ViewSat Issues

[Cold Winter]

I picked up a ViewSat 2000 Platinum unit and started going at it. I have a few issues maybe some of you gents can help me with.
1) Who or where is AMC 3,4,5 up to about 9 ( among others ) located??? When I fire up Orbitron ( a handy piece of freeware ), and load up current NASA TLEs, I find no such beasts.
2)Is 5.01 the most current version of S/W? I'm inclined to go looking for ViewSats most recent S/W, since "blindscan" seems pretty "blind", as in hardly a comprehensive scanner of the satellite belt.
3) Does "USALS" mode actually work on the ViewSat? I'm using a STAB120 and a Fortec 1.2M dish. Aside from the fact that the embedded sat info is wrong ( incorrect longs ) , I find, that the dish will not move to these sats on its own. Yes, when I use "installer" mode it moves the dish just fine. But when in USALS mode, and I go looking for Galaxy 10R it just doesn't move.
4) And as an aside, does any receiver actually show antenna position in degrees? You really have no way of knowing how far the unit has moved when you do a manual move, short of running out ( 250ft here in Canada in the snow ) to check the STABs angle pointer... 8 feet off the ground !
5) While I know some receivers show signal strength and quality, am I to assume the vertical bar graph ( and percentage ) indicator is the only signal strength data you get on the ViewSat?
Just a frustrated :tux: here in the GWN asking for help.
BTW, I Just love this sites X-Mas skin:up . Really nice there gents! And Merry X-Mas to everyone.

 

[Mr Tony]

AMC1-103w
AMC2-85w
AMC3-87w
AMC4-101w
AMC5-79w
AMC6-72w
AMC9-83w
AMC15-105

These are C-band only
AMC10-135
AMC7-137
AMC8-139
AMC11-131

 

[Windtamer]

I'm still learning too so the only question I can help you with is when the vertical bar on the right turns yellow it is showing you the signal quality. That will let you know that you are on the satellite you are looking for. I hope this helps.

 

[Cold Winter]

Thanks Iceberg, now at least I can correlate AMC to the real birds according to NASA.

As for signal, Windtamer, thanks, I got a good signal soon as I started then... a positive at least. Now I just need to find why it can't lock onto any channels on a blind scan. Need to peak my dish.

 

[Mr Tony]

if you are on a specific satellite, try and enter a frequency manually to peak the dish.

Usually each satellite has a real strong transponder

 

[Sarcoptic]

Definitely look at installing the latest factory bin which is 2013 from viewsatusa.com The new bin has a new look and feel and also fine tuned blind scan (supposedly). Also the latest bin tends to be better when figuring signal quality and such

 

[Cold Winter]

Definitely look at installing the latest factory bin which is 2013 from viewsatusa.com The new bin has a new look and feel and also fine tuned blind scan (supposedly). Also the latest bin tends to be better when figuring signal quality and such

Just blew it in. It is a bit more informative on signal and quality. Now I get 49-52% signal and ummm well 0-20% for quality. I have some work to do.

I noticed the motor controls are still a bit amateurish. You don't know if its moving or not. I actually was out of the house by the time the motor actually stopped moving, but there was no indication of motor start or stop on screen.

The other thing I find odd, is that setup doesn't ask right up front for your dishes lat/long and other fine details. Seems you have to set that up on each satellite.

Merry X-Mas folks.:up :