Poor Sig Strength and No quality

[Elburn]

Hi,

This is my current setup,

Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra
Universal LNB
90cm dish
HH90 motor

My location is 44.2N and 70.1W (04253)

I guess I figured my due south satellite is AMC6.

Now, I've been using USALS to get the thing pointed at IA5 (I read on another forum that was a good idea to get started) and when it finally got there, I had no quality and 50% strength. So I went up, and moved it left and right, up and down, and absolutely no change in the quality. I would get occasional spikes in the strength (70-80%) But I could never hold it there.

I turned it toward AMC6 and when I got it so that the strength was near 60%, I would move the dish up and down, and would get a strength near 70%, but no change in quality.

Aggravated, I moved it back to IA5, and then switched over to DiSEqC 1.2 and nudged it over a little bit (to the east I think, but I'm not sure) SCORE! I had a strength of 70% and a quality of 50%. As soon as I went to scan for channels, it was gone. I tried nudging a little more, and I couldn't get it back.

Now I'm back where I started. I don't understand why it is so difficult to get this bloody thing aimed. My mounting arm is plumb, and I've gone through the P degrees and adding the 17 degrees for my area (thank you Sadoun), but I cannot get my quality (and most of the time) my signal strength to do anything.

I tried searching for some similar threads, and couldn't find any, I hope this one will be unique.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PSB]

Hello and welcome to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA forum

It may be an idea to remove the motor and find/store a few satellites using just the dish and LNBF to start with. The motor can be added later. If it is a universal LNBF make sure your L.O. is set to 09750-10600

 

[Elburn]

Hi, thanks!

Before I got the motor, I went through the same stuff. And I was hoping the motor would help because I could move it much more smoothly than by hand.

But right now, as I sit here and watch the menu, the strength bar just jumped twice to 80% from 52%, but I can't for the life of me fine tune it.

 

[PSB]

Remember its just signal quality you are looking for......

If you think you are close to a satellite do a blind scan.

 

[Elburn]

If you think you are close to a satellite do a blind scan.

Will that give me signal quality if I don't have any to begin with and only a high signal strength?

 

[PSB]

If you are lucky and you are on a satellite yes! Worth a try!

 

[Mark_AR]

Doing a blind scan as mentioned above may just do the trick. SOmetimes the stock receiver transponders that are used in your box may be lower power than others on the same satellite.

A blind scan will add the other TP's and you can use one of them to 'fine tune' by nudging or leaning on the arm for quality.

Pick one with the highest quality & strength and then grab the lnb arm and gently lean on it up/down/left/right while taking 5-10 seconds for the readings to change. Don't move it more than 1/4" at a time or less. Dial in and lock down on the highest setting.

Lastly, you may have to move the lnb closer or further away from the dish to even further fine tune(focus) it.

Remember you are pointing at something the size of a car that is 22,500 miles away to a little wire inside your lnb that is not as big around as a metal coat hanger 1/4 of an inch long.

A little patience in the beginning will net great rewards.

Good Luck.

 

[adwan001]

what else to do

From a very recent experience, I followed PSB's recomendation by removing the motor and point and store some sats in my receiver. This makes it much easier to find the signal. The one thing that helped, is moving the dish in very small invcrements at a time and waiting on the receivers a few seconds to pick it up.

I finally was able to get the motor on but I couldn't get the true south sat (IA6) probably because of some tree branches. What I did is that I pointed the entire setup to the south then I motored it to IA5 at 97W and I was lucky and hit it right away, simply because the position was correct to start with. After that I was able to scan a range of satellites automatically. Still any thing after 110W is not available due to trees. I did a blind scan later on IA6 and managed to get 11 channels, mainly CBS and ABC news feeds.

If trees are a problem to you, try raising the set up or put it in a place with more clear view to the southern sky.
Good luck

 

[Elburn]

Thanks for all the help, guys.

I'm finally making progress. I've gotten locks on two different satellites and now I'm fine tuning it so my USALS will be accurate.

Thanks again!

 

[Elburn]

OK, I got my motor pretty much up and running, but I have one more question.

I thought I would put it in here, instead of making a new thread.

I have IA5 locked on... for the most part. Some of the channels have a nice signal quality to them, while others lower in quality to the point where it gets all scrambled and I lose the audio. Do I need to fine tune more? Or are some of the channels messed up because of the uplink?

Please tell me it's the uplink.

 

[PSB]

The signal quality on each TP. is different. But they should not be cutting out if the dish is properly pointed(depending on the weather and where you are in the country). Go to a weak TP. Stand behind the dish, pull the dish slightly to the left/right and up and down, watch the signal quality meter and if it goes up you are slightly off. The LNBF should be straight up and down in the "0" true south position and it sets its own skew as it moves. Good Luck!