Problem with new setup, please help

[rv1pop]

Krisman, have you got it working yet. Just a little clarification. If you are at 84.5° as I think you said, your true south Satellite is at 83°, just 1.5° off of your location, but 22500 miles above the equator. You are pointing at that 73 foot wide antenna 22,500 miles away. Setting by a compass and protractor can only get you so close. But as you move your antenna, aka dish, pointing at the satellite, with your receiver set for an active trransponder you will see quality climb and finally peak when your 36 inch dish is exactly in line with the 73 foot satellite antenna.

 

[krisman]

hey there, i havent got it yet but i am getting closer. as of right now, i have pointed at 91w nimiq i think, and got great signal and quality tuning the motor with remote, both were at 89 quality and signal. so i scanned the channels and saved them. but when it was done scanning, quality went back down to 0 and the channels said no signal. now i know this isnt the true south sat but the true south one was giving me 0 on signal and quality. now when i did get the good signal and quality on nimiq, i never got out and turned the dish left or right or up and down, just scanned while i had good quality. on some sats i scanned i was even getting quality on like 110w but the ones closest to me were not coming in at all. what could be the problem here?


p.s. i have no intention of getting anything but fta with this, but do they make something to plug into it that will help with your direction of finding the sats and would that void the warranty? I have heard of people doing this before.

 

[Lak7]

Are you moving the Dish using the motor, or are you twisting the motor on the pole?
You can use the Nimiq and Echostar Sat to align to with out any "issues", no extra "software" needed.

 

[krisman]

oh i was using the motor from the remote control, not twisting it on the pole. i just didnt want to mess up the quality meter by turning it on the pole after i got such good reading from using the remote. the good quality only lasts though until it gets done scanning channels, then quality goes to 0 and signal is like 50 or something

 

[Lak7]

Go to the Receiver's Sat / Antenna Setup Menu, Find the Sat Nimiq1 @ 91 west.
For Nimiq and Echostar, when you have a Quality the name of the Sat should pop-up on the screen, confirming that you are on it. That Does Not go for FTA Sats.

 

[krisman]

i am so close to getting channels now. echostar and directtv and nimiq are coming in with a few channels. one problem is im not getting any tv channels, just radio. the other problem is that none of the other sats quality is coming in, i thought once you hit one sat that the others were easy to get to. am i going to go through each one and put the correct tp number in now or what is my next step? to go out and move the dish up and down? i am afraid to move it much because i have the ones prgrammed that i can get quality on, where i just click a button and it goes to them.

 

[Lak7]

For FTA, you need to be connected to the "L" port on the LNB, and in the Dish Setup menu, you need to enter 10750 in the LNB Freq.
Did your setup come with a DiSEqC Switch?

While connected to the "C" port, get on Nimiq @ 91, and confirm:
LNB Type: Standard or Single
LNB Freq: 11250
Transponder: 12399
What Quality are you getting?

 

[krisman]

i just noticed something else. when i am pointed at nimiq 91w with such good quality and signal. in the corner it says echostar 4, thats like 77w. and when i am on directtv with good quality and signal, it also says echostar 4. so when i go to echostar 4, it gives me no quality.

 

[krisman]

oh i think i am connected to the c port on the lnb, that may be my problem. yes it did come with one of those diseqc switches, but i had no idea how to hook it up so i left it off, just went direct into the motor and back to the receiver. do i need to hook it up?

 

[Lak7]

You can't get DirecTV , they use a different type of signal.

When you see "Echo4" which way is the Dish pointing, SSE?

 

[krisman]

transponder 12399 on nimiq 91w is
67r
67q

 

[Lak7]

It shows "Nimiq" on the screen?
If so, you should be able to get about 80+ for Quality, so a small adjustment may be necessary.

 

[krisman]

yes i am choosing nimiq 91w, thats what it says on the selection menu and yes it is getting above 80 on quality now. but above the meter it is saying echostar 4 77w. that is making no sense to me. but i do have the cable in the "c" instead of the "l" on the lnb. could that be why? and the dish is pointing the last time i checked true south 180, the motor is drove westward, the ball part of the lnb is pointed westward

 

[gillham]

yes i am choosing nimiq 91w, thats what it says on the selection menu and yes it is getting above 80 on quality now. but above the meter it is saying echostar 4 77w. that is making no sense to me.

Well you are pointed at 77°W it sounds like. That satellite is about 14° too far East. Tell the receiver to move the dish to 91°W as you have done, then go out and turn the motor on the mount pole about 3/16" West. You probably want to mark the current spot to make sure you don't move it too far.

 

[krisman]

after some messing around with the receiver, i have pointed to nimiq 82w. and found it with the motor with quality of around 35-40 and reception at around 65. i am so close that i hear the jeffersons on the radio. i have noone here to help me so you will have to tell me what to do next, is it too soon to unplu from the "c" port and plug into the "l" port?

 

[Lak7]

Did you use USALS to find 82west? If not, set 82 to use USALS and tweak the signal With Out manually driving the dish, Dish Elevation adjustment is OK.

Then it's time to add the switch.
Power OFF the receiver using the switch on the back of the receiver.
You wire the switch like this:
Receiver------>Motor------->switch In Port1------->"L"
...........................................................Port2 ----->"C"

In the Receiver YOU have to tell each Sat which port to use.
The Nimiqs at 82 and 91, and Echostars at 61.5, 110, 119, 148 will be set to DiSEqC Port 2
All other sats will be set to Port 1, YOU also need to enter LNB Freq:10750

 

[walrus1957]

Krisman-

I was helping a guy that had a fortecstar 36 inch dish, he was looking at the dish scale incorrectly when setting the elevation. After months he could only track a small section of the arc. I am not saying you are doing this, but make sure when you think you have the scale set to around 24 degrees that you are not referencing the center of the bolt to the scale like he was, but the stationary metal flange in front of the bolt. I do not think that this dish high lights it with a red mark like on the edge of the flange like other dishes do. If I recal correctly your dish elevation is marked off every five degrees making it more difficult to set the dish elevation. The SG2100 has a 30 degree tube bend so the dish elevation that everyone has stated as 30 minus the declination angle would be correct. Make sure your mast is plumb in all directions and sturdy! And I always use the latitude scale of the motor set to your latitude.

Also selecting a strong circular satellite like nimiq 91 is a good start to get your azimuth in the ball park, but remember those linear satellites are very touchy, and make sure the case line of the invacom is centered at zero so the skew works out correctly. If I am not mistaken you said you have a sonicview? I have a friend using one of these, he was having problems using it for true FTA reception. So if you continue to have more problems aligning to the arc, you might want to ask specific receiver questions.

What model of receiver are you using? I will ask my friend if he ever found out any specifics using his sonicview to help aligning to the arc.

Just my two cents of advice, hope all works out well for you.

 

[krisman]

mine is a sonicview 360 premier, and my dish doesnt have markings so yes it is hard to get it adjusted up and down , and yes i am using the center of the bolt as the mark. looking at it normally, which side of the end of the washer should i be using? 24.2 sounds and looks very low to me, but that was with the center of the bolt reference i was using, right now i have it a tad higher and it is picking up better. ill have to get another coax cable then it sounds like to hook up the diseq switch. so i hook up a cable to number 1 and 2 on the lnb to 1 and 2 on the switch, then run a cable from "receiver" on the switch to "lnb" on the motor right? i should probably adjust the dish elevation a little bit to get better on the nimiq sat

 

[Lak7]

so i hook up a cable to number 1 and 2 on the lnb

Details!
LNB "L" to Switch Port1
LNB "C" to Switch Port2

Switch "OUT" to Motor
Motor to Receiver

i should probably adjust the dish elevation a little bit to get better on the nimiq sat

Are you using USALS to move the Dish?

 

[walrus1957]

mine is a sonicview 360 premier, and my dish doesnt have markings so yes it is hard to get it adjusted up and down , and yes i am using the center of the bolt as the mark. looking at it normally, which side of the end of the washer should i be using? 24.2 sounds and looks very low to me, but that was with the center of the bolt reference i was using, right now i have it a tad higher and it is picking up better. ill have to get another coax cable then it sounds like to hook up the diseq switch. so i hook up a cable to number 1 and 2 on the lnb to 1 and 2 on the switch, then run a cable from "receiver" on the switch to "lnb" on the motor right? i should probably adjust the dish elevation a little bit to get better on the nimiq sat

The guy I metioned helping had a very difficult time aligning the dish until we finally found out he was reading the dish elevation scale incorrectly. The dish does have markings but are very faint. It is difficult to explain how to read this dish scale. What I did for him was take a photo of his dish and using my computer doctored the photo to illustrate how to read it correctly. What he thought was a setting of 32 degrees was in actuallity set for around 28 degrees. At his latitude it should have been set for roughly 23.5 degrees. I am not sure how to attach photo to this post so I will PM you and see if there is a way to send you these photos. If your reading from the center of the bolt you are actually setting the dish about 3 degrees high. Do not be fooled by getting signal with the dish setting in error, what you have done was compensate with azimuth. What my freind found out that at best he could do with the incorrect elevation setting was to capture about 35 degrees of the arc.

I have sent my other friend who has a sonicview 360 premier an email asking him to provide me with any info about using this receiver to align with the arc.

As far as the coax is concerned; hook from receiver to the motor port that says (to receiver), then from motor port that says (to lnb) to your diseqc switch, then from your diseqc switch doesn't matter what port you use just select the setup correctly in menue, so if port 1 goes to C (circular) of the invacom and port 2 goes to L (linear) of the invacom, just make sure you selected it correctly in the receiver menue dish settings. Port C of the invacom will be set for LO frequency of 11.250 and select standard single as type, port L (linear) will be set for LO frequency of 10.750 and standard single.

Will PM you and see if there is a way to send you the photos.