MY first ever FTA setup (and problems that come with it)

[ebola]

I posted here a couple weeks ago that I am geting the Globecat system from Sadoun, which includes:

Globecast receiver
36" Fortec Star FP90
KUL1 Standard Single 0.4 LNFB

Everything came in the same week,so

Finally today I decided to put everything together, and that was the "easy" part. Dish is installed, and I cannot get any quality signal. I followed the "tips of the Iceberg"-very usefull- but I could not make much progress.

I got me a used Coolsat 4000, along with new Pansat 3500(still in box), so I tried to find the satelite that I need (Telstar5-Globecast for the wife) with the blind scan feature, but it gives me 80-83% signal, with 5-8% quality for all satellites.

Globecast receiver was even worse, plus it gives me a "Below the horizon" message when I type in my atittude and longitude in the sat calculator that is in the settings? Not to mention that my antenna is at higher spot then any of my dish tv/direct tv neighbours?

I know that I am missing something that is soo obvious, but I dont know what, I tried to make sure elevation angles, and azimuth are correct, maybe is just a misscalculation on my part...

 

[PSB]

Latitude NORTH and Longitude WEST, is the usual culprit

 

[ebola]

OK now I am even more lost, I just found a 22 degree NSS7 with my Coolsat4000.

Over 100 channels with blind scan, most of them scrambled.

Globecat receiver shows me 20% quality or lower on Telstar5 ...

 

[SatelliteAV]

Please provide your zip code and we will help you with the coordinates and settings.

 

[ebola]

Please provide your zip code and we will help you with the coordinates and settings.

49508.

LAT 42.8
Long 85.6

Elevation 39.3
AZ 196.5+mag. factor for MI
Skew 12

Where I am wrong?

 

[kurtsat]

Elevation 39.3
AZ 196.5+mag. factor for MI
Skew 12

That's Intelsat Americas 5 @ 97W

 

[PSB]

The angles look good for your location, make sure the skew is set the right way....

http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/LNBF-Installation.htm

If you are using a compass do not stand anywhere near the dish or anything metalic.

 

[ebola]

UPDATE: 10/1/06

Got some time this weekend again to work more on the dish again. Took the dish down from the roof, I did not like the way I had it mounted, plust it was not plumb, I was almost 10 deg. off.

I monted it on my deck, made sure its plumb, and after about an half-hour, I was able to get the ok quality signal from GlobeCast/T5.

Coolsat/Globecast/Pansat all show different readings, but I believe that was discussed here few times before.

Few observations:

I like the Coolsat and Pansat menu's, I dont like Globecast's receiver lack of connections on the back.

I will have to subscribe to the one of the channels, and you would expect that they would provide you with enough connections for your home theater setup.


I would like to thank all the people that responded and gave me advice on how to adress the issue.

 

[dfecarter]

Considering an FTA system

Hi,
I have DBS satellite system with E, am interested in finding out more about a FTA system...can anyone recommend a link covering the basics of it, or a retailer/installer in CT, a publication, magazine, etc. How much $ am I looking at, do most persons with a FTA receiver set up do it themselves, installation sounds kind of complicated, how much would installation cost do you think? I live in CT zip 06801, are there alot of stations available for free?