The shipping from Sadoun was SUPER FAST! they shipped it Tuesday, and Friday, I'm watching TV! Inside the well packaged box was a .90m dish, a Digipower 2100 motor, and the reciever, along with a Universal LNB.
First, assembly of the Fortec Star 90P dish was pretty straightforward, even though I didn't use the wall/roof mount it came with, everything was sturdy and tightly fit (I did have to use a rubber mallet to assemble the feed arm to the elevation bracket because the powdercoat was built up)
I then assembled the motor, The Digipower is a typical motor of it's type, pretty close to the fabled DMSI SG2100, but I think the Digipower is going to be much better. It runs quicker, and sounds better. (My SG2100 whines a bit, even though it has a lighter and smaller dish on it) The motor however needs to be reset when you put power to it, as it only wants to go West. This small problem was cleared up with a paperclip. (Maybe this was covered in the manual? I didn't read it.)
I'm not going to go through the pole mounting, but I put the motor on the pole, took out the pivot bolt and then put the dish on the motor. Pretty straight forward. At this point, I realize how nice the Fortec Star dish is. Very rigid and stable.
Aiming the dish. I set the dish for my 30*- declination angle and then set the motor for my Lattitide. I hooked up my nifty signal meter (I use an Accutrak 22 Pro) and being my True South is a DBS bird, I needed a circular LNB.
This is my first problem. Fortec does not include spacers for their LNB mount.
Duct tape and masking tape makes a good helper for these problems so I shimmed up the LNB and temporarly clamped it in the neck.
I move the entire dish assembly approx 1/4" from my guessed TS (I don't use a compass, I just guess) I hit approx 80 signal. So on goes the Fortec Star Mercury II FTA Reciever.
I should say before hand I used my existing motor/dish to program in the satellites I want to recieve, and I think someone installing their first motor should use a fixed dish to find and program birds.
I swapped in the Sadoun labeled Universal LNB, and proceeded to motor over with the great USALS menus to G10R for fine tuning. I find that I am getting NO signal. I did align this with a taped in DBS LNB, so I expected to have to fine tune a little, but no signal at all is a problem. I motor east a little with the 1.2 controls, I motor west. Nothing.
The Fortec dish is off approx -8* from what it says it is. After playing with this for an hour or so I find a nice sweetspot on G10R that gives me about 63% quality. I motor around to IA6, good picture and everything, so forth and so on.
I use 22khz switches in my setup, so the Universal has gotta go. I play musical LNB's and get everyone satisfied, and end up with an Invacom Quad on this dish.
Overall, I am happy with the overall quality of the reciever, the dish is great, the motor is of fine quality, but the best part I am most pleased with was Sadoun! They are the greatest!!
The reciever is really nice, it has a very quick powerscan, expect to see more posts from me in the WUT area.... It also has very pretty menus. Fortec has really stepped it up since the Lifetime and Ultra recievers, this is REALLY NICE! the remote has lots of well labeled buttons, and it was easy to figure out (again, I didn't look in the instruction book)
I'd highly suggest Sadoun for any of your Satellite needs!!! This is definately the definative KU dish solution. Great signal reception with a very accurate motor made this my easiest motor install ever
First, assembly of the Fortec Star 90P dish was pretty straightforward, even though I didn't use the wall/roof mount it came with, everything was sturdy and tightly fit (I did have to use a rubber mallet to assemble the feed arm to the elevation bracket because the powdercoat was built up)
I then assembled the motor, The Digipower is a typical motor of it's type, pretty close to the fabled DMSI SG2100, but I think the Digipower is going to be much better. It runs quicker, and sounds better. (My SG2100 whines a bit, even though it has a lighter and smaller dish on it) The motor however needs to be reset when you put power to it, as it only wants to go West. This small problem was cleared up with a paperclip. (Maybe this was covered in the manual? I didn't read it.)
I'm not going to go through the pole mounting, but I put the motor on the pole, took out the pivot bolt and then put the dish on the motor. Pretty straight forward. At this point, I realize how nice the Fortec Star dish is. Very rigid and stable.
Aiming the dish. I set the dish for my 30*- declination angle and then set the motor for my Lattitide. I hooked up my nifty signal meter (I use an Accutrak 22 Pro) and being my True South is a DBS bird, I needed a circular LNB.
This is my first problem. Fortec does not include spacers for their LNB mount.
Duct tape and masking tape makes a good helper for these problems so I shimmed up the LNB and temporarly clamped it in the neck.
I move the entire dish assembly approx 1/4" from my guessed TS (I don't use a compass, I just guess) I hit approx 80 signal. So on goes the Fortec Star Mercury II FTA Reciever.
I should say before hand I used my existing motor/dish to program in the satellites I want to recieve, and I think someone installing their first motor should use a fixed dish to find and program birds.
I swapped in the Sadoun labeled Universal LNB, and proceeded to motor over with the great USALS menus to G10R for fine tuning. I find that I am getting NO signal. I did align this with a taped in DBS LNB, so I expected to have to fine tune a little, but no signal at all is a problem. I motor east a little with the 1.2 controls, I motor west. Nothing.
The Fortec dish is off approx -8* from what it says it is. After playing with this for an hour or so I find a nice sweetspot on G10R that gives me about 63% quality. I motor around to IA6, good picture and everything, so forth and so on.
I use 22khz switches in my setup, so the Universal has gotta go. I play musical LNB's and get everyone satisfied, and end up with an Invacom Quad on this dish.
Overall, I am happy with the overall quality of the reciever, the dish is great, the motor is of fine quality, but the best part I am most pleased with was Sadoun! They are the greatest!!
The reciever is really nice, it has a very quick powerscan, expect to see more posts from me in the WUT area.... It also has very pretty menus. Fortec has really stepped it up since the Lifetime and Ultra recievers, this is REALLY NICE! the remote has lots of well labeled buttons, and it was easy to figure out (again, I didn't look in the instruction book)
I'd highly suggest Sadoun for any of your Satellite needs!!! This is definately the definative KU dish solution. Great signal reception with a very accurate motor made this my easiest motor install ever
