Newbie Install Questions

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SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jan 7, 2008
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I am ready to attempt to get my Ku antenna working. I have been using my receiver to get Echostar 7 from a DBS dish but I've had no luck at all with getting the Ku antenna to work.

My goal is to get either AMC 4 101 W or the 99 W bird for the GloryStar channels.

The antenna is an old Primestar with the beer can lnb which has V & H outputs. In fact I have 2 such antennas (just trying to get one of them to work) and have had no luck getting any signal from either lnb.

The antenna came with a small box with V & H and on the other end has output 1 & 2. Since I only want the H anyway do I need to even use this box? I've tried to get a signal both with and without the box. No luck.

Since I have an 18" antenna pointed at 101 for Direct TV as a general guide I have mainly been shooting at 101 but I have a cheapo compass as well. I have a beeper sat finder that doesn't seem to work very well with Ku. The tone keeps sounding constantly. Works just fine with my DBS antenna though.

The receiver is an OraSat v 5.0. For installation I am not using a Disqc switch.

Basically I get nothin'. No signal strength. The receiver just says 10/ 20 for the signal which means nothing. Since I have 2 lnbs to try I am thinking the problem is elsewhere unless perhaps the problem is the lnb needs to be rotated. That's about the only thing that comes to mind.

I've tried changing the elevation up & down a bit at a time then rocking the dish slowly back & forth. It seems like eventually I should hit on something at least just out of pure luck. No?

Any thoughts on what I should try different to find a signal?
 
You are looking for Quality Strength. Signal Strength indicates that you have power to the LNB. If you do not have any Signal Strength, the cables are not connected properly or you have the wronf LNB Freq. selected in the receiver.
The receiver's Quality Meter will only react when you hit the exact Transponder that is selected in the Setup Menu. Use SatelliteGuys.US - TheList at the top of this Web Page for active TPs.
If you only need Horizontal, then no need for the Switch.
Did you skew the dish properly?
Did you enter the LNB info in the Setup Menu:
LNB: Standard / Single
LNB Freq / L.O.= 10750
 
In the LNB Menu
Standard
High LO was 11,250 which I now manually changed to 10,750
Low LO 0
Power on
22 KHz

Then in the scan menu TP Frequency 11,708
Polarization H [L]

Right now the level is 20
Quality 0

So if I understand right the power from the receiver to the LNB is fine, just no strength found at all. Right? If I change the Transponder Frequency the quality sometimes goes to 10, which I assume doesn't mean much at this stage.

I don't see any way to skew the dish.
 
After looking over The List for 101 I see that I had a preset Transponder Frequency of 11822 so I manually changed it to 11821 for 3ABN which I know to be a FTA channel. The strength went from 0 to now 10.

I haven't been to the antenna to retry pointing, but am I understanding the TP thing correctly?

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Added: I tried to rotate my LNB as best I understand it to just a hair past 30+ as the skew is supposed to be +30.8 or +30.9 depending on which site I am getting number from. Frankly, I think it's just a guess when it comes to "." anything for me. LOL
 
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hi, i am new to fta but i want to learn but first i need to find out what buynfusion.com's phone# is? does anyone know i am sorry i know this is totally off topic but i searched the net and can't find it. please help!! i really want the visionsat pvr package they sell but i dont do paypal . thanks if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.
 
JMO but I would be very careful of buying from a site that offers no phone number at all on it's website. Looks like they just want you to order by PayPal or credit card with no way to follow up if there is a problem, unless you have to actually make the purchase before getting any kind of contact number.
 
Did you ever get the Orasat 5.0 to work. I have just recently bought one and it came with no instructions on how to use it(came with the programming cable,(updated it to Orasat 5 V.1250.bin). and haven't gotten anything yet with a 19inch dish and Dish Pro LNB.
 
Im not trying to hack anything. I am completely new to fta and just bought this box trying to get fta channels. How am trying to steal tv? All I said is that I bought the box and it didn't come with any manual and i updated the box to the last firmware update( for better support(like you do with windows). I am trying to get galaxy 19 on it.
 
You will never get g19 with that dish. You need at least a 30" with a linear lnbf. That lnbf you have is circular polorized. turbosat was just putting 2 and 2 together and usually around here first posters that describe what you have for a dish are usually hackers. So get a biger dish and a matching lnbf and you are good to go on g19.
 
So that's why I wasn't getting anything with it, I thought that the Orasat 5.0 was broken(lol):p. Just one question, what the differents between the Dish Pro lnbf and a linear lnbf:confused:.
 
linear signal goes back and forth. circular goes in a corkscrew.

These are different methods of signal propagation.

A circular LNB can not pick up linear signals.

Linear LNBs can barely pick up a circular signal...if at all

Small dish lnbs are almost all circular, (except a couple special hd and int'l units but these are useless for FTA)
 
You probably didn't know but ALL of those Glorystar channels are spread out on a bunch of different satellites

20090429masterlogos.png



Recognize these?
 
I just bought a Linear LNB off of ebay, now I need to buy a new dish. Before I buy one though, I am going to try the 19inch dish first when the Linear LNB arrives(just to see if I can get anything). Does anyone have any particular brand of 31inch dish that seems to work better than others(don't want to buy one that isn't any good).
 
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Look around for an old primestar dish in your area, craigslist sometimes has them, or you can spot them in your travels. Big gray dish about 36" and sometimes bigger. Works well for fta.
If you want to buy a new dish, sponsors at top of page here, have sev models that are popular. But remember, shipping can get quite steep for a 36" or bigger. UPS has a very ingenious system now for what they consider 'oversize' packages lol.
 
viewsat ultra lite galaxy 19

I sold the orasat 5.0 and got a viewsat ultra lite(new). I also got a Directv 36" International dish(new) along with a spit fire ku linear LNB(new). The viewsat says that the signal is 70% but the quality is 0%. What am I doing wrong because it doesn't show or pickup any stations/ radio.
 
I sold the orasat 5.0 and got a viewsat ultra lite(new). I also got a Directv 36" International dish(new) along with a spit fire ku linear LNB(new). The viewsat says that the signal is 70% but the quality is 0%. What am I doing wrong because it doesn't show or pickup any stations/ radio.
Do you have a known active transponder selected? Look at The List! at the top of the page for a strong transponder on 97W. For example: 12151 H 20000

 
none of them worked. I keep getting 70-80% signal but 0% quality and no channels or radio stations.
 
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