Polarity Issue

[JFOK]

Have you tried with your actual receiver as of yet, or ONLY with your meter? Also, when using the meter, are you using a NEW piece of coax, ONLY between the meter and lnbf? No switches or anything else?

primestar31,

Thanks for responding.
I will try your suggestion of using another coax between my meter and the lnbf.
Bringing my receiver out to the dish would be a pain in the ass as I’d have to bring a TV out there also.
There are no switches between my meter and the lnbf.

John

 

[Cham]

Wonder if your sat meter doesn't receive DVB-S2 signals, and the sat you are aiming at has no DVB-S TPs on horizontal polarity?

 

[JFOK]

Wonder if your sat meter doesn't receive DVB-S2 signals, and the sat you are aiming at has no DVB-S TPs on horizontal polarity?

Hi Cham,

The Sathero 300HD is capable of receiving S2 signals and has for me in the past. I’m beginning to think that it might have seen better days. I’ve had it about 7 years and have never dropped it.
I’m going to try primestar31’s suggestion shortly.
Thanks for replying.

John

 

[JFOK]

Hi all,

Well changing the coax cable going from the meter to the lnbf made no difference.
I’ve been using 105W and the vertical channels are coming in strong. The two horizontal channels I’ve been able to scan in have a decent signal (10.4 dB), but are too pixilated to watch.

John

 

[arlo]

I vote use a receiver. I don't nor have ever needed a meter.
Like I said. If you get one polarity good but not the other. Turn the lnbf 90 degrees and lock the voltage for the good, known probe.
That will rule out faulty electronics.
Ya' unnashtan?....

 

[Brct203]

Hi all,

Well changing the coax cable going from the meter to the lnbf made no difference.
I’ve been using 105W and the vertical channels are coming in strong. The two horizontal channels I’ve been able to scan in have a decent signal (10.4 dB), but are too pixilated to watch.

John

If I remember correctly, the problem started when you replaced or repaired one of the LNB arms. Could it be that despite taking precautions, this is actually a geometry problem? Say for example, that somehow the dish is warped, it could very well affect one polarity more than the other. In that case, turning the LNBF, replacing cables or receiver would not make a difference, as teh signal just isn't focussing properly in the dish focal point.

Maybe it would make sense to carefully check the dish itself (string test, diameter consistency check, centering of the scalar, etc.) for anything that might seem abnormal?

This said, the suggestions of using a known good cable, and bringing the receiver out near the dish sound good to me . If the TV is too big to bring there, look at Savers or Goodwill, they sometimes have small LCD TVs for cheap, always nice to have for such use.

 

[JFOK]

Brct203,

I was mulling over that thought last night after revisiting all I had done so far.
Before I did the repair to the arm, I did a temporary repair by attaching a bread tie to the rusted end of the arm which had a small hole. I then attached the bread tie to the scaler where the end of the arm which attaches to the scaler, remained. This set up worked and all worked well, but I knew the bread tie set up wouldn’t last too long.
Last week I made the repair, carefully measuring the length of the damaged arm with the others…an exact match.
If I can find the time today I will recheck my repair for issues.
I would have thought that any slight deviation on the scaler with my repair I could offset by adjusting the lnbf accordingly….oh well.
Thanks for your reply.

John

 

[FTA4PA]

Good morning John! I have been following your problem - and people's suggestions - for the past few days hoping you come across the issue and solve it. After all you've done it appears taking the meter out of the equation and hooking up directly to a receiver is the last thing to try. Hopefully you find it is just a meter issue! Good luck!

 

[JFOK]

Good morning John! I have been following your problem - and people's suggestions - for the past few days hoping you come across the issue and solve it. After all you've done it appears taking the meter out of the equation and hooking up directly to a receiver is the last thing to try. Hopefully you find it is just a meter issue! Good luck!

FTA4PA,

Thanks for your interest and concern.
This issue is taking up alot of time for other things I need to be doing.
The suggestions everyone has offered have been helpful and appreciated.
Will work on this later today.
Have yard work to do first.

John

 

[arlo]

Yard work here too. Coffee first.
Here's the little paint can top jig I made some years ago that really helps getting the scalar and lnbf at least pointed at the dish center,
It's unlikely that since you have two original arms and a third fabricated one.
That your scalar distance will be far off in distance from the dish center.
Could be though it's now not pointed there. And your lnbf aim follows the error,
You can see when I added adjuster bolts on my buttonhook how the scalar is kiltered off.
But the lnbf was dead on the dish center. It's all fixed now and signal is awesome.

Prior to doing it. I had pretty good signal. The dish didn't move at all.
To get a handle on things, used the can lids and a dowel rod to aim the feed straight at the center of the dish.
No Signal! So I grabbed the rim and edge and found out that the dish was not aimed straight at the sat.
Moved it, adjusted the declination, etc. Until the best signal was gotten. Then worked in all of the tweaks after.

Your scalar can be a bit off in distance and still get reasonable signal. But the feed throat not aimed at the dead center would be a bit like banking the cue ball from the corner pocket to the middle one. You got to be precise.
Offset dishes, to exaggerate the vision, are designed to bounce at an offset angle. Prime focus ones. Not so much.

And like my ku sidecar. It's only 'seeing' about a 1 meter circle of the dish. I believe that an offset dish converted to a prime focus wouldn't work so well. And the other is also true.

 

[JFOK]

Hi all,

Well the issue ended up being the end of the arm I repaired. It was off center just enough to affect my horizontal polarity.
Once I removed the repaired end from the scaler and replaced it with wire tie the horizontal polarity returned 👍
Now I just have to make a more permanent repair.
Thanks again so much to all of you who showed a concerted effort to help me solve this issue.
The only issue that remains is that I’m not getting the transponder 4180H 30000 on 101W. Guess I have to tweak that repair a little more. All other horizontal transponders are strong.
Thanks again.

John

 

[primestar31]

It was off center just enough to affect my horizontal polarity.

That is really weird. I wouldn't think just one arm being slightly off to cause such an odd issue. Maybe you can SLEEVE the bad arm with a slightly larger size, formed and slipped over the bad area. Sort of like a straw over another straw. Then a couple slotted holes through it to bolt it together, yet slotted to allow some slight adjustment shorter or longer as needed to be just right.

 

[JFOK]

That is really weird. I wouldn't think just one arm being slightly off to cause such an odd issue. Maybe you can SLEEVE the bad arm with a slightly larger size, formed and slipped over the bad area. Sort of like a straw over another straw. Then a couple slotted holes through it to bolt it together, yet slotted to allow some slight adjustment shorter or longer as needed to be just right.

primestar31,

I agree that it was a strange reason that prevented me from getting horizontal feeds. I guess you learn something new with this hobby, all the time.
Your idea for a repair was my initial plan but both Home Depot and Lowe’s didn’t have the proper dimension pipe, so I tried something else, which didn’t end up working. I’ll check those home centers again.
Thanks again for your suggestions.

John

 

[FTA4PA]

Hi all,

Well the issue ended up being the end of the arm I repaired. It was off center just enough to affect my horizontal polarity.
Once I removed the repaired end from the scaler and replaced it with wire tie the horizontal polarity returned 👍
Now I just have to make a more permanent repair.
Thanks again so much to all of you who showed a concerted effort to help me solve this issue.
The only issue that remains is that I’m not getting the transponder 4180H 30000 on 101W. Guess I have to tweak that repair a little more. All other horizontal transponders are strong.
Thanks again.

John

Glad to hear it John! Good luck with the permanent repair.

 

[KennyR]

I replaced the button hook on one of my 10 ft mesh dishes with 2 10 ft pcs 1/2 conduit from lowes . Cut in half and mashed the ends flat in a vise bend to desired angle drilled holes in ends. Instead of trying to repair it I think I would replace. The galvanized conduit won't rust.

 

[mikekohl]

Hi all,

Well the issue ended up being the end of the arm I repaired. It was off center just enough to affect my horizontal polarity.
Once I removed the repaired end from the scaler and replaced it with wire tie the horizontal polarity returned 👍
Now I just have to make a more permanent repair.
Thanks again so much to all of you who showed a concerted effort to help me solve this issue.
The only issue that remains is that I’m not getting the transponder 4180H 30000 on 101W. Guess I have to tweak that repair a little more. All other horizontal transponders are strong.
Thanks again.

John

John,

Try scanning 4180 H @ 30.000 again and see if it shows up. If not, do a blind scan.
This transponder has been re-configured at least two times in as many weeks to allow expansion of the
Weigel mux, and it might be a quick solution before you spend a lot of time tweaking the arm, given
that the other horizontal signals are working.

 

[JFOK]

Hi Mike,

I didn’t realize that Weigel was still reconfiguring their feed.
In that case I will blind scan from time to time, to see if any progress has been made. I just have to now make a more permanent repair to the arm.
Thanks for checking in.

John