and actually touch the cable. Even doing this the beeping was significantly less when compared to my brothers system. I tested both ports on my Digiwave lnbf with 2 different coax cables to rule out anything but the lnbf. So from this I figure that it's not conducting enough current. Thus a weak electrical field as indicated by the probe and the reason for my not detecting anything.

I did that last night. I found the Sadoun article this morning. So just to make sure, in case I was wrong, I retried the setup for 123w and 125w as mentioned. I'm at day 21 of the 30 day direct replacement warranty for the lnbf so I figure I better exchange it now while I can.

Thanks. I will report back with my results.

 

[FaT Air]

Could it be that the receiver has LNB voltage set to OFF??? Best test of an LNBF is to put it into a working system. Like on your brothers.