Why can't I find IA5?

[N4ST]

Been using a Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra and a fixed 90cm dish for about 5-months to watch stuff on AMC4. Been reading the forum here and thought I understood a lot of it, but I just tried adding a 2nd LNB to get IA5 and can't find a signal. Trouble shooting mode is wired straight through to the receiver and if I lay the LNB in the main cradle I get the AMC4 stations just fine. I'm in VA and figure I should be placing the LNB for IA5 just to the left (as viewed from the rear) and a little below the AMC4 LNB. I've tried various fixtures to locate the LNB, but when I do a scan at the receiver nothing is found. Finally, I tried parking the receiver on an IA5 TP and slowly painting the area next to the AMC4 LNB by hand. Signal quality never came off of 0%.

What is the strongest signal on IA5 to use for initial alignment?

Is there something else I'm missing? Like I said, the LNB and cable work fine on AMC4 and I have verified the setups in the receiver are the same for AMC4 and IA5-Ku.

 

[john green]

This is a strange one.I can get certain frequencies very strong but then others drop off quite a bit.I can't understand most of what's going on in those languages so I really never worried about it.Go to Lyngsat and get the freq & symbol rate for GNF.That one comes in pretty good.

 

[PSB]

Been using a Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra and a fixed 90cm dish for about 5-months to watch stuff on AMC4. Been reading the forum here and thought I understood a lot of it, but I just tried adding a 2nd LNB to get IA5 and can't find a signal. Trouble shooting mode is wired straight through to the receiver and if I lay the LNB in the main cradle I get the AMC4 stations just fine. I'm in VA and figure I should be placing the LNB for IA5 just to the left (as viewed from the rear) and a little below the AMC4 LNB. I've tried various fixtures to locate the LNB, but when I do a scan at the receiver nothing is found. Finally, I tried parking the receiver on an IA5 TP and slowly painting the area next to the AMC4 LNB by hand. Signal quality never came off of 0%.

What is the strongest signal on IA5 to use for initial alignment?

Is there something else I'm missing? Like I said, the LNB and cable work fine on AMC4 and I have verified the setups in the receiver are the same for AMC4 and IA5-Ku.

Put the LNB for IA-5 to the right of the main LNB as the signal bounces of the sides of the dish into the LNB!

 

[N4ST]

Put the LNB for IA-5 to the right of the main LNB as the signal bounces of the sides of the dish into the LNB!

I may have originally stated things in a confusing fashion. Standing in front of the dish, viewing the LNB from the rear, I am placing the IA-5 LNB lower and to the left of the AMC4 LNB. Is that correct?

 

[PSB]

Sounds right!

 

[scottc98]

I may have originally stated things in a confusing fashion. Standing in front of the dish, viewing the LNB from the rear, I am placing the IA-5 LNB lower and to the left of the AMC4 LNB. Is that correct?

Facing the dish, it going down in sat deg rt to left. so if you place it on the left side of AMC4 (101), then it should be good.

 

[Keith Brannen]

What is the strongest signal on IA5 to use for initial alignment?

Is there something else I'm missing? Like I said, the LNB and cable work fine on AMC4 and I have verified the setups in the receiver are the same for AMC4 and IA5-Ku.

Try 12177 V 23000 or 11836 V 20765, they are both strong transponders. Since the satellites are only four degrees apart, the two LNBs should be touching each other.

 

[Tron]

It may be difficult to achieve 4 degree spacing without using "bullet-style" LNBFs and a special holder such as the one SatelliteAV sells.

 

[Keith Brannen]

It may be difficult to achieve 4 degree spacing without using "bullet-style" LNBFs and a special holder such as the one SatelliteAV sells.

The only real difficulty that I had was locking the LNB in place with a satifactory signal quality on the weakest transponder. That was mainly due to the bracket I was using, as well as having to stand on a ladder, lean over, and reach up! In my case, I was doing the exact opposite of what the OP is doing, I was adding a LNB for AMC4 beside the IA5 LNB.

 

[N4ST]

It may be difficult to achieve 4 degree spacing without using "bullet-style" LNBFs and a special holder such as the one SatelliteAV sells.

I had done the math and figured I could get my new "bullet-style" LNB close enough to work. But the "ears" on the LNB holders are a potential problem, so when I had no success, I removed my main LNB/holder and tried positioning the one for IA5 without the mechanical interference of the AMC4 LNB. If I could just get a whisper of signal quality I thing I could cobble something together that would work.

Last night I set down with my receiver and built a "new" satellite named TEST from scratch and added a channel and finally did a power scan to convince myself I knew how my receiver worked. That all went fine with the AMC4 LNB in place. It's raining today and I got some other stuff to do, but hopefully I can try for IA5 again on Sunday.

Thanks for all the help/suggestions received thus far.

 

[PSB]

Remember you can crack open the casing of an LNB very often making it a lot smaller (As well as exposing the 20mm neck).

The casing on an LNB does not make it water tight, most all of my Ku LNB's have been modified in this way. Of course its done at your own risk.

But I have never had a bad LNB in all the time I have been doing it! A file is also your friend.

 

[N4ST]

I spent about 1-1/2 hours this morning painstaking moving an LNB in a grid around where I thought I would find IA5. I had removed the primary LNB and it's bracket so there would not be any mechanical interference. Finally gave up. I mounted the LNB back in the primarily location and loosened the dish to rotate it toward IA5 and was locked on in about 2-minutes. Still don't know why I couldn't find the signal by offsetting the LNB. The signal levels seemed much lower than what I normally get on AMC4. I will play around some more, but may just end up getting a second dish. (darn! )

 

[iafirebuff]

Now that you have the dish at IA-5, try putting the lnb next to it for AMC4. I have the Fortec Universal LNBs, and all I had to do was place the lnb next to/flush with the IA5 lnb and I had AMC-4 at 86% on KUIL. No messing with , 2 secs it was there!

 

[cuongvu]

Don't give up and don't buy another dish. My dish is only 76cm, but I still get both of them. If you get no signal at all, check the cable and the connector. I had big problem with them. If you use the mini-lnbfs, you shoud have the "Super magic multiple bracket" on Ebay

Cuong

 

[Keith Brannen]

Now that you have the dish at IA-5, try putting the lnb next to it for AMC4. I have the Fortec Universal LNBs, and all I had to do was place the lnb next to/flush with the IA5 lnb and I had AMC-4 at 86% on KUIL. No messing with , 2 secs it was there!

I agree, for two major reasons. First off, there are more transponders/channels on IA5 so the dish should to peaked to that satellite (a wider variety of signal strengths). Secondly, and more importantly, I have found with my set-up that most of the transponders on AMC4 with FTA channels are very strong, and, in general, equal or surpasse in signal strength most of the transponders on IA5! Of the eight transponders on AMC4 with FTA or scrambled channels on it, the only one I found was very weak (and was the one that I spent a lot of time tweaking the LNB on) was 11860.