Is this LNBF related?

[highskies]

For the longest time I have been having hell with my 7.5 footer. I couldn't even see anything @ 103w, even tho nothing was blocking that sat. Anyway, I messed with the tracking some more and finally got the ION mux to tune in, plus the RFD feed. But that's all I could get on that bird. So now my dish appears to be tracking about as well as it can, except I can't get the Deutsche Welle mux, not even a lock. The same thing happened @ 137w..the RTV dvb-s mux comes in like a charm, the RTV S2 mux, can't even get a lock on it.

So this brings me to what I did last night beginning with 137w and the RTV S2 mux. The SR is 29125 according to a few places. So I decided to try something I've heard about before but really wasn't paying that much attention to the details about it at the time...but I decided to try and change the SR a bit. I changed it to 29128, and sure enough, this RTV S2 mux popped right on in on my S9..perfect picture on all the feeds. Since that seemed to work, I decided to go and try that trick with the Deutsche Welle mux @ 103w. And sure enough, it popped right on in as well.

But unfortunately that trick isn't working with all of the feeds. For example, still can't get a lock on the NBC feeds @ 105w. Nasa comes in fine on that Sat, but those are the only feeds I can get a lock on. Then on 101w, I still can't get a lock on the ThisTv and MeTv feeds no matter what I try.

So what I'm wondering in general, if this is LNBF related, would getting a new LNBF possibly solve a lot of this, like with the NBC S2 feeds @ 105W for example? My current LNBF is an older Cal Amp. It must be 10 years old or better I'm guessing.

 

[sergei]

How about some more information like pictures and type of receiver your using.

 

[highskies]

How about some more information like pictures and type of receiver your using.

As far as the receiver, it's an Openbox S9. As far as pics, are you meaning pics of the dish? If so, what could be determined via the pics? The only digital camera we currently have is on our cell phone. But I think it only allows sending pics to other phones, since it doesn't have a USB port unfortunately. So I probably couldn't even provide any pics anyway. But still curious as to what could be determined from the pics?

 

[FaT Air]

How about some Q readings to compare. Have you tried varying the frequency? I find on some I can vary some reported, up to 3Mhz, and get a couple more points in Q. Have you tried another receiver?
Although everyones results may vary, When I upgraded to a new C band LNBF, from a 20 some year old LNB, I noticed right away that it was easier to lock some problematic TP's, SatAV's C2 isn't expensive.

 

[sergei]

As far as the receiver, it's an Openbox S9. As far as pics, are you meaning pics of the dish? If so, what could be determined via the pics? The only digital camera we currently have is on our cell phone. But I think it only allows sending pics to other phones, since it doesn't have a USB port unfortunately. So I probably couldn't even provide any pics anyway. But still curious as to what could be determined from the pics?

First we could see what the LNBF look's like and how it's setup on the dish, could be a simple setup issue. Sometimes it can make things easier since we're not there to troubleshoot an issue.
And since you have a S9 have you also checked the output from the receiver to see if the voltage is correct as some have reported having problems with it's power supply.

 

[highskies]

How about some Q readings to compare. Have you tried varying the frequency? I find on some I can vary some reported, up to 3Mhz, and get a couple more points in Q. Have you tried another receiver?
Although everyones results may vary, When I upgraded to a new C band LNBF, from a 20 some year old LNB, I noticed right away that it was easier to lock some problematic TP's, SatAV's C2 isn't expensive.

Keep in mind, before I changed the SR @ 137 and the RTV S2 mux, I could not even get a lock on it. Now the Q is showing around 70%. On the RTV DVB-S mux on the same bird, the Q is around 75%. But of course that mux has never been problematic.

Over @ 105W and the Nasa Mux, the Q is around 60%. Interestingly enough, I tried the freq suggestion, Nasa jumped up from 60% Q to 70% Q. I changed it from 3760 to 3763. But that is the only signal I can find on that bird. Nothing else scans in, with a blind scan nor with manually entering the parameters. I tried changing the freq to several different ones on the NBC 3780 S2 mux, but still no lock.

As far as the Mux that has MeTv @ 103W, the Q is fluctuating between 60 and 70%, and it's tiling with the pic not being stable. On that same bird, the ION muxes and the RFD feed, these all show a stable pic.


As to trying another receiver, the S9 is the only S2 capable receiver that I currently own. I have a regular older DVB-S receiver, but that wouldn't help me to try and diagnose issues with S2 feeds. So no, never tried with another receiver.

 

[FaT Air]

>>My current LNBF is an older Cal Amp<< Is this a Cal amp LNB on a servo controlled polarity feed horn? Are you powering it via an analog receiver? How is it hooked up, description of wiring?
Have you tried adjusting the skew setting on the receiver operating the servo? Does the servo Buzz?
Check the feeds throat for bugs - corrosion? A dirty feed throat cover can also decrease signal. If all that's good, Check, adjust feed focal length. I'd then check how well it's tracking. If that's perfect from furthest east to furthest west, The only thing left to try is a new LNBF feed.

 

[highskies]

>>My current LNBF is an older Cal Amp<< Is this a Cal amp LNB on a servo controlled polarity feed horn?

No. It's a C Band LNBF, no servo. I had no idea they made C Band LNBFs(servo less) 10 years ago or better. But apparently they did, since the abandoned dish it came with, it was like 10 years or more ago when someone gave me that dish. I just went outside to see if I could get the model number off of it. But unfortunately the label is so faded away at this point, I couldn't make anything out but the 'California amp' part, since that seemed to be in bolder letters. It fits inside of a scaler ring like other C Band lnbs do. So I just basically found what I felt like was the sweet spot for the skew, since I can tune in both H and V signals.

The reason I asked whether this might be LNBF related is due to the fact how ancient my LNBF would be, and maybe that it's drifting a bit. Just thought a newer LNBF might perform better overall.

 

[FaT Air]

Learned something new today. I wasn't aware that Cal Amp made an LNBF. I used to install a lot of their LNB's back in the day. For the price of a new SatAV C2, I'd probably order one up and try it. Besides, having a spare isn't a bad idea. Being it seems to be affecting DVB-S2 signals more than DVB-S, I feel it must be more of a noise issue, than freq drift. But, that said, all other possible causes (dish and feed alignment) have to also be eliminated.