Linkbox Blind scan shows same channels on multiple birds

CCRSAT

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Dec 28, 2017
31
8
Cedar Rapids
When ever i do a blind scan I get the same channels on every bird I scan. They are religious channels or arts classic. BYU as well. I have a 3 meter dish with a dual polarity LNBF, and have scanned from a Manhattan 1978, a MOI box with tvheadend, and a Linkbox9000I. I get 95% on my satlink WS-6933 for strength for several satellites, but never a lock.
I have Dish and Directv at work, so i took the tuners and did a scan from the the Ku band dishes provided. Same results.
I deleted all the TP for all the birds I am looking at, and blind scanned again. Same thing.
I ran a scan searching for all TV channels, and alot of the channels are popping up scrambled when Lyngsat shows them as FTA.
The only thing I have been able to point out is the channels I do get from a blind scan are channels with a LOW SR.


The one I am after is Newsy. Some one please help. I have been working on this for 3 months and have run out of ideas
 
If different tuners are used on the same coax and the same transponders and same channels are logged, then either a motorized dish is not moving between satellites or if a switch is in line, the switch ports are not programmed or the switch is blown.

If all transponders are deleted and the coax is connected to a different dish aimed, at different satellites, the same channels will not be logged. Something else is going on here...

BYU and Classic Arts Showcase are on C-band 91w. You have a C-band dish aimed at that position?
 
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:welcome to SatelliteGuys CCRSAT!!

Brian pretty much laid out the same thoughts I had. Give us more info about your whole setup.
 
I have a c band dish pointed towards Galaxy 16, 99 W. At work we have 5 Ku band dishes for both Dish and Directv. I get above 90% signal strength for 12 birds from 1 fixed position, and can scan and get channels from all of the satellites on the C band. The problem is they all come up scrambled, unless they are BYU, classic arts... etc. I get identical results from any of the Ku band dishes when trying to scan on a Directv sat.
I always get TCT-HD, TCT-SD 1, Light TV, Classic arts primary, the word network, word network 2 AC, JTV G17 1 from any bird scanned when i select FTA for the scan. This is true for C and Ku no matter the polarity. The box identifies the Sat as it is scanning it, and associates the channels to the sat in the channel line up after the scan. If i do a multiple bird scan, i get those same channels for each bird scanned, so duplicates.

I know the Ku band dishes are good as I am getting all of the pay channels i have subscribed to, and Directv shares some of thier birds with FTA channels.

here is what the linkbox gets from a scan

SES 1-C
4040 H 31251 failed
4000 H 30002 failed
3941 H 30001 failed
3774 H 6620 OK
4076 V 2999 OK
4067 V 6051 OK
4040 V 30002 failed

I only showed a couple of the pass and fail channels, but the list only goes up to 23 channels
 
You can not use Dish and DirecTV dishes for FTA. They have the wrong kind of LNBFs for FTA. They use Circular polarity and FTA uses Linear polarity. They also have built in switches that must be controlled by the receiver.
 
These channels are on 91w c-band. They are not in the clear on the KU-band DSS or DBS satellites for any of the subscription services. 101w carries a few of these channels for DirecTV, but they would not be looged or received with a DVBS/S2 receiver or tuner.

Possibly the Linkbox needs a master (factory) reset or the firmware refreshed to clear out some programming errors?
 
I get the same results form all 3 boxes, and for the signals I am only after FTA.

I kinda figured the Directv dishes would not work, but i do get those channels off of them.

I think I am going to scan from just 91 W and see what i get
 
i get 84 channels, and the only free ones are the ones listed earlier in this post + sports net test. the rest are scrambled

The TP frequencies are different than what lyngsat shows. On Galaxy 17 classic arts is 4066, but i get it on freq 4053
 
Newsy is a C-Band channel on 101W. You can not see C-Band with a Ku Dish and LNBF. What the receivers are seeing is gibberish because the settings and LNB frequencies are all wrong. They report seeing those 91W C-Band channels because that's all they have in memory. They don't know the channel names they just see PID numbers. It doesn't matter if the channels are FTA, those PayTV dishes will not work period.
 
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Ok, so I will stick with the C band dish I have for future testing. However, the issue is the same no matter what I do, and I wipe all the TP before doing a scan. Read that on this forum somewhere..

Is there a possibility that my Satlink is wrong, and I am pointed at 91 and not Galaxy 16? I have check the direction 3 times, and get best signal where I am.
I know Newsy is not on that satellite, but I have to correct this issue before I can hope to get anything else figured out
 
Yes it sure sounds like you are pointed at 91W, not 99w . I'm not familiar with a Satlink but I don't think they can ID a satellite unless you have all the transponders for each sat loaded in the meter.
 
And it certainly can't do the job unless you input the correct LNB settings. That is the specs for the LNB that is connected to the meter at the time.
 
I configured the satlink with all of the transponder information for newsy and scanned for the signal. 98 strength, 0 quality. I switched the polarity to V and i suddenly got 44 quality. The channel is H. I followed the directions for installing the LNB, except i never installed the Dielectric plate. I wonder how I got it mixed up...

I am going on the roof to adjust it after the snow stops
 
Glad I said something. I can aim a dish no problem, but after that i am lost. I spent 12 years aiming dishes for the Motorola state wide paging systems. I had a nice loud indicator when I had it right. With FTA, I am learning it is a different animal.....
 
Magic, I read the information on the link. explained alot

Horsepower, on my sat link i have it set to 5150. no option on the linkbox for it.

I went up, rotated the lnb, spun the dish to get 98 signal and 83 quality for the transponder on 101 i am after, and locked everything down.
I went back inside, did a reset on the entire configuration and wiped the TP for that sat.
did a blind scan.... and got the same channels from 91 W. everything else is scrambled. I did however get the tuner to see the TP with the correct polarity.
I wiped the tp again, and manually entered the information for a tp.
did a scan for all channels and got 23. All scrambled.

I am about to give up....
 

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