New to FTA and so far so good...

[Jason S]

I wanted to say hello and thank you for the very useful information on this site.

For some background: Many years ago I looked into purchasing an FTA system (and very nearly did), but finally abandoned the idea and got Dish.

We quite Dish about 2010 and went with an OTA antenna. We were in Oklahoma and had very good antenna reception, especially OETA PBS. Recently, I was transferred to SE Kansas and found our area was very poor for OTA (at least with current equipment).

SO, I looked into FTA again. Prior to purchasing equipment, I did quite a bit of research on the subject (especially some excellent Satellite Guys posts). With the wife and me missing Create and OETA and the kids missing their PBS kids, AMC-21 at 125W was a no-brainer.

For my first foray into this, I didn't want to break the bank. However, I also wanted to get decent equipment in case we were going to wind up liking FTA...

The setup I ordered consisted of a Patriot 1.2 meter dish, Invacom SNH-031 LNB and Manhatan RS-1933 receiver.

It took me quite a while to lock on 125W, I think mainly since I didn't know exactly what I was doing. After many, many hours; I learned the hard way about offset angles.

It's been about a month and at this time 125W is the only satellite that I've tried to get. We're getting all four OETA, Montana PBS, PBS East and West, Create, Vme and World.

Eventually, I'd like try for other satellites, as well as C-band. But since the PBS channels are such a priority, I'll probably wind up adding a second dish.

 

[FTA4PA]

Welcome Jason!Glad you got your first setup running! FTA can be difficult when first starting out but you've picked a great site with lots of people willing to help with any problems you might encounter. It can be a very rewarding hobby with lots of things to watch (especially if you venture into C Band or add a motor to your KU system). Glad to have you aboard!

 

[danristheman]

Welcome to sat guys we are here to help there is pbs on 103w c band and 87w ku band. Nice dish setup also.

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to the site Jason. Glad to have you on board! Love hearing stories of people starting out and getting into the hobby. It is very rewarding and lots of fun once you really get into it, and not as expensive as some other hobbies are. If you have any questions on anything, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[bpalone]

Welcome to the site and congratulations on sticking it out and getting it up and working. The second time it is much easier. Just a thought if you hadn't thought of it, you might want to consider motorizing the existing setup. I am assuming the receiver you have does the usal thing. That way you still get PBS on 125, but have option to watch other programming as well. Not at the same time though. Would probably be cheaper than adding another dish, but there is nothing wrong with adding dishes. Can't ever have to many dishes.

 

[Jason S]

Thank you all for the welcome and encouragement.

especially if you venture into C Band or add a motor to your KU system

,

you might want to consider motorizing the existing setup

I'm thinking I would like to expand my current setup through a second dish, motorizing, mini-bud, etc. The receiver should work a motor, but I haven't quite decided what direction to go yet. All this is in addition to family, work, experimenting with OTA antenna setups, woodworking, wrenching on old trucks, etc.

If I may, I will have to add this long winded statement (that is especially geared for anyone searching for initial setup information) about angles, trees, obstructions and double checking things before concrete.

The second time it is much easier

... What I currently have setup is the second and fourth position for it. In addition to significant ignorance on setup, there are several trees on my property, as well as on surrounding neighbor's properties.

I started in one location with my initial setup on a 'temporary' pole which consisted of a 8' long, 4"x4" pressure treated wooden post which I shaped into a round section to accommodate the satellite bracket (again, among many other hobbies, I like woodworking). I used the wood post mainly from not knowing what I would reasonably expect. I dug a 4-foot deep hole and 'mostly' set the post using compacted native clay (i.e., per 'old-fashioned' rangeland fence post setting techniques) and set it mid-bubble plumb. Additionally, all through the initial setup I used a satellite finder.

The first location was where I did not realize/understand dish offset angles. I had my receiver plugged into a spare TV and worked on it for almost a day. My dish has a 27.7 degree offset and it does not have any form of angle indication. The Patriot 1.2 meter dish does not have an elevation angle declination so I was using a magnetic angle finder and not gaining any ground with the dish pointed up at 36.9 degrees per the indicated angle from Satfinder. I did not take the satellite dish offset into account and it caused a great deal of frustration. Yet as a beginner, I did not know and nobody I knew had any knowledge about satellite systems (probably should've joined SatelliteGuys and asked at that point). So I dug a new hole (3' 8" deep this time) and set the original post in the second location (after pulling the post with some difficulty and again using the old fashioned fence post setting technique) and struggled with that for quite a while. I decided to give things a rest and do some other things around the house. In the meantime I did some research on dishes and setup techniques.

The next day I researched and finally found out that the elevation angle minus the offset angle was the proper setup, so within an hour after getting that fixed up (again with the receiver/spare TV) I had a good signal in the second location on my 'temporary' pole. SO, for my location looking at 125W, I needed 36.9 degrees total angle Minus the 27.7 degree offset angle which meant about 9.2 degrees angle on the magnetic angle finder... I wound up with slightly above that angle for the initial setup on my dish at my location; however, if you don't know it can be a major trouble point.

I had initially thought that when I got a signal and all was working, then I would setup a more permanent steel post (in concrete) in another location for a more permanent setup. So about two weeks ago, I had the location selected for point three and had other people sight along what I had setup to confirm I had the angle and alignments correct and no trees limbs/leaves were in sight. With the confirmation, I set the steel post in concrete and after everything was set, I moved the dish to the 'new' location.

I fiddled around with the new setup for quite a while and much to my dismay, I realized that for whatever reason I was basically staring into a tree limb... I had thought that I had things thoroughly thought out, but once I had the post set in concrete it turned out to be a different story.

SO, I moved the dish from point three back to point two and spent about 45 minutes or so with the receiver and spare TV at the dish I got it situated back on the 'temporary' wood post.

At this time, I'm thinking putting the dish onto a steel post; however it will probably be adjacent to the current wood post. I figure at that point I could add a motor, but I am also still considering the 125W as a permanent position dish and use another dish to look for other satellites (possibly motorized).

What I have experienced thus far with my current setup is during normal clear weather, 125W has usually been a signal intensity of 90% and quality of 70% (though quality can jump around with or without weather/wind/etc. especially depending upon the transponder). Channels broadcast in HD have been of superb quality/clarity and have been on par with OTA antenna HD. Montana PBS audio has been much less than any other channels and I'm not sure if it is something that is on my end or is on the satellite end.

With the exception of thunderstorms, viewing has been excellent and reliable on every channel. As for storms, an intense and very electrified thunderstorm from the north to south (without much rain) had a normal intensity but quality that was very much fluctuating and everything was still viewable during the storm. Last night and this morning were some pretty good storms overhead and to the south delivering at least 1" of rain per hour resulting in a signal loss for the period those storms were passing over (i.e., 1-2 hours, so I went to watching the two OTA channels and doing other things).

I'm sure I'll have many, many questions about FTA for the experts and I'm glad that there is this forum that has so much to offer...

 

[rsmithwi]

I wanted to say hello and thank you for the very useful information on this site.

For some background: Many years ago I looked into purchasing an FTA system (and very nearly did), but finally abandoned the idea and got Dish.

We quite Dish about 2010 and went with an OTA antenna. We were in Oklahoma and had very good antenna reception, especially OETA PBS. Recently, I was transferred to SE Kansas and found our area was very poor for OTA (at least with current equipment).

SO, I looked into FTA again. Prior to purchasing equipment, I did quite a bit of research on the subject (especially some excellent Satellite Guys posts). With the wife and me missing Create and OETA and the kids missing their PBS kids, AMC-21 at 125W was a no-brainer.

For my first foray into this, I didn't want to break the bank. However, I also wanted to get decent equipment in case we were going to wind up liking FTA...

The setup I ordered consisted of a Patriot 1.2 meter dish, Invacom SNH-031 LNB and Manhatan RS-1933 receiver.

It took me quite a while to lock on 125W, I think mainly since I didn't know exactly what I was doing. After many, many hours; I learned the hard way about offset angles.

It's been about a month and at this time 125W is the only satellite that I've tried to get. We're getting all four OETA, Montana PBS, PBS East and West, Create, Vme and World.

Eventually, I'd like try for other satellites, as well as C-band. But since the PBS channels are such a priority, I'll probably wind up adding a second dish.

That's a very nice looking setup, clean install all the way.

 

[rsmithwi]

Dish looks good. I am curious, it looks like it's mounted on a wood square post but my eyes maybe seeing things as I get older. You did good getting a 1.2 meter as that's pretty much the norm to get most of what's up there and to experiment with c-band.

 

[rsmithwi]

Forgot to ask, how is your line of sight for the arc?.

 

[turbosat]

Love that Patriot dish! I don't have any ku dishes bigger than 1m, but they work just fine. And yes, a good storm with heavy rainfall will completely kill the signal for a few minutes, usually when it's bottom of the 9th and the game is tied, lol. Welcome to the site, and enjoy your equipment. There's a ton of stuff to watch for free, with a motorized system. You can do like a lot of us, add a few fixed dishes parked on your favorite birds, and with the diseqc switch you don't even have to wait for the motor to move the dish. I like the instant switching to 72w, 103w on my system, I have sep dishes for those.

 

[jasjas]

you have the right idea, keep the 1 dish fixed and add the 2nd motorized dish so you can play as the famly can watch the PBS while you scanthe skys.

 

[. Raine]

Welcome to SatGuys, Jason!

I thought something looked funny about that post when I'd looked at the picture! It's square!

Good job!

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

Jason, welcome to Satelliteguys! Like you, I was stuck on the whole offset decilination angle frustration too for a good while setting up my motorized system. I got even more exasperated when after following the directions to the letter, they were intended for people living in Europe! I finally went over to the Sadoun Satellite site to watch videos and finally get it figured out within an hour. I got another guy who works at Radio Shack super interested and excited in FTA, he wants to order up a system of his own sometime, and tell all his customers about it!

 

[Jason S]

That's a very nice looking setup, clean install all the way.

Thank you, it's a 'quasi-temporary' install. I didn't intend for it to be on the wood post as it is; It was intended as a proof-of-concept, but I'll leave it for the time being as it seems to work well for now.

Dish looks good. I am curious, it looks like it's mounted on a wood square post but my eyes maybe seeing things as I get older. You did good getting a 1.2 meter as that's pretty much the norm to get most of what's up there and to experiment with c-band.

Forgot to ask, how is your line of sight for the arc?.

Thank you and you're eyes are still good. The dish is currently mounted on a 8' long 4x4 with the top foot of the post turned cylindrical to accommodate the dish mounting hardware (i.e., u-bolts and bracket). The post is buried about 3' 8" deep. As for the line of site, it is not the greatest. For my job, I have had to move around a lot and this new house has about the worst southern line of site of any place that I've lived. Directly due south of the house is a 60' + Cottonwood in addition to numerous 30' Elms around my house. The trees here don't help with FTA or OTA reception. One possibility I've though is have one dish on the eastern portion of the property facing westerly (as current) and one on the western portion facing easterly, I ought to get a good number of satellites.

Love that Patriot dish! I don't have any ku dishes bigger than 1m, but they work just fine. And yes, a good storm with heavy rainfall will completely kill the signal for a few minutes, usually when it's bottom of the 9th and the game is tied, lol. Welcome to the site, and enjoy your equipment. There's a ton of stuff to watch for free, with a motorized system. You can do like a lot of us, add a few fixed dishes parked on your favorite birds, and with the diseqc switch you don't even have to wait for the motor to move the dish. I like the instant switching to 72w, 103w on my system, I have sep dishes for those.

you have the right idea, keep the 1 dish fixed and add the 2nd motorized dish so you can play as the famly can watch the PBS while you scanthe skys.

Turbosat and Jasjas, thank you for the encouragement. I have yet to decide the next route; however, thus far it has been enjoyable enough that the 'better half' is open to expansion of FTA reception. If and when I get into multiple dishes, I know I'll have a number of questions about that. In addition to the FTA, I'm currently trying to get as much OTA as I can (within reason). So lots of antenna pointing one way or the other (pun intended).

Welcome to SatGuys, Jason!I thought something looked funny about that post when I'd looked at the picture! It's square!
Good job!

Thanks for the welcome! It's a proof-of-concept (i.e., use what I had on hand) that actually worked for once!

Jason, welcome to Satelliteguys! Like you, I was stuck on the whole offset decilination angle frustration too for a good while setting up my motorized system. I got even more exasperated when after following the directions to the letter, they were intended for people living in Europe! I finally went over to the Sadoun Satellite site to watch videos and finally get it figured out within an hour. I got another guy who works at Radio Shack super interested and excited in FTA, he wants to order up a system of his own sometime, and tell all his customers about it!

Thank you for the welcome. As for offset angles, it is a lesson that was definitely learned the hard way. I've had quite a few neighbors inquire about my setup... Previous to the FTA setup, the local hardware store owner and I have had previous discussions about OTA antennas and reception (neither of us want to subscribe to cable/sat). The other day I showed him the FTA satellite setup and I think he was quite impressed. He asked a bunch of questions and it sounded like he was going to at least do further research on FTA if not outright order up a system.