Total Novices Down From Lightning Strike!

[Lillian1961]

My husband and I had a GloryStar FTA system. Some weeks ago lightning struck next door, and our receiver wouldn't even turn on. We went on E-Bay and got a Strong Mini Digital Satellite receiver. The manual (which we had to download) was a waste of paper and the video we were sent to was no help at all. So, back to E-Bay and we ordered a used Fortec Star Mercury 2, which is exactly what we used to have. It won't pick up any stations,, either. We tried replacing the LNBF, nothing. Now, we did get a different brand of LNBF and we heard that this might be a problem, that we would need a professional to come with a satellite finder or something to aim our dish and LNBF. However, the technician here locally was clueless when we asked him about this, and he worked on our system before.

Can anyone help us get back up and running again?

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to the forum, we would be glad to help you. If it is just from a lighting strike I doubt the dishes needs re-alignment. Most likely the settings in your receiver are not set right. What does it say on your LNBF, I will assume a LO of 10750?

 

[rv1pop]

Hi, and welcome to the best forum around. The only place that might sound better for advice would be the Glorysar forum on this website, but most everybody that is there is here and we will be glad to get you going again. I would have gone back to Glorystar or SatelliteAV to get replacement parts, but since you are now here, the Mercury II is a good receiver, the only minor problem being, it does not have the Glorystar firmware on it, but that list is now well out of date, anyway. I also will presume the dish did not move, so it should still be lined up.

So, the main thing left is the set up to match the new LNBF and the receiver. As was asked, what LNBF did you get, and what is the LO frequency? The going to the receiver satellite page, for 97 W, you will need to be sure the settings are matching.

When I set up a non-Glorystar receiver for use with Glorystar lists, I take the channel listing from the Glorystar site and TP scan the correct TP's first. You may need to add some of those, if they are not already in your receiver.

But until we know the LNBF type / frequency, this is probably all the information you are ready for, for now.
SO let us know and we can go from there.
POP

 

[rv1pop]

one other thought. SOMETIMES (rare) lightning might damage the co-ax so be prepared to bring the receiver and TV to the dish to get it tuned up and running again.

 

[Lillian1961]

Our LNBF

Welcome to the forum, we would be glad to help you. If it is just from a lighting strike I doubt the dishes needs re-alignment. Most likely the settings in your receiver are not set right. What does it say on your LNBF, I will assume a LO of 10750?

Dear New Forum Friend,

Greetings in the Name of Jesus, Who loved you so much He died for you.

Yes, to answer your question it does say LO 10.75 GHz. Let me explain what we know.

We purchased a single standard linear Ku Band LNBF which was HDTV approved. Its model number is ESX521FE. Input frequency 11.7-12.2GHz. Output frequency: 950-1450MHz. Noise figure: 0.2dB. Gain: 70dB LO frequency: 10.75 Ghz Manufactured and distributed by WS International Global Satellite out of Atlanta GA and Los Angeles CA.

The person from whom we purchased the LNBF told us that the reason we were not getting a signal was because we needed something called a signal meter finder. He said that we were probably pointing the LNBF to the wrong place on our satellite dish. We called our local satellite TV guru who installs all the Dish and Direct TV satellite in the area as well as new antennas for televisions, etc. He is also involved with the local cable company. He politely said he was not aware of what the man who sold us the LNBF was talking about.

WE ARE TOTAL NOVICES. We do not speak satellite, we do not speak electronics, we do not speak anything but English, so please have pity on us. We are as little children (well, I guess in this day and age, they might know more than we do about these things ).

Someone said the coaxial cable might need to be replaced. We have no idea of how to test a coaxial cable. But we do know this: the lightning strike took out our old receiver. We first purchased a mini receiver made in China called a Strong and when we hooked it up, it moved the dish, but we got no signal. We asked for help online but after 2 or 3 days decided we would replace our Fortec Star Mercury - 2 with another Fortec Star, which we purchased used, online, from a man who had upgraded and had only used this system, he said, for a few months. He was from Wisconsin and one of his favorite satellite signals was 123 West. We hooked the purchased receiver up to the satellite and guess what? It went to 123 West and told us there were other stations available BUT the signal level and quality were at 0 to 5 or 10 with an occasional blip higher. So my thinking is the coaxial cable is allowing the receiver to communicate with the dish BUT we admit we are novices.

We are trying to tell you all these things because we don't know what small information might be important.

Oh by the way, we did not purchase a fixed Glorystar system. We purchased a moveable satellite dish with a motor and it operated fine prior to 2009 when we lost most of our stations. We hope this additional information will help you help us. HELP! Thank thee and may God bless you.

 

[rv1pop]

Thanks for the information, and yes, that answered the most important - even unasked questions.
1. the dish moved when the box new STB was connected --- you are now off the "bird" but probably still on the arc por belt.
2. The LNBF should be OK - from a usually good supplier, but the information about a finder is not true - you are on the arc, you do not need it!
3. The co-ax is probably still OK, the dish moved!
4. Monday my Mecury II showed back up along with 5 or six of my ham radios, so I will get mine hooked back up, so I could help walk you through getting that receiver set for the LNBF. Someone else will need to help you with THE ACTUATOR, aka motor, or arm as those are Greek (or Hebrew) to me.

I am sure someone will get back to you to help set up the LNBF also - I am going to be outside with a shovel much of the day.

 

[rv1pop]

Off topic, since the box moved the motor, but for others: ... A BTW about lightning damaging co-ax .... If your LNB is in pieces or ashes and your STB is scorched and the shelf around it is also, then your co-ax is probably shot! However, before you dig it up, check the connectors. If the are intact, but show signs of arcing, replace them. THEY DID the job of discharge paths. If you did not install a ground block, and you did not have serious house damage .... you are fortunate, indeed.

 

[Jim S.]

OK, so it's a motorized system. There are two ways of controlling a motor for a small Ku-band dish -- USALS and DiSEqC 1.2. If you don't want to have to deal with re-aiming the dish, you'll need to know how the original receiver was set up. If it was set up for USALS, then you need to make sure that you've entered your latitude and longitude in the USALS setup screen, or the motor will be pointing in the wrong direction. That should be all you need to do if you haven't moved the dish by hand. It should automatically go to the correct location for each satellite. On the other hand, if you were using DiSEqC 1.2, then each satellite will have been located manually and then had a position number assigned to it. (The positions are stored in the motor, whereas USALS calculates the positions as needed.) So you'll have to figure out which position number corresponds to the satellite you want to look at, and enter it in the satellite setup screen. (I think there are 64 possible positions.)

 

[turbosat]

I wish I was closer, I'd come help get your dish going. They put Kansas so far away from here, though. We had a member there, awhile back but I can't recall his handle. He was on the west side, if I remember correctly, close to Hays.