OK, what am I doing wrong?

[tedb3rd]

I am having a few problems and I'm thinking it's something I'm just stupidly overlooking because I'm new to FTA satellite. I have installed dozens of DirectTV, DishNetwork systems on houses, boats, and marinas (for myself and buddies), but never anything with FTA.

Here is my setup:
-Coolsat 6100 Private
-RG-6 cable running directly to Moteck SG-2100 motor (approx 100ft)
-RG-6 cable from motor to Zintech Dual Polarity LNBF (ZKF-F22N)
-Winegard DS-2076 Dish
(SatBuddy Satellite meter for signal strength testing)

Here are the specs on the LNB:
RF 11.70-12.20 GHz
IF 950-1450 MHz
L.O. 10/750 GHz

*checked level of pole, good from all angles
*checked level of motor mount, good from all angles
*checked arc of motor using meter, it goes up and down as it should all the way across the line-of-site horizon (ranges from 0 when no sat, peaks in 70-90s when pointed to a satellite)
*"Level" indicator on receiver is 80-85%

My southern most satellite where I am is 87W. I was able to lock onto that quality was in the 68-73 range. I did a blind scan according to the instructions w/the receiver but I only get one radio station. Off of 103W, I get 2 or 3 stations (looked like some sports from a CBS station somewhere) but no audio (other feeds are detected but they are scrambled, not true FTA). Here are my problems:

1) My 2100 motor, apparently, is one of the ones that does not accept USALS. So I'm having to manually adjust. However, my 6100 is not showing signal strength until after I have done a channel scan. So I have to use my satellite meter to go outside, lock onto a satellite, then go back inside and do a bunch of blind scans until I determine which satellite I'm pointing at. Is that normal? Why does the quality meter not go up/down (on the receiver) when I scan across the sky? If I didn't have the satellite meter, there would be no way I could check.

2) Once I had two satellites located and programmed into the receiver, of course it started reaiming the dish to the appropriate sat as a changed channels. However, when you try to go back, it says no signal. So I lose the satellite again once the receiver tries to move the motor... so it's back to going back outside to re-aim via the signal meter. Tell me that's not normal. Do I have a bad 2100 or is there a setting in the receiver that I don't have correct? The receiver is communicating with the motor because it will move when I do manual east/west adjustments or reset to 0 degrees (true south). When I did have a lock, I always chose 'save current position' (or whatever it was) but when it says 'goto stored position' it never locks onto the satellite again.

3) I tried to get Galaxy10r (123W) because that seems to have a lot of stations. First time it was actually DishNetwork 119 but those were all scrambled of course. I had it set to scan 123W because that's what I thought I had but it still identified 119. I moved it to the next peak to the west, tried blind scan again, but after 1000 seconds of scanning one transponder (it counts the time and shows on screen), I didn't think I was getting somewhere so I just cancelled. And then, of course, when I cancelled it went back to another channel, which invoked a 'goto stored postion' at which point I lost all reception.

-Am I doing something wrong?
-Do I have a defective 2100 or is there a setting I'm missing in the Coolsat?
-Should I be getting more channels than what I'm finding? (I am yet to have a single channel with both audio and video)
-My LNB has two output connections. I assume that it's for if I had two receivers. Do I need to connect the two connections together via a switch? (Is one output for linear and the other for circular?)
-Why does my quality meter not show until AFTER I have viewed a channel successfully? Is that normal?
-What exactly is 'blind scan'--do I need the dish setting to where I think I'm aiming? (or does it not matter... like when people ask 'what transponder should I leave my receiver set to?' when they see different transponder strengths on their signal meters with Direct and Dish)


ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've spent every night this week tweaking, punting, reaiming, retrying all different things. The wife is about to kill me. I can't stop until I figure this out!

Thanks in advance for any specific tips/ideas you can provide!!

--Ted

 

[Lak7]

"-Why does my quality meter not show until AFTER I have viewed a channel successfully? Is that normal?"

You only see Quality if the Transponer the is selected in the Sat Setup Menu is Live / Active. Use "The List" tab at the Top of this Web Page for a Sat and Live TP Lists.
Example:
Select Galaxy 10R in the Sat Setup menu
In the Transponder List look for: 11800
Then "Drive" the Dish to where you think it is and watch for the Quality to light up.

Also check this Link out.....
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/85225-i-need-strong-transponder-aim-my-dish.html

 

[satcom1]

Eliminate the SG2100 as problem by putting the dish on the pole and try G28 look for ABC News Now it has a strong transponder and is at only 10 degrees from your south most satellite.

Ok so now your watching ABC. Mark the dish to the pole. Put the motor back up. do a zero reset according to your manual that came with the motor.

Have the receiver tune G28 and swing the dish to peak the signal. Mark your motor to the pole. Lock it down the motor should track in USALS. If it doesen 't youv'e got one of those SG2100 with a bad firmware load or Hall sensor magnet.

 

[satcom1]

correction G28 is only 2 degrees from your south.

If the motor goes to 4 west when you zero then sell it.

If the motor doesn't do USALS all is not lost, but use Diseqc 1.2 commands in your receiver. Disable USALS in your receiver menu.

 

[tedb3rd]

Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to try these ideas tomorrow. When I get a signal from G28, how many channels should I see?

This afternoon, I realized that one output on the LNB gives a different signal strength than the other. To me, that means the LNB is bad or... one output is linear and one is circular. Any ideas on this one?

I also realized that sometimes the "level" indicator will read somewhere in the 80's under the satellite page, but then when I select channel search it will drop to 0. "Level" is referring to the signal between the LNB and the receiver, right? I noticed it's a little lower whenever I have the signal meter in-line... which makes sense.

I realized that my sg2100 is USALS compatible. At least it does something when I select that as the protocol, select the satellite, and then hit 'go.' Before I think the receiver was sending it back to another satellite position. Whatever. Anyways... I sent the USALS command for 119W to send it over to a good angle so it would be obvious and it did. Could I pick up a signal after it did that?--no. But it did move. So I guess my question now is--how accurate is the USALS? How much fine tuning is required, if any?

Thanks again for the suggestions! Of course, I am always open for more! So far, the only thing I've done is invested in a very expensive and elaborate (but very accurate) clock that displays next to my TV, and a receiver that did (at one point) pick up 1 radio station that was English in the left channel and French in the right channel. Then, on another occasion, got a few CBS video feeds without audio--until the channel was changed from the CBS stations to the radio station, at which point it turned into a box that displays 'NO SIGNAL' no matter what you do. ....I'm hoping for a little more!

 

[Lak7]

"one output is linear and one is circular. "
What LNB do you have?

 

[tedb3rd]

Zintech Dual Polarity LNBF (ZKF-F22N)
RF 11.70-12.20 GHz
IF 950-1450 MHz
L.O. 10.750 GHz

 

[Tron]

You have a standard, linear Ku LNBF. The only LNB(F) (that I am aware of) that receives both circular and linear is the Invacom QPH (or QPF)-031. Not much on the ZKF-F22N using Google, but it appears to be a normal, standard (as opposed to universal) dual-output LNBF.

 

[satcom1]

I realized that my sg2100 is USALS compatible. At least it does something when I select that as the protocol, select the satellite, and then hit 'go.' Before I think the receiver was sending it back to another satellite position. Whatever. Anyways... I sent the USALS command for 119W to send it over to a good angle so it would be obvious and it did. Could I pick up a signal after it did that?--no. But it did move. So I guess my question now is--how accurate is the USALS? How much fine tuning is required, if any?


Just so you understand;

Some SG2100 have a "USALS" problem were they accept the command to move from the receiver but go to the wrong position "Overshoot" by as much as ten degrees.

Some SG2100 have the 4 degree west problem and cannot zero, this throws off the tracking on the arc. Makes the dish low on 123 G18 and high on 61.5 Echostar.

Some SG2100 work as you would like, Which kind do you have?????

Set up and fine tune is much more critical on FTA.

 

[satcom1]

Mark your satellites

This may help you.
In the picture attached you should be able to see that before I put the motor up I marked the East/West scale with positions of all the satellites i'm interested in. This gives you a starting point and crosscheck of motor operation.

 

[tedb3rd]

I used the USALS command to set the dish to 87W and, at least, that part seems to be working correctly (according to GAAPS calculations). I went back to the receiver and turned off the motorized dish option, checked the level (mid-80s) and quality was in the low-70s. I went back outside and manually adjusted dish elevation and azimuth and tweaked it up into the quality to low 80s. I setup a blind scan for 87.0W, and it started loading transponder data. ...turned off the TV, and went out to dinner with the wife, the boy, and some neighbors.

Got back home about 2.5 hours later... It is still scanning. It has found 12 TV stations and 5 Radio Stations:

TV (only displays 7 at a time so can't tell what else): RAPHD, AOV, AOV-M, SRCHE, TESTF, SVC_896 Channel, WFNHD

Radio:
Electric, Standards, Latino Tropical, Opera Plus, Celtic

The scan is stuck on 12345 MHz [H] 17796.
Scan total = 19%
Transponder = 0%
Search Time = [increasing]
Step = 10/46
The Windows-Splash-Screen looking (Knight-Rider if you're old school) bar is flashing back and forth--shades of yellow.

I canceled the scan and tried again. Stuck at same point again.

Something else that makes sense, not:
I goto Installation -> Dish Setting and Level = 86% and Quality = 74%. I scroll down from that screen and select "Channel Search" and then that screen opens and Level = 0%, Quality = 0%.

Other settings on the Channel Search Page:
Satellite = 89.0W Galaxy 28
Search Mode = Blind
Frequency = Auto
Polarity = All
Search Type = All
Dish Setting = 11250

Bad LNB? Something I have set wrong? One channel worked--some news station (Tandberg Service - 53). Some live/raw feed of this chick covering some pre-olympic event. She was repeating some promo over and over. She did that for about 10 minutes then the station went to the off-the-air bars with the station identifier. A few minutes later, the popup window came up "No Signal". Now, I'm back to no signal strength, no channels coming in.

Any suggestions?

 

[voomvoom]

You're on one of the Nimiq bird's, I think, either 91.0w or 82.0w?

 

[turbosat]

Think you need to change where it says "Dish setting" from 11250 to 10750 if you are trying to scan 87 for fta. Those channels you listed sounded like some from either 82 or 91 (Scrambled-from bell expressvu-canada)
Check lyngsat to be sure where those channels are....
But for a standard lnbf, the local osc freq should be 10750 in our neck of the woods.
edited to add :
It should scan from about 11700 to 12200 mhz.

 

[avg1joe]

Use the strong transponder list in this forum to aim your dish more precisely. If you are set to a certain tp then you should only get quality when you are aiming at that tp and the satellite it is on.

Be sure your receiver is off and unplugged before connecting or disconnecting anything. Try turning the box off and on again with the master switch if it isn't acting right.

When I setup my first motorized system I was certain I was following directions and the equipment was defective.

There's nothing wrong with my equipment.