Informal Survey - What Satellite to aim for?

[iafirebuff]

OK, I am taking an informal survey - I have another Primestar dish that is begging to be used. Where should I point it? I have the following satellites already: G10, IA7, IA5, AMC4 (soon). So, what else should I point it at? Thanks for the advice!

 

[Mr Tony]

personally...SBS6 for the feeds
you might be able to get AMC5 on that too (they're 5 degrees apart)

 

[iafirebuff]

SBS6...will look into that ;-) Thanks!

 

[PSB]

I still LIKE IA-6

 

[iafirebuff]

Is that AMC6 or IA6?

 

[Mr Tony]

good question...I think he forgot a letter or two

 

[iafirebuff]

Maybe he wants to keep me guessing

 

[wantogetstarted]

when the sats are so close and you can pick up both how does that work? How do you know which one you are hitting?

 

[MikeI]

I vote for SBS 6 especially if you are into sports.

 

[iafirebuff]

When the sats are close (not sure how far part is the max), you can place multiple lnbs to pick up the signal. As for how do you know what you are on, the way I do it, is I watch the signal meter, and peak it. Then I go inside and do a "blind scan" to see if I am on the correct sat and go from there. Here is a pic of my G10/IA7 dish. It is aimed at G10. I get about 60-70% on IA7.

 

[iafirebuff]

Do I dare say......I am not into sports :-(

 

[wantogetstarted]

this might be a dumb question but don't the signals get mixed up? Wouldn't they interfere with each other

 

[damaged]

this might be a dumb question but don't the signals get mixed up? Wouldn't they interfere with each other

No, though they are all 'mixed up' with each other, the job of the LNB types and receiver is to 'filter' through the interference and deliver only the wanted, subscribed streams, that is why there are different types of LNBs (i.e. circular and linear), and different stream delivery methods (encryption, etc) on different providers, different bands (c, ku, ka), there are also things like the properties/angulation of the signals are such that one must aim a dish accuratly at the sat.

 

[wantogetstarted]

ok and maybe I am thinking about this all wrong. (I don't have fta system yet and no experience with satellite reception). Even if the sats both use the same transponder frequencies they would make sure their signals are different enough that they wouldn't get it mixed up. I am just imagining a bunch of interference like when two radio signals are on the same frequency.

 

[Eastcoast]

Larry
I think you need a motor as I think you as with most of us have the FTA bug and want whatever you can get from those birds.

Dave

 

[iafirebuff]

Well a motor would take all the fun out of it for me If I had a motor, I would still have an extra Primestar dish. And setting things up is half the fun for me

 

[iafirebuff]

Although I am sure someday I will buy a motor

 

[Das Hammer]

ok and maybe I am thinking about this all wrong. (I don't have fta system yet and no experience with satellite reception). Even if the sats both use the same transponder frequencies they would make sure their signals are different enough that they wouldn't get it mixed up. I am just imagining a bunch of interference like when two radio signals are on the same frequency.

Sats that are in close proximity usually opposite polarity. Given frequency on one will be different polarity than same frequency on another. Thus, reduced interference.

I believe dish notwork uses TIDs (transponder IDs) to sort everything out in certain spots where they have two or three sats at the same location. I don't believe that this occurs anywhere in the FTA world, but it is another way of dealing with the problem.

Ethernet is the same way. It's a bunch of computers all shouting at eachother. However, the computer can pick out an IP of one specific computer to listen to and ignore every other computer that does not have that IP. Compare the IP to a PID. Receiver is locked onto a certain video pid and audio pid. It "hears" everything else, but it doesn't "listen" to everything else.

 

[Tron]

And sometimes there IS interference. For example, G-10R's 11720 transponder picks up interference from a transponder on the adjacent Dish Notwork satellite which is very close to the same frequency/polarity. This causes a high bit error rate on G-10R's 11720 transponder, hence we're always talking about how to improve reception on that popular transponder

 

[voomvoom]

Larry, I vote you get a motor for your 80cm Fortec dish and put the Primestar at G10/IA7. You will still have more than enough fun. And, you'll be asking yourself, "Why didn't I do this sooner?"

Al