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I'm curious - after getting the dish shape corrected, did you notice any difference in the horizontal and vertical sensitivity? Are you still seeing a 5º vertical and very tight horizontal behavior?

Depending on how it was clamshelled, it seems possible that the shape could have been a factor in what you saw on both axes.

RedSavina said:

I'm curious - after getting the dish shape corrected, did you notice any difference in the horizontal and vertical sensitivity? Are you still seeing a 5º vertical and very tight horizontal behavior?

Depending on how it was clamshelled, it seems possible that the shape could have been a factor in what you saw on both axes.

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The Azimuth opened up some. The elevation is still about the same, I found that because the Mercury II's signal meter is so spastic I was having a hard time zeroing it in. Once I hooked my Coolsat 5000 to it, it was real easy to zero in just so. So far I am happy with it. :up

stogie5150 said:

The Azimuth opened up some. The elevation is still about the same, I found that because the Mercury II's signal meter is so spastic I was having a hard time zeroing it in. Once I hooked my Coolsat 5000 to it, it was real easy to zero in just so. So far I am happy with it. :up

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Stogie,
Do you have the latest Merc firmware in your box ? One of the fixes was to help out the signal meter problem. That being said, I've never seen a better signal meter than the one on my BUZZ plus box. It's like an oscilloscope and very nice for tuning. Too bad we can't take the best features of all boxes and combine them into one.



Brent

stogie5150 said:

The Azimuth opened up some. The elevation is still about the same, I found that because the Mercury II's signal meter is so spastic I was having a hard time zeroing it in. Once I hooked my Coolsat 5000 to it, it was real easy to zero in just so. So far I am happy with it. :up

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With the Glorystar dual LNB mount we are looking at a 4º spread on the azimuth. Would you care to estimate the usable azimuth range of this dish? I am still planning to go with an elliptical for the sats I will attempt to pull in, but am curious...

RedSavina said:

With the Glorystar dual LNB mount we are looking at a 4º spread on the azimuth. Would you care to estimate the usable azimuth range of this dish? I am still planning to go with an elliptical for the sats I will attempt to pull in, but am curious...

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I HAVE the Glorystar dual mount ( it was included with the system), so I could tell you for sure, but I'd guess that it has plenty of width for that. I wouldn't go hang six LNBS across it, I don't think its wide enough for that, but I think the dual should be doable, no problem.

brentb636 said:

Stogie,
Do you have the latest Merc firmware in your box ? One of the fixes was to help out the signal meter problem. That being said, I've never seen a better signal meter than the one on my BUZZ plus box. It's like an oscilloscope and very nice for tuning. Too bad we can't take the best features of all boxes and combine them into one.



Brent

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Yes, I have the latest firmware off the Fortec site.:up

The meter bounces all over...50 to 40 to 55 to 39 to 45 to 60 to 40....drove me insane trying to peak the dish...
But the picture is stable, and if I hook the coolsat to it its rock solid on about 90 quality on an average TP.

The 4 degree rotating skew dual bracket has two LNBFs offset on either side of center. The narrow beam width of the dish provides higher performance than a dish with a wider beam width. The dish is rated 1.8 degrees with -3db attenuation. The tighter beam helps reject nearby satellites such as G16 which is centered 2 degrees between the Glorystar programming satellite Galaxy25 (97W) and AMC4 (101W).

Don't confuse the beam width performance on a single satellite / single LNBF with the performance of a dish set-up for multiple satellites and LNBFS. A tighter beam width increases performance on multiple LNBF set-ups within 15 - 20 degree spacing. If you are covering a larger slice of orbital slots (40 degrees), then a toroidal design dish will provide consistent averaged performance over the wide spacing.

BTW.... Fortec Star Mercury II meter samples, displays at a higher rate and does not average the BER like Coolsats. It maybe be easier to use a dampened reading to rough in the install, but Mercury II meters will provide a much more accurate aim. Fluctuations on the Signal Quality reading could indicate a non-optimized, undersized dish for the desired TP or incorrect LNBF skew and the BER cannot stabilize. If a proper size reflector, dish aiming and skew are set, the Mercury II Signal Quality reading will stabilize.

SatelliteAV said:

Don't confuse the beam width performance on a single satellite / single LNBF with the performance of a dish set-up for multiple satellites and LNBFS. A tighter beam width increases performance on multiple LNBF set-ups within 15 - 20 degree spacing. If you are covering a larger slice of orbital slots (40 degrees), then a toroidal design dish will provide consistent averaged performance over the wide spacing.

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Interesting. I have been approaching this all wrong, apparently. When planning for a multi-lnb setup I have been thinking of the reflector as providing a "field of view" for the LNBFs, where the width and curvature along the horizontal axis of the dish are the primary determinants in what can be potentially received. I know this does not account for spacing of satellites, but I haven't fully gotten a grasp of that yet.

So here's what I am pondering. I have Dish Network service down here is deep south Texas and cannot get a good lock on 129W (which carries my RSN and several HD channels). To date that has not been a real big issue as I have been able to get most of that programming off my Sky Angel dish at 61.5W. With Sky Angel about to go dark I am planning on moving to Glorystar and won't really need a dish at 61.5W. With that in mind, I intend to jump into FTA with both feet and do a little experimentation along these lines:More likely, I will end up with a dual dish setup and add LNBFs as able with one dish peaked for 97/101 and the other peaked for 110/119/129. Maybe someday I will drop my subscription service, but just can't part with some of the channels!

With my "field of view" approach, I have been looking at the P* elliptical dishes. I would love to hear comments on where my understanding is faulty, etc.

For various reasons (one of which is spelled XYL) I am trying to limit my dish farm to two dishes, at or below the 1 meter threshold. For now I am not terribly interested in a motorized setup, but who knows how that will change once I get a taste of FTA.

I really appreciate everyone's patience and kindness in helping me through the learning curve. I especially want to thank Brian. I know you aren't interested in using these forums as a sales tool, but I have to say that both of the users from SatelliteAV have really impressed me and earned my business. THANKS!

I forgot to mention... The Eastern Arc chatter has really got me wondering if I should just focus on FTA/Glorystar for the big dish and wait for Eastern Arc for Dish Network as it will probably make 129 irrelevant for me. *sigh*

It would/will still be a fun experiment, though!