New to FTA, and got all my equipment last week and started my install. But i have a problem, im supposed to have a universal ku lnbf and set all the settings in the receiver for a universal lnbf but no matter what i do i always have 65% signal strength, even if i take the lnb off the dish and point it at the ground. Is this a bad lnb or could it be a standard lnb?
need a little help
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I don't know which receiver your have, but don't go by the signal meter for signal. Sounds crazy right. 
With no LNBF connected the signal meter should read 0, with one connected it will read somewhere in the middle, when you do acquire a signal it will read 90 to 100(dependent on receiver model)
What you need to focus on to know if you are hitting a satellite is the quality meter.
List what equipment you bought and such and we will try and help you hit your first bird.
With no LNBF connected the signal meter should read 0, with one connected it will read somewhere in the middle, when you do acquire a signal it will read 90 to 100(dependent on receiver model)
What you need to focus on to know if you are hitting a satellite is the quality meter.
List what equipment you bought and such and we will try and help you hit your first bird.
I bought the motorized kit from sadoun on amazon. It came with a geosatpro 90cm dish, some no name universal lnbf, a nda4120 HH motor, and a SatHawk PVR200HD HDTV FTA Receiver. Im fairly certain i set the motor correctly and the elevation on the dish. im located in kansas and my longitude is 98 w and latitude is 37.3 n. I set the motor to 37, and set the dish at 39 degrees. The i built a wooden jig to hold the compass about 3 ft away from the rear of the dish to set my true south. then tried to go to my nearest south satellite G-19 at 97 w. Ive moved and tweeked till im green in the face. I did make sure the lnb was set at 0 skew. is it possible my elevations are wrong on the dish?
You jumped right in with both feet didn't you.
I don't recommend someone new to the hobby starting out with a motor.
Way too many variables to go wrong and it could be something simple, but easily overlooked because of the learning curve, and the over whelming nature of it all at first.
I recommend you remove the motor and mount the dish by itself and get familiar with hitting a few birds manually and get a better idea of how it all works.
When you get ready to tackle the motor read over this a few times: http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/how-to-install-a-usals-motor-condensed-version.360671/
Besides what I said above did you have a current known active transponder selected or entered? 12152 H 20000 is a great on to use on 97W ku, as there are no adjacent birds with the same transponder.
Post a picture of the LNB/sat setup screen. Do you have any switches in line yet? No reason to if so.
I don't recommend someone new to the hobby starting out with a motor.
Way too many variables to go wrong and it could be something simple, but easily overlooked because of the learning curve, and the over whelming nature of it all at first.
I recommend you remove the motor and mount the dish by itself and get familiar with hitting a few birds manually and get a better idea of how it all works.
When you get ready to tackle the motor read over this a few times: http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/how-to-install-a-usals-motor-condensed-version.360671/
Besides what I said above did you have a current known active transponder selected or entered? 12152 H 20000 is a great on to use on 97W ku, as there are no adjacent birds with the same transponder.
Post a picture of the LNB/sat setup screen. Do you have any switches in line yet? No reason to if so.
Also if you do not have a good satellite meter/finder, you need to grab a small tv and the receiver and head out to the dish and set it all up right beside the dish so you can watch the screen as you tune.
If you are trying to run back and forth or get your old lady to yell out the window your attempts will be futile.
If you are trying to run back and forth or get your old lady to yell out the window your attempts will be futile.
Oh the joy of FTA! Hey guys, remember when you locked your first Transponder? 
Hang in there Bubba!! It will come to you sooner or later! 
Hang in there Bubba!! It will come to you sooner or later! So on hunch I went out and realigned the dish to my true south, then moved the dish to what was supposed to be 97 west. Then i hooked up my meter directly to the lnb, and started moving the dish angle 10 degrees in either direction. It appears the even though the instructions tell me to install the motor like a stab the angles were way different. I have now scanned and locked 5 different satellites at the top of the arc, however i think a different receiver will be in my future. It wont alow me to add transponders, at least not easily, and you have to go into the setup menu to move the dish. so now im looking for advice on a decent receiver that will be easy to use.
New question, and again this may be an issue with the receiver, i printed out a list of english channels and one of the ones my wife was intereseted in was the pbs channels. so i moved over to AMC 21 and only one of the channels has audio. is this normal, or is it something to do with this receiver? I checked to make sure all of the video and audio settings were correct.
Yeah now that i look at the info on the maual the receiver doesnt support ac3. But for under 300 bucks im not complaining. I will look at some receivers and see what i can come up with. Thanks for all the info youve shared KE4EST, I have already requested permission from the city to put up an 8' dish for c-band. Found a really nice dish a couple of blocks east of me that the folks dont use anymore and they just want it gone. I seen quite a few items on your site ill probably be ordering in the future.
Yeah, I was pretty sure that receiver didn't decode ac3, it came out about 6 years ago if memory serves me right.
You will be happy with a good C-Band dish. 95-98% of my viewing is on C-Band the other is on the Channels on 125W Ku that you are having issues with.
Look forward to doing business with you in the future.
You will be happy with a good C-Band dish. 95-98% of my viewing is on C-Band the other is on the Channels on 125W Ku that you are having issues with.
Look forward to doing business with you in the future.
Just a Letting everyone know i did purchase and receive a new receiver, just bought a cheap x2 off of amazon and its far better then the one that came with the kit. It even scanned in more channels then the other one did. The wife is even open to putting one up at the house, its just a matter of finding a suitable spot since we have a billion trees surrounding our house (this unit is set up at my business). So now im kinda wandering what i can get with a scaler and a c-band lnb with the 90cm geosatpro. Been kinda looking at other posts to see but the information is kinda wide spread.
Glad to hear your new receiver is such a great improvement (and that the wife is open to a system at home).
I believe most start experimenting with mini-buds in the 1.2m (4') range. This thread from about 5 years ago painted a pretty bleak picture of the results when using a 90cm for c band... http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/2684417
Well, even if it doesnt work out too well on the 90cm dish i still have a prime focus dish ill be moving over to the business, so ill need the c-band lnbf anyway. ill probably buy a 1.2m dish eventually too, but at around $425 for the dish and the STAB motor it will be a little while. Some of this prodding is coming from my father in law as he is interested in me setting something up at the farm for him and my mother in law. I gotta admit it was pretty fun fooling around with this stuff. I used to help my dad with his BUD back in the 90s, and i used to have to setup satlinks over in Iraq about 12 years ago so this is the first time i been dinking around with anything other then direct tv or dish network. The pbs channels alone were worth the effort. I found about a dozen or so channels we would seriously watch if this were at home, though it does seem c-band is where its at.
I have the 90cm GEOSATpro dish. I've tried a C-band LNB with a scalar and couldn't get a lock on anything at all, even with the dish tuned to the arc using a Ku LNB. I wouldn't not bother with C-band on a 90cm dish.
As others have said, don't bother with a 90cm and C-Band. That is something you can try down the road if you want to experiment. Sometimes you will get one or two transponders barely, but nothing reliable.
It's one of those things to use for bragging rights to say you did, but that is about it.
It's one of those things to use for bragging rights to say you did, but that is about it.
Well i didnt know if ordering the scaler ring and the c-band lnbf at the sime would save me a few bucks on shipping or not, and for now those are the only 2 items ill buy right away unless i need an actuator. I will want to buy an asc 1 eventually but i have a couple of my dads old receivers i can use to move the dish for now on the cheap, or I may buy the 1.2m geosatpro pretty quickly depending on how excited my father in law gets (he wants me to test everything before he spends his money lol). But right now im pretty happy with what we are getting, and i havent even checked out the radio signals yet as i have been pretty busy in the shop and just turn on Russia Today or a pbs while im in the shop.
Well Permits came thru today approving, among other things, the 10' BUD at the business building. So if all goes well i can plant my post for the bud this weekend assuming the weather doesnt keep pouring rain (however as i am typing this we are again under tornado watch) and can move it over to my new location. So I ordered a Titanium C1-PLL Phase Lock Loop C-Band LNBF with WiMax Filter from KE4EST (thanks for jumping right in when i asked for help) and am rounding up a few more necessary parts for the install. IM sure ill have to do some repairs to the mesh (flattening and sewing a few tears) but other then that if im only moving the dish 650' west and 360' north from its current location will i have to adjust the azimuth? It was a working dish up to 4 years ago when the guy got dish network and canceled his 4dtv sub.
Azimuth is the whole dish rotating left and right on the 4" pole.
Declination, no you will not have to touch that assuming it was set properly when it was installed.
How many years was it in use? If just parked on 105W it may not have been set. If it was used before 4DTV then it was most likely set properly.
BTW thanks for the purchase, it will go out in the morning.
Declination, no you will not have to touch that assuming it was set properly when it was installed.
How many years was it in use? If just parked on 105W it may not have been set. If it was used before 4DTV then it was most likely set properly.
BTW thanks for the purchase, it will go out in the morning.
Well I chatted with the fellow last fall while he was having a garage sale, and asked about it. He had it installed in the early 90s, and then had to park it after they switched all programming over to 105. Apparently his health and reductions in programming forced his hand into going with dish network. So according to him it was in use from the early 90s, till about srping 2012. Sorry about the terminology im sure ill pick it up.
I actually have a way better 12' dish that was my dads that was in use up till he got sick and i moved him to my town, the same dish i used to help him work on when i was a teenager and in my early 20s. But the reason i want to start with this dish is I figured i could get my feet wet with the one around the corner assuming it would be set up for my location and id only have to mess around with the lnbf. Then I could move the 12' dish over (have to move it 56 miles to get it here after removing it from its mount) and could tinker with it once i know kinda what im doing. then i can take the 10' dish out to the in-laws and set them up and not have to mess around with mini buding till i want to.
I actually have a way better 12' dish that was my dads that was in use up till he got sick and i moved him to my town, the same dish i used to help him work on when i was a teenager and in my early 20s. But the reason i want to start with this dish is I figured i could get my feet wet with the one around the corner assuming it would be set up for my location and id only have to mess around with the lnbf. Then I could move the 12' dish over (have to move it 56 miles to get it here after removing it from its mount) and could tinker with it once i know kinda what im doing. then i can take the 10' dish out to the in-laws and set them up and not have to mess around with mini buding till i want to.
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