0 Signal

[Ramthebuffs]

I've been working on Sadoun Merc II setup today and really couldn't get anything going. From some of the threads I've been reading on here it seems I should be be getting @ least some noise in my meter. Instead its bouncing around 0-4% on quality and strength with a surge about every 20 seconds or so(probably nothing imo).

If this isn't right then maybe some of my stb settings are wrong. Well first off I have the lnbf all the way back, with the settings I think I have them all correct. I select a tp from the sticky on this forum for the sat I'm aiming toward and get nothing. Looks like rain tomorrow so I'll have some time to work from in the house rather than on top of it

 

[gabshere]

to the forum

list all your settings and we will help you if we can but you are doing the right thing ask or talking it through , you might even have everything setup correctly. but usually its the simple things that trip us up and frustrate us lol i spent two days last week tuning g10 ..... blamed the receiver ... you know what ...bad coax lol the satellite was right where i had the dish pointed ...... and i said g10 was hard to hit lol mostly if you have bad equipment........

but list your settings from the receiver
your STB is a merc II
lnb type ?
dish ?
your aimimg for ?
is it on a motor ?
motor type ?

now the fun starts

 

[Ramthebuffs]

Its the Sadoun motorized system, so its a generic universal lnb, fortec star dish, the motor is the 2100 or whatever the common one is. I've tried a couple of my "true south" sats. I'm in denver so I was shooting @ 97 103 105 etc. Is getting a reading this low normal? The thing I'm most concerned about is that I haven't flicked some little miracle setting. Its a pain going up and down the ladder all day.

 

[turbosat]

I pity you climbing the ladder, I am so glad I have all mine on poles now. But you gotta get a small tv, a short piece of coax and drag all of it up there on the roof with you.
Dont forget to drag the 100' drop cord too (plug it in before you climb, been there done that)
Makes it so much easier to work on things. Unless you got one of those super-pitched roofs! Post your Satellite settings-be sure you have the right settings for a universal-type lnb.

 

[Ramthebuffs]

Yeah man it sucks, apparently 100 years ago it was cool to make the pitch increase as you get higher on the roof, kinda like a buddist temple or something. I can't even set anything on the roof because it will slide off.

I'm in Denver so on the first angle I have it set to 40, and on the angle that connects the dish to the motor I have it around 25ish. Obviously these measurements can't be too accurate because of the design of the hardware. You have to try and center the bolt on the angle you want and it takes up about 10 degrees of space in its width.

I can't remember where I got the number, but I have my south @ 170 degrees which is a little off of the street that runs next to the house, so I'm not sure if I've got the right number there. Its not a big difference though. I figured if I was in the ballpark I should @ least get some signal

 

[Anole]

I'm in Denver so on the first angle I have it set to 40, and on the angle that connects the dish to the motor I have it around 25ish.
Obviously these measurements can't be too accurate because of the design of the hardware.
You have to try and center the bolt on the angle you want and it takes up about 10 degrees of space in its width.

I'd wager that right there is the first problem.
You can easily make the settings to within a degree or two.
I don't think the proper adjustment of either the dish nor the motor uses the center of any bolt.

And then of course, the Fortec dishes can be off in elevation a couple of degrees.
This stuff is critical to getting going.

Did you look at the dish and motor manuals?
Did you look on the Sadoun site for technical info on setting up the motor?
It also has an aiming angle calculator for all your settings.

 

[Ramthebuffs]

Ah I think you may be right, it looks like I didn't add the little washer to my elevation screw. Unfortunately its supposed to rain tomorrow so I may not get to it until Sunday. Of course when I plan to mount a dish rain is in the forcast, we get more sun than SoCal here.

http://sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/images/Digipower_SG2100_motor.jpg

 

[SatelliteAV]

Depending on what firmware version is loaded on the Fortec Star Mercury II, the signal level will either bounce around 1-4% until the correct satellite is located or register 45 - 47% signal level. The presence of a quality reading will indicate that the dish is aimed correctly.

Since this is your first install, we recommend that you locate your first satellite without the motor attached. This way you can familiarize yourself with the operation of your equipment without the complications that a motor can introduce.

I have attached the instructions that we send out with motorized systems. You might find it helpful.

The receiver must be setup for the satellite that you are searching - IA5 (Galaxy25) @ 97West, LNB LO frequency set to Universal - 9750/10600, LNB power ON, and an active transponder selected - IA5 (Galaxy35) 12177. If the receiver is not set up with these correct parameters, the receiver cannot detect the satellite.

 

[bill190]

I can't align a dish without using a signal meter such as this one...
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/Accessories/Meters/SF-95-DSS-FTA-Satellite-Signal-meter.htm

The signal meter on a receiver is used along with WHICH frequency you have selected. The various satellite frequencies are at lyngsat.com.

So if I have a specific frequency for a specific satellite selected on my receiver... My receiver will look for that frequency only!

There may be only one satellite in the sky using that frequency.

So I can move my dish back and forth and find only one tiny spot in the sky where I will get a signal reading on my receiver for that specific frequency.

It is like looking for a needle in a haystack when you have not yet aligned your dish.

Also that frequency needs to be "active". A satellite may have a particular frequency, but if nothing is being sent out on that frequency, my "receiver signal meter" will show little or nothing.

A signal meter like the above will show readings for ANY satellite. Therefore I can easily use this type of signal meter first to align my dish with all the satellites in the arc.

Then once I have my dish aligned with all the satellites in the sky, I can then set my receiver to a specific frequency, then move my dish back and forth with the positioner to find that specific satellite. (I will find it if that frequency is "active".)

 

[Ramthebuffs]

I'm not sure I've seen lnb power in any of the menus of my stb, also, I'm not exactly sure on the declination. Since I setup the latitude incorrectly, is there a mark on the motor mast or something where I setup the declination?

Looks like I've got a decent window before the rain so I'm going to try and get out there and get this going.

 

[Ramthebuffs]

After making the adjustments it seems like I'm shooting too low, maybe its just me and not being used to a fta dish. It runs basically vertical now, or @ least it seems that way. 40 latitude and 24 declination.

 

[Anole]

confirming

According to lyngsat.com, you should be able to get a barker channel on 105
http://www.lyngsat.com/amc15.html
One clear channel is listed.
Lots of tansponders should be there to tune up on, and get quality, just no picture.

I just ran through the numbers and I get:

DENVER, CO 80205
United States
Latitude: 39.760 N
Longitude: 104.970 W


Denver, CO (city)
Population (1990): 467610
Location: 39.76803 N, 104.87265 W


true south sat is 105

Compass Reading: 173.5 deg.

Dish Elevation: 44.0 deg

LNBF Rotation: +0.0 deg


go read this if you missed it:
http://sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/HH-mount-installation.htm


(notes: calculating fixed 30 - 6.2+ = 23.8 elevation on dish)

SO, if you want to line up on 105, set your mast to plumb!
Set the motor bracket where it mounts to your mast to your latitude which is 39.7 degrees
Set your dish on it's elevation bracket to 23.8 degrees
Twist your lnb so it's straight up and down.
(There's one brand of LNB that needs to be rotated on its side, so verify which you have [I don't think Sadoun sells the queer one])
The motor needs to be at the center of its rotation (zero), the way it shipped.
Twist the motor bracket on your mast so the dish points 173.5 as measured by your compass
Keep compass away from metal a few feet to make sure it's not influenced!

And most importantly for a first install, use an in line meter or get some help at the receiver.
Going up and down the ladder is not an option - it'll only drive you crazy!

I gotta get outta here, but hope this helps.
And DO read that Sadoun link just above , here.
It's very important in aligning.

 

[Mr Tony]

I assume the LNB Power is set to "UNi" or UNiversal?

 

[Ramthebuffs]

First decent day in a while, I'm going back on the roof. I may have to post some pics, we'll see how this goes. I'm going to start by switching out the lnb cable.

 

[Ramthebuffs]

A couple questions already.

If I'm using the inline analog type signal meter, are the results pretty much instant? I know you're supposed to wait 5-20 seconds when watching the on screen meter, but I would think this would be pretty quick.

Does it matter where I put the meter? Currently I have it in-between the motor and the lnb.

Is there a secondary method to measure the elevation? I'm not sure I'm aiming for the correct angle here. My numbers are correct on the scales, but I'm not trusting them. Could I set my declination to 0 and change the elevation side to 44 on my satellite angle? Or would it be 22? 44-22.5 as the angle of the satellites are 22 degrees above where you're aiming.

I've never really had any trouble doing "technical" things in my life and this is driving me crazy. I'm going back up to check my plumb again and do some more fiddling around.

 

[concord]

The meter should react right-away. I placed my between the receiver and motor, but wouldn't think it should matter.

I'm assuming you are using USALS. Once you set your motor degrees and your dish elevation degrees, point your dish at your true south location ( aprox. 180-10= 170).

In your antenna menu, select your closest TS sat, select an available transponder (http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=85225), select USALS and press Ok. This should bring up the USALS menu, enter in your latitiude and longitude, then select move to position.

My dish elevation was 39.4, but I ended up at 43 degrees, so try moving you elevation up first.....

 

[Ramthebuffs]

It seems like midday may be a bad time to do this as it seems I'm getting a lot of sun interference. Also what I'm doing is turning the db on the meter so it just barely reads, ie shows a reading but doesn't buzz. I hope this is right. With the sun interference I'm guessing it will show as a positive signal with my stb regardless of the transponder? I haven't been able to check both @ the same time, but hopefully my roommate comes home soon.

 

[concord]

The sun shouldn't effect your meter nor sat receiver. Better if you had your receiver and small tv on the roof with you.

What I did is mount the dish on 2'x4' plywood and played with it in the driveway... much easier... once you play and understand what to do to get a signal and channels, it was simple to mount to my chimney and align the dish...

 

[concord]

Also another tip is to have something under the pole where you mount the dish so you don't scratch up the pole so much moving the dish left-right. I used a plastic/rubber pipe 1 1/2" union that included pipe clamps (tightened by screw driver) and cut it to fit my pole ( 1 5/8") and added one of the clamps.

 

[Ramthebuffs]

Well I think I have it sorted out now, I'm not really sure what the deal is because my measurements are way out.

Heres the method I used:

I'm a dork, so I have a few computers. One of which is a ultra small laptop that will fit in my pocket. I setup an MSN chat between itand one of my computers in my house. The computer in the house had a webcam setup and I aimed it @ the screen. I simply adjusted until I got around 86 strength and 75 qual and the cam feeds are almost realtime. I'm sure I'll be on the roof trying to make it stronger, but this is good for now and this should be something we should recommend to people trying to setup a dish by themselves if they have the computers available.

Many thanks to everyone who helped me out, now the fun begins.

Btw, my elevation mark ended up being 25ish (just a quick peek earlier). I'm not really sure whats up with that, but my idea of it aiming too low was correct.