New to FTA, need some help/direction

[bfletcher]

I have an old Sony 2 LNB dish that came with the house, and recently was given a Hauppauge WinTV-Nova DVB-s receiver card for my PC. I have connected one of the lines from the dish to the WinTV card.

I have the dish aimed at what I believe to be AMC 6 @ 72W. According to the in-line signal strength meter I have a very strong signal. I dont know if it matters, but I am located at:
Latitude: 33.0006°
Longitude: -96.9027°

Using the Hauppauge software that came with the card, It finds no channels. I downloaded ProgDVB 6, and scanned. It says I have 100% signal, and 0% quality. I am sure I have done something wrong, or am missing something. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

 

[brentb636]

I have to figure that your dish is for dish network, and the lnbf's are legacy circular polarity.

1) You need a larger dish, I'd recommend a big 36" as a minimum.
2) You need a standard linear lnbf, instead of the circular polarity lnbf's.

All the FTA satellites ( with hardly an exception) are linear polarity, and lower powered than the Commercial providers, like DISH and Directv. A larger dish is necessary on the weaker signals from linear birds.
Check out our Gold sponsors at the top of the page for their equipment deals.

 

[delta_charlie]

Hi, I would like to add that a PC DVB card is not the best to start with. They are much harder to setup and trouble shoot then a good STB. Perhaps you could find a good deal on a used receiver from ebay. Just make sure it has a good blind scan.

If you just want to see if your PC and card are setup and working you could point your dish at 119w and see if you can scan in channel 101 with your current dish.

Hope this helps, DC

 

[Armourplate]

im new to FTA and my new Geosat 110c hasent come in yet,
and Im think of Long cable runs if my reciver will let a Line amp will
work and if I need to put it be for the Switch or after or were?
if someone Knows were put me a note up.
and I wish i could find Family net and INSP.?

thank you.
Armourplate

 

[turbosat]

Armourplate, its best to start a new thread, welcome to the forum anyway!
How much of a cable run do you think you'll have? Lots of us have over 100', and a few have longer runs than that without any kind of amplifiers. There have been discussions about those here in the past, and some say they cause more problems than they're worth. I'd say if it's under 150' or so, I would try a straight cable run without any line amp just to see how it works. What kind of dish will you be connecting to?

 

[Armourplate]

im new at this board and I need help using it as well and tanks for the reply.
Im going to use the dish there sending me to run with my GLorystar system,
Im going to run 75feet but was thinking of when I set up my up link for Ku and get my station up,its in the Planing stage.
I have a perfect 10 12 Foot dish mesh dish i was think of useing to use as Uplink dish.

Beaing a ham I know some of what i need but im working with it in a new way to get Going
for Ku up for now.
Is 12Foot going to work and I need to find a way to send the singnal
up in mepeg 2 so the Glorystar sat can see it right.

I hope some one can give me ideas on how i can get it off the ground
and Help see christain Tv going for everyone and it will help the Shut ins.
Id like to get itt going and it trun in to a Major net work for First Major
Network. and thanks again for all the help.

Armourplate.

yea site needs a Buton for new Post to page so its Lees confuesion.
Sorry..

 

[turbosat]

I'm not sure you're understanding the way these things work, you don't need anything to 'uplink' or send a signal to, for free to air tv-it's "Receive only". Of course you can use your c-band 12' dish, and sounds like a great dish to have!! There's plenty of free channels available from c-band also. A cable run of 75' isn't that much, I would try to operate without any in-line amps for awhile, I believe you'll find your receiver will work just fine.
*If you have other plans for the 12', I misunderstood. Hams may have other projects to use big dishes, that I know nothing about.