My receiver's gone batty!

[satcustomer]

Started up a blind scan on my Fortec Mercury II beginning at 11700 and ending at 12200. For some strange reason, shortly after it began scanning, it found a 12144 frequency. I turned off the receiver, unplugged from the power and just let the unpowered receiver sit there for a couple minutes. After powering up again and doing another blind scan, the same problem recurred. Know of any solutions or why this might be happening?

 

[Mr Tony]

I dont get what you are asking

12144 is between 11700-12200

 

[satcustomer]

The second after it started scanning, it picked up 12144. Normally it starts at 11700 V and ends at 12200 H (I do a detailed scan so it takes some time to run thru all the frequencies). It should not have picked up 12144 V so quickly. Also, that was the only frequency it picked up. Should I save all the channels I have already scanned in over the months on the different birds and reset the receiver?

 

[Mr Tony]

ahhh. Now I understand

maybe its Transponder overload. I know my Ultra does that on occasion when there are too many transponders in the unit it does some wacky things. I would save a backup onto Channel Master (if possible) and delete the TP's that don't have a channel attached. I just did that today. Went through and deleted all the transponders that don't have a channel attached.

I don't know if you can delete all the TP's and if the channels will stay. My Pansat will but the Coolsat won't. On the Coolsat if I delete a TP the channels associated with it will be gone too. I woiuld try it with a known 24/7 TP that if you do lose it, you can scan it back in

 

[satcustomer]

What's Channel Master and how do I back it up there? I've only stored about slightly north of 600 channels/feeds when the maximum for my receiver is around 2,000. Would backing up my channels on the receiver and then doing a reset work, too?

 

[PSB]

What's Channel Master....

http://www.sharpc.com/CM/update.aspx

 

[satcustomer]

Thanks for the link, but how does this work? Will a channel back-up on my receiver do the trick?

 

[Mr Tony]

doing a channel backup won't really help because when you reset the receiver, you lose everything. Then when you redownload the channels back to the box you're back where you started.

I would see if when you remove a transponder if you also lose the channel. If you don't, then start deleting transponders in the box. That should clear it up

 

[satcustomer]

Exactly what is a transponder that you have been referring, Ice? I mean, what should I be looking to delete? Am I correct in that if I find two channels at, hypothetically, 12100 v 6021 and 12100 v 6042, I should try deleting one of them?

 

[updatelee]

channel master doesnt work on the mercury II

fortec does have a channel list program for saving chanel backups, you can download it on their website.

 

[Mr Tony]

every channel is on a transponder. When you do a blind scan, the box picks up all active transponders (TP) and stores them in the unit. If you do another blind scan, it will pick up the new transponders (like for feeds) and stores them also. Every time you blind scan, it stores the new stuff but keeps the old TP's too (if they are duplicates the box doesn't sotre them). So you may have 50 TP's on one satellite but only 3 are active usually. All the extra ones are doing is clogging the box and can make it do wacky things. That is why you need to delete some TP's.

I would see if when you delete the TP, does the channel associated with it also disappear? If you have SBS6 logged in with Ohio News network, try and delete that transponder (11742 freq, H polarity, 6616 symbol rate or something real close) and see if the channel disappears. If it doesn't, then you can delete most of the transponders. If it does, well then we have to do it a different way

 

[satcustomer]

Deleted a bunch of saved transponders on AMC6, but right after starting up the blind scan, it pulls up 12144/V/2573 (GBN) instead of something around 11700 V which is where the frequency scan begins. As I'm watching the scan, the 12144/V/2573 that popped up, disappeared. 10 seconds later, it came up on the screen again. What gives?

 

[satcustomer]

Update: Did a complete factory reset and am now able to scan in channels without complications. Gonna take a while to store in channels across the satellite spectrum!

 

[Mr Tony]

bummer....my Coolsat is going wacky too. Losing settings. The motor moves to a satellite but I have no signal/quality. Change channels to another channel on that satellite and it works fine.

 

[satcustomer]

And this time, I'm not not going to rename the channels like I did initially. It'll add too much time to the process.