Looking for Hobbyist/Enthusiasts in Ventura, CA

[jackdono]

Hello Everyone,

I'm a real newbie to FTA, I just installed my 30" dish with a cw-800s recvr and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I am desperately trying to find someone (an FTA hobbyist/enthusiast) in the Ventura Area who wouldn't mind taking on a newbie like me and mentoring me around all this technology that I have not learned yet. Would really like to get a peak at your set-up or just buy you some beers (or cofee) and pick your brain.....

Just scrolling around some of the forum posts, I see there are some real heavy hitters here. I can't follow even a fifth of what is being said when pertaining to signals and systems.

I just wanna prove my wife wrong when she says I wasted money on my system...

Thanks,

Jack

 

[KE4EST]

to SatelliteGuys Jack!!!!!!!!!!!

I moved your post the appropriate thread.

 

[jackdono]

Thanks,
Hope someone comes to my rescue....

 

[colbec]

Unless you are prepared to fly somebody in on your personal Lear jet likely you will be doing what the rest of us had to do, read read and read, particularly the FAQ sections which are very good, until you begin to understand the general concept.

Rest assured you have made a good investment; you have the capital - now you just have to apply the labour to it.

Finding satellites is a bit like seeing fish in a river. At first they are hard to see, but then you distinguish a couple and suddenly the river is full of them...

Good luck in finding a helper.

 

[rv1pop]

Do you have RV hookups? lol. One reason I decided to go FTA were the number of FTA RV'rs I met on the road. as many with FTA as subscribers. I am busy right now but guessing a snowbird would not mind spending a few days where it is warm helping out a new friend! ( I am going to TX and GA to set up for churches. And I am a nooby.)

 

[jackdono]

Thanks colbec and rv1pop,

I figured as much.....the read read read part is daunting, but I can do it when I get some time....
I really wanted to meet someone in area to go over other alot of ideas I have concerning the setups and other things.....

Sorry, I didn't respond sooner, apparently I'm not subscribed to this thread like I had originally intended.....

 

[Anole]

There's probably one or two newbies a week log in and ask all the basic questions.
If you find a few of those sort of threads and read them, you'll come up to speed quickly.
And when you have questions, we're just a few minutes away.
Many answers show up within an hour of posting. Certainly less than a day.

Things like describing your hardware, describing your problem, and showing a picture when necessary, will go a long way to getting a quick, accurate, and helpful answer.

You did not mention if you had a motor for your dish.
If you do, I'd still suggest a first install without it, so you have a chance to learn how to run the receiver.
Most FTA receivers come with a pretty thin manual, and often don't cover many of the basic concepts a newbie would need.

To have gotten to this point, I assume you have already chosen a satellite you wanted to receive.
Given your location (Ventura) and that bird, we can easily show you half a dozen ways to figure out how to aim the dish.

Next thing we'd want to know, is what kind of LNB you have.
There are about three major categories, and once we know, then setting up the receiver to match it is easy.

You shouldn't have any switches (they allow you to connect several LNBs to one receiver , or several receivers to one LNB), so we can show you what to ignore in the receiver set-up menus.

All in all, it gets more simple as you break the problem down into its parts.
So, post what you know, and we'll start working you through the variables.
It only seems hard the first time.
You'll have your merit badge by Xmas.

 

[jackdono]

My first problema....

First, thank you for taking the time to respond Anole. I will break it down in parts, and if I need to post in another thread, please do let me know.

1) I bought an entire Ku-band system online that included a 30" dish, H-H motor (USALS), a Dual LNBF, DiSEqC Switch, and the CW-800s PVR from Captive Works. I mounted the dish on the back of my house directly above my roof. Ran the RG-6 coax cable directly into my room and into the recvr (this is when I discovered I didn't need the switch). Now, this is where I'm lost..... What satellite do I want? Looking at a crude map in the manual, I see the closest satellite to me in Ventura, CA is the one everyone in L.A. uses Echostar 7 119 DEG West, I guess this is a good place to start. It also crudely directs my elevation to be between 39 and 39.5 degrees. I tried this and received nothing.

2) I found a program called Satellite Antenna Alignment from Pictures SlideShow Software, Screensaver (SCR) Slideshow (EXE) Maker, Pictures to Movie, Slideshow Movie Maker, Remove Duplicate Files Finder. It tells me to find the Echostar 7 bird, my elevation should be 50.11 degrees, either way, I haven't picked up anything....

3) I go on ebay, and purchase an analog satellite finder, just got it today....hooked it up, moved the dish around until I found a signal, in the general direction of my intentions, but I now I'm stuck with the insatallation portion of my receiver.

It's telling me it has located Echostar 6,8 (110W), it's showing me a signal strength of around 75%, but I can't pick up any channels, I'm not sure of what transponder I need to input or find, what LNB frequency, I don't know....???

Obviously I'm doing something wrong....any input will help.

Thanks

Jack

 

[qwert1515]

What dual LNB did you get?

It would be better to use Galaxy 10R C/Ku @ 123.0°W as your true South satellite because it is a linear satellite.

50° Elevation
187.4° Geographic Azimuth
174° Magnetic Azimuth
6.1° Polarization

Echostar's satellites have very strong signals that are circular polarized, when you move the dish to a linear satellite the polarization might be off and you might not be aligned correctly for weaker satellites.

 

[jackdono]

By reading up on other messages, I notice that my dual LNBF is only for hooking up more than one recvr, so it doesn't matter which input I hook my recvr up to.

Second, I keep going up the ladder and using the analog sat finder to bleep me a strong signal, when I get down and into my room my siganl strength stays the same, ranging between 68-73%, but no quality strength. I have the option of selecting a whole array of different transponders, but have no idea even what satellite I have found let alone what transponder to input on the screen.

I'm starting with my true south direction by basically copying my neighbor's dish pointing, using a crappy compass, and relting on the analog sat finder's signal.

Why is it that I can have the sat finder beep off the charts, show good signal strength, but have no quality strength?

I'm missing something.....

 

[jackdono]

Thanks Qwert1515, I'll try that satellite. Just to be sure...and please don't laugh, actually, its ok if you do, when I look up Galaxy 10R it says my azimuth should be 186.79 DEG, so if I'm facing south, that's 180 DEG, right? Then I have to turn the dish to the right to get to 186, right?

 

[qwert1515]

No, you need to use the 174° Magnetic Azimuth for a compass, so it is a little bit to the left of your compass South.

Good luck!

 

[jackdono]

Sorry qwert, this is getting way too cumbersome...
Do you know why I would be getting a strong strengthsignal (74%), but no quality signal at all?

 

[qwert1515]

With most FTA receivers signal only means that the LNB is connected to the receiver. Once you have a signal quality you are pointed at a satellite. The signal meter you have if you set the sensitivity too high it will beep at any object Don't set it too high or too low. somewhere around 75% using the knob is good.

 

[colbec]

It is possible that in using mostly the signal meter you are being drawn into the very powerful signals from a satellite that sends out only a circular signal. In this case a linear lnb will not be able to decode the signal at all, giving you your 0% quality. It is a pity that you do not have a good compass. You are perhaps relying too much on the meter. It would be better to fix your azimuth accurately with the compass and then adjust only the elevation on the dish to get a beep from your meter, however weak, following qwert's guidance.