Recent content by dwboston

Major lightning activities in the past 6 hours and now I have two c-band dishes - both about 12 feet apart that are not apparently putting out any signal to our PowerVU receivers (using the AMC-1 and IS-9 (19) satellite). We have not yet started a check of the whole system, other than rebooting...

Actually the Chaparral "Superfeed" doesn't have a probe inside the feedhorn, due to the fact that it's a single polarity feedhorn, there's just a large opening at the back end of the unit for placement of the LNB. Nothing inside the cavity.

I just purchased a Chaparral Single polarity C-band Feedhorn, (SuperFEED) and am a bit confused how to fine tune polarity with this feedhorn. We only require horizontal polarity on our fixed prime focus dish, however, I was under the impression that the throat would be rotatable much like...

We're in the market for a professional quality capture card. We are a broadcast production house that has been capturing MPEG2/DVB video from a free to air channel on the AMC-1 satellite for a broadcast client. Currently we capture everything directly into Final Cut Pro on a Macintosh...

Seems to have fixed itself. Left it unplugged for a week; plugged it back in and voila! it works fine. The only thing I changed was plugging directly into a wall outlet rather than the surge protector. Perhaps the voltage coming out of the surge protector is off.

Ebay Returns Two reasons we can't return to Ebay seller; most of these units are sold in "as is" condition; and we've had this one for several months now. It seemed to work fine when we first unpacked it, but we were just about to program it for a channel on AMC-1 and couldn't get it to even...

We've been buying used PowerVu's (D9850) off Ebay for some of our re-broadcast partners and have had pretty good success, but have run into problem with one unit that powers up and does little more than shows a blank green screen (on the IRD itself, not the monitor). We know that our incoming...

Interesting news --- we were still unable to get a strong enough signal to lock on to AMC-1. There were strong signal readings off a free-to-air blind search receiver --- but quality readings were low --- and none of the frequencies available on AMC-1 would lock --- however, we swung this dish...

This just in. Finally got my hands on a FTA blind search receiver - and get this, the closest satellite to the spot where these guys installed this fixed dish was Galaxy 23 which is 18 degrees and 8 satellite slots off from AMC-1. Galaxy 23 comes in beautifully. Will be retuning this to AMC-1...

Quick reply to my own question regarding string testing --- much simpler than I thought... "You need to have a very parabolic dish. Warpage will cause signal mis-reflection and you won't be getting the best performance out of your system. To check your dish for warpage, you will need to get...

Quote from Brian at Satellite AV: "Was the dish parabolic string tested for correct panel assembly? Has the feedhorn been centered on the reflector with a laser or other device? Is the F/D adjusted for optimal BER?" Brian, if you are monitoring this thread --- or if someone out there can...

Here's an update. We switched out the GeoSATpro LNBF with a Chaparral 17 MicroPak LNBF with no positive results. We've also tried retuning the dish's azimuth, elevation, and polarity with no better results. Though we're now quite sure we are tuned to the correct position for AMC-1 since we...

The LNB is an older Chaparral (about 6 years old), but I have also switched it out with the cheapy that came with the dish that doesn't even seem to have a brand. So I think I will be ordering a new LNB. Quick question though --- I'm thinking of buying a Chaparral 17 degree 3G Micropak for...

Thanks to all your responses. I'm using a Globecast FTA box to get my strength and quality readings, but in my former installation (I just moved), I used a $1200 Scientific Atlanta PowerVu to receive Deutsche Welle's free to air service, because I'm their U.S. marketing agent. It's the only...

A professional installer just installed a new 2.4 meter Geosatpro c-band dish (fixed dish) for me in a pasture near my home (about 25 feet from the house). After finishing the installation, the installer could not pick up a signal from the AMC-1 free-to-air channel I was trying to receive...