Shortwave veteran, just purchased 1st FTA...need advice

[Judsat]

Hello, Hope this is the correct forum. I've been into shortwave radio for 20 years now and just recently purchased a FTA bundle on ebay. I've set up DirectTV systems before, and THINK i know what I'm doing...
What I have Purchased: TRAXIS DBS4000 with 30"dish, motor, and "eazyfind" LNB.
My Problem: of the two on screen signal indicators, (signal intensity, and signal quality), only the signal intensity will get up to about 80%....... The "signal quality" ALWAYS reads 12-14... The WIERD part, It Even reads this with nothing hooked to the box. Does anyone have any opinion if my box may be defective?? (I've double checked that the location of the dish was not causing this)
Any input would be greatly appreciated (this is my first post-)
-Jud

 

[osu1991]

What sat are you trying to aim at? Signal intensity just means you are getting power to the lnb. Signal quality is what you are looking for. Ku signals are not as forgiving as DBS and you have to be spot on to get signal. You just are not aimed correctly at the sat yet. If you don't have a sat meter it is easier if you have a small tv and the receiver at the dish while you are aiming.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[Jim S.]

The quality reading is sort of the inverse of the bit error rate, so it's normal on most receivers for the quality to remain very low until you almost have a viewable picture -- the reason for this being that there is an amount of redundant data sent for error correction purposes. (How much of this is sent varies by channel. You can have nearly every other bit being redundant, or as low as one in ten I think.)

As osu1991 said, the aim is more critical than a DBS dish. What you should do is get the signal strength as high as possible, then VERY slowly move the aim in each axis and watch for a blip in the quality reading. How slow is very slow? Try locking the axes down (loosely, so you can move them later) and pushing an edge of the dish with your finger.

OH, I almost forgot to mention, in case you don't know, since the quality reading DOES depend on actually decoding a signal, you need to have an active transponder for the satellite you're aiming for programmed into the receiver.

 

[stanleyjohn]

Welcome aboard!Im sure someone here will help you out.I was real big into SWL years ago!still have my shortwave radios a realistic DX300 and a Yaesu Frg-7 and a few old military receivers.

 

[Blindowl1234]

FTA is a lot harder to get lined up than a DBS is. Like was mentioned earlier, make sure you are on a live transponder. Many of us when we started struggled to get that first picture and then there it was just like magic. Also make sure your pole is plumb, and your elevation etc...are correct...then slowly move the dish. 97 West sat is a good one to start with..lots of channels...Blind

 

[turbosat]

Welcome Judsat, warning: Once you get that first signal/picture , you WILL be hooked ! (no monthly bill OR contract, lol)
Somehow, I believe if you can handle amat radio, this will quickly fall into place for you. Just remember, you are aiming at a flashlight 22,300 miles in the air, so you have to get pretty close to 'dead on' .

 

[Judsat]

Thankyou all I'll.So much for the advise! I look forward to my next free daylight to get back up there... Especially pay attention to transponder code, I should have invested in a FTA for dummies book, but It seems as if you all are very supportive, half this stuff is greek to me... the instructions in the dish motor book are starting to make sense... it and the receiver has some kind of go to x function I have yet to try...but I have to try and get a better tru south defaulted. One dumb question: so the 97 west is 97 degrees off of west? in the southerly direction?... I worked as a land surveyor for about 7 years and everything was based off of North or South. (I really should have found a book on this beforehand hah)- either way thanks again for the support!
-Jud

 

[Jim S.]

97 degrees west means that the satellite is stationed over the 97 degree west meridian. Where that appears in your sky will depend on where you're located. If you go to SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - Satellite Angle Calculator you can calculate the elevation and azimuth for all the satellites visible from North America.

 

[TRG]

Hi Jud. Welcome to the addiction.

We all have been in the same boat. The best advice is to be patient. Another good piece of advice is to keep it simple at first. I'd recommend that you put the motor off to the side for a while. Setting up a stationary dish is much easier than going for a motorized setup right away. Once you get comfortable with what you are doing you can add the motor.

There is a great shortwave channel (audio) that comes from the UK called WRN (World Radio Network). They uplink Shortwave Broadcasters like Radio Australia, China Radio International, Deutsche Welle, Polish Radio, Radio France International, RTE Ireland, Voice of Russia and many more. Unlike SW listening there is no fade out or static. Just crystal clear shortwave signals coming to your satellite dish and digital receiver. 97W offers some interesting TV channels as well.

The shortwave programs I described above is on a very popular satellite that some of the other members already recommended called Galaxy 19 and is located in orbital position 97W. First you need to go in to setup and make sure that the "Easyfind LNB" is set up correctly. Hopefully you have some documentation or a product label that tells you what the local oscillator should be set to. Also you should rough set the skew on your LNB for your location. Next you want to pick a "strong transponder" to look at while aligning your dish. There are two that are listed in "the list" as having a strong signal. 12151 H 20000 and 12177 V 23000. Make sure you are watching one of these "Hot" transponders when aligning your dish. It will make finding the satellite much easier. A common mistake newbies make (ask me how I know) is selecting a default transponder that is not active on the satellite. You will cover the whole sky and never tune in a thing!

Don't trust the elevation scale on your dish. Many of the Ku dishes do not have an accurate scale.

That should get you started. Let us know how you make out and feel free to ask questions. You've come to the right place. There are a lot of very helpful people that can get you over most hurdles.

Tom

 

[Judsat]

The Mess...

This is the 'temporary' setup... posting for your amusement. Motor removed. Getting closer I feel, but still nothing yet, (I think I have to cut off my 'pole' (part of SIPS house panel) to get closer to the elevation angle) Tom- a great deal of info you gave me Thank you. Still signal intensity and quality Always hover at same numbers... wierd. AND I think I need to ground my unit/antenna also...

 

[pwrsurge]

Make sure your mounting post is as plumb as possible. Since you are installing a non-motorized dish, it does not have to be 100% plumb but it's better if it is. This way, you won't have to "fudge" the dish alignment in order to get signal. Put a level on the J pipe itself and make sure it's pointing straight up from all directions.

With the Easyfind LNBF, there's actually a small LED light on the LNBF itself so you don't need to have the receiver and a TV outside. When the dish starts getting signal from the transponder you have it set at, the LED light will start to light up. The brighter the light, the stronger the signal.

 

[TRG]

Did you ever get a signal lock judsat?