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Hi guys!


Since I discovered via the FSTV website that they are openly advising people as to how to pick up their signal on FTA I don't feel afraid to ask about this channel now.

I've been trying to pick up this channel for a few weeks now and have had no luck at all with it.

Lyngsat doesn't list it at all. It seems that they aren't maintaining the site there very well.

Sathint lists the channel on two frequencies.

11830 / 1784 and 11840 / 1784.

It says that 11830 is DVB-S QPSK and 11840 is DVB-S2 8PSK. (I don't understand what this PSK stuff is)

It gives the FEC (I still don't understand what this is) as 2/3.

Despite me not understanding what some of those thing are or what they do, I know enough to set the pc app to match what the website says or it won't work.

Oh, and I am using a 1.2 meter Andrew dish. The pole is absolutely straight, I checked it on all four points and it is very straight.

I got the info from Dishpointer.com to set the direction, tilt and skew.

I used my little meter to find the satellite at 123. That was not hard to do.
I did a blind scan and the following satellites showed up in the scan.
Be aware, I do not have any device that can blind scan S2.

1. Peace TV - 11.969 V / 2.000
2. KBS World - 12.080 V / 3.680 (scrambled)
3. Level 3 Teleport - 12.149 V / 6.111 (black screen)
4. Teleport Denver Enc - 12.177 V / 6.111 (black screen)
5. Channel One - 11.734 H / 13.240 (scrambled)
6. Channel Two - 11.734 H / 13.240 (scrambled)
7. Channel Three-VBA - 11.734 H / 13.240
8. Channel Four - 11.734 H / 13.240 (color bars)
9. Daystar - 11.779 V / 2.848

I blind scanned it with my Coolsat 6000 and got pretty much identical results.

While I had the meter out at the dish I adjusted it more carefully than I have in the past. Only a few days ago I realized that the BER thing is helpful. I believe this one means Bit Error Rate. Google tells me a lower number is better.
A few days ago I noticed that when I move the dish and the picture begins to break up the BER number rises and as the picture improves, it gets better.
Duh....

So, I picked a channel, hit the info button on the meter and adjusted the dish until the BER was zero. In other words it was like 0/24523454 or something like that. I don't recall the number on the right, that number never changed but the one on the left does. So I moved the dish until that number was zero.

I checked the rest of the channels and they are all showing a BER of zero.

I would ASSUME that this means that the dish is very much on target. Right?

I used this BER thing when I moved stuff around last week and had to redo my PBS dish. That's when I began to realize that lower is better and I got a BER of zero on 125. Now, channels that had been marginal are rock solid and snap into place instantly when I change channels. No more breaking up. Even the Montana channels are working really, really well. PBS HD is awesome now, much better than it ever was!

So, all things considered, I am ASSUMING that I have the 1.2m dish aimed properly at 123 and adjusted as best as it can be.

So I go inside and I tell my PC theater app to scan that satellite. It picks up the same things the meter and the Coolsat found on blind scan and that is all. It refuses to see FSTV.

I'm sure there must be an easier way to do this but I sat there and entered ALL the transponder frequencies into the pc one at a time from info I find either in The List or on Lyngsat or on Sathint.

I also entered a bunch of frequencies near the target frequency, such as

11825
11826
11827
11828
11829
11830 (target frequency)
11831
11832
11833
11834
11835

and

11835
11836
11837
11838
11839
11840 (target frequency)
11841
11842
11843
11844
11845


I have seen you guys say to try changing the frequency by a few digits up or down in case the dish isn't 'just right'.. That and the fact that what I scan in doesn't always precisely come out to be the same as what you guys list the frequencies to be. So I do that when I'm trying to find something that I am having trouble finding but others report comes in fine for them.

Being that the pc can not blind scan this is my poor girl's blind scan trick.

And after scanning ALL of those, I went in and changed each one's FEC and rescanned. I went through all the FEC numbers, AUTO, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 6/7, 7/8, 8/9, 9/10. I also tried all of those combinations and tried the AUTO, QPSK, 8PSK, BPSK, COFDM, 8VSB, T8PSK, T16PSK, 16APSK and 32APSK. I tried every combination of every setting you can imagine and not one of them finds any signal.


But nothing I do works. The only tuner I own that can receive S2 band is the pc tuner.
It's impossible to take the pc outside to the dish.
Another problem with the pc is, you can't tune to the channel until it can find the channel in a scan. In other words, I can't tell the pc to sit on FSTV as a monitor while I move the dish looking for a picture.


What am I doing wrong? Is there some trick I should know to find this elusive channel?
Or is it like the LPB channels? My pc can not see them no matter what but my folks get it just fine on a SMALLER dish that isn't even adjusted as well as mine is but they have an Openbox S9. And no, there is no way in the world I can talk them into loaning me their tuner even for a day. They are really into their FTA and that thing won't be leaving their house, period.


Is there a frequency that my non S2 meter can see that I can try to adjust the dish to that would put me also on the mark for FSTV? Daystar is pretty close, I am wanting 11830 and they are at 11779, Peace TV @ 11969 is not too far from 11840. I would think / ASSUME that if I can get Daystar and Peace with a BER of zero then I should also be able to get FSTV. Right?

Am I going to have to buy a meter than can blindscan S2 band?

This thing is making me bonkers.

Thanks!