I have a 7.5' Bud and an S9 receiver. There's this particular feed I'm tuning in, which I would rather not say which one, but the FEC is 9/10, I can tell you at least that much. This signal is on C Band, and I have no problem locking it whatsoever. On the S9 I'm getting a steady Q of around 72. There are some channels I get, where the Q is much lower, like around 50, yet I have no issues with those chs, they play just fine. On this particular feed tho, the video is breaking up and not stable. Clicking east or west of the locked signal does nothing to help. There's a few other chs I get with a 9/10 FEC, yet there are no issues with those chs, they play perfect. My point is, I feel I have my BUD pretty much spot on for the most part, and as the old saying goes, if it's not broke, don't fix it, thus thinking, if I try some tweaking here, I might mess up a good thing all together. Regardless tho, that's why I'm here seeking an expert opinion. Should I try tweaking the dish some, or the fact that I'm already getting 72 Q, this is probably the best it's going to do?
Channel breaking up, what is likely the problem?
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Think this particular feed is just borderline, but the Q meter of the openbox series being not very informative, it's of little use tuning for 'peak'. You can try tweaking the dish, and the feed. (The openbox Q meter is a POS in my view) You may have 72, but is it 'centered' in the openboxes broad Q response curve? I've had better luck by tuning for a lower Q value either side of peak, and then 'counting turns' back to center the dish/feed between the lower values.
You can tweak East or West if you want but i would not recommend touching the feed if everything else is working well because you could experience countless hours trying
to get it back where it was. I have the same problem with my brother's dish a 7.5 foot Sami which works great but unfortunately for some of those S2 TP's with 9/10 fec it's
just a touch undersized, he can get some like you can but on others he needs a litlle more juice.
Tede
to get it back where it was. I have the same problem with my brother's dish a 7.5 foot Sami which works great but unfortunately for some of those S2 TP's with 9/10 fec it's
just a touch undersized, he can get some like you can but on others he needs a litlle more juice.
Tede
"countless hours trying to get it back where it was" (?).A black marker solves that. Mark your starting point(s). Q&E to return. The 'countless' hours I've spent tuning & tweaking my BUD have been well worth it. And only then can you say, with certainty, that it's the the dish that is inadequate.
If they are borderline now, tuning and tweaking MAY improve performance. There's no way to know without trying. But yes, some may/will be 'out of reach'.
In theory, some dish gain improvement may be had by setting the scalar to somewhat less than the calculated F/D while keeping the focal length at optimum. This will illuminate more of the dish but increases the chance of noise, earth, TI, etc., reaching the feed. Only way to know if it works in practice is try it. (It's been implemented here)
If they are borderline now, tuning and tweaking MAY improve performance. There's no way to know without trying. But yes, some may/will be 'out of reach'.
In theory, some dish gain improvement may be had by setting the scalar to somewhat less than the calculated F/D while keeping the focal length at optimum. This will illuminate more of the dish but increases the chance of noise, earth, TI, etc., reaching the feed. Only way to know if it works in practice is try it. (It's been implemented here)
few thoughts
- more tweaking? Focus, centering, F/D, etc?
- better LNBF or LNB?
- try an ortho feed?
iPhone 4
- more tweaking? Focus, centering, F/D, etc?
- better LNBF or LNB?
- try an ortho feed?
iPhone 4
if it's H264 video on your specific signal, it could be the openbox itself if your signal lock is more than strong enough to not be a contributor. My openbox sometimes has stuttering or jerky video on H264 video feeds for whatever reason and those same feeds play perfectly on a manhattan or microhd. I don't know if it's the implementation of the H264 codec in an openbox, processing power causing issues with the openbox and H264 video feeds, or whatever. another reason among many that I hate my openbox s10 and haven't had it plugged in for almost a year now...
Well it's back to the ole' drawing board. I just had to try and fix something that wasn't broke. I got this particular feed coming in almost perfect now, not entirely perfect tho, but when I checked other chs along the arc, now I am no longer getting a lock on a few of them. But I'm still on the arc pretty good tho. I had to adjust the elevation a hair to get this particular feed to come in better. I also had to turn the dish a bit on the pole. I should of just left things alone, lol. But I'll eventually get it back to how I had it...I always do.
If work ever picks up around here again(haven't worked in almost a month..am self employed), the first thing on my list is to get me one of those MicroHDs. This OpenBox is light years ahead of my old retired Lifetime Ultra, but apparently light years behind this new MicroHD.
If work ever picks up around here again(haven't worked in almost a month..am self employed), the first thing on my list is to get me one of those MicroHDs. This OpenBox is light years ahead of my old retired Lifetime Ultra, but apparently light years behind this new MicroHD.
Here is the ole antenna rule.....the bigger the better.....at leased most at a time.
I had a 7 1/2 foot dish in use until last week when I set up a 10 foot dish.
I get more channels with my 10 footer then my other dish.
For example with my smaller dish I got a lot of french speaking channel and only 1 english channel on 107w.
Until I set up the 10 footer I did not know that there was more english channels there.
My arc is from 72w to 107w, but between the smaller dish and the big dish, I blind scanned over 200 channels more. And the the big dish is not even fine tuned yet.
By turning the dish on the pole you changed the travel of the arc and with it the elevation.
I mark everything with an pencil if I make adjustments so I can go back if I need/want to.
Than I make small adjustments.
In your case for fine tuning I would do the following.
Check your scalar first. Then play with the LNBF in,out, turn left and right.
Then if you still miss satellites in the arc turn the polarmount, adjust the elevation and align the sats and program again.
The last resort would be re-adjusting the declination if you still miss the arc.
For adjustment I use a inline meter, it will tell me every slight difference in signal while adjusting.
Using the build-in meter from your receiver is ok only if you have to, but it is not accurate.
Since you never said what satellite you are aiming at, here is a note.
103 w has a way different skew, then the rest of the satellites and as far as I know they never changed that yet.
I had a 7 1/2 foot dish in use until last week when I set up a 10 foot dish.
I get more channels with my 10 footer then my other dish.
For example with my smaller dish I got a lot of french speaking channel and only 1 english channel on 107w.
Until I set up the 10 footer I did not know that there was more english channels there.
My arc is from 72w to 107w, but between the smaller dish and the big dish, I blind scanned over 200 channels more. And the the big dish is not even fine tuned yet.
By turning the dish on the pole you changed the travel of the arc and with it the elevation.
I mark everything with an pencil if I make adjustments so I can go back if I need/want to.
Than I make small adjustments.
In your case for fine tuning I would do the following.
Check your scalar first. Then play with the LNBF in,out, turn left and right.
Then if you still miss satellites in the arc turn the polarmount, adjust the elevation and align the sats and program again.
The last resort would be re-adjusting the declination if you still miss the arc.
For adjustment I use a inline meter, it will tell me every slight difference in signal while adjusting.
Using the build-in meter from your receiver is ok only if you have to, but it is not accurate.
Since you never said what satellite you are aiming at, here is a note.
103 w has a way different skew, then the rest of the satellites and as far as I know they never changed that yet.
As far as 107W, I pick up tons of French speaking chs with my 7.5 footer plus quite a few English speaking chs, more that one, I know.. Maybe you didn't have your 7.5 footer as tweaked as you had assumed? Or maybe I'm just in a better footprint or something. Since I do know of a lot of chs that are not discussed in the open forums, I'm guessing I can pretty much tune in at least 98% of them with my 7.5 footer, with a stable pic. This particular ch in the OP, this is about the only one that has caused me an issue like this.
Let me explain tho. I had to wait till it got dark to do this, because of the heat. Also because I can see my dish from my living room window. I have this small 13" tv that I put on a table, then I open my blinds so that I can monitor the signal. The fact that it's been super sunny lately, not to mention hot, it's pretty much impossible to see this tv from outside in the daytime. As far as lights go, I didn't have any lights on, didn't want to attract mosquitoes. But I think there was a full moon lately. plus the streetlights, etc...so I could see well enough, but not well enough to make any marks on the pole or anything.
I totally agree it's a good idea to mark stuff like that, but not so easy at night.
This is no big deal to me. I'll have this dish tracking like it was, in no time. But I just kinda wish I would have left things be for now, and left it the way it was. Heck, today I discovered when I went to 97W, I am now not getting a lock on the CWD feeds. Not only did I not get to watch Judge Joe Brown today, I also didn't get to watch Judge Judy or Dr. Phil, lol. This heat is turning me into a couch potato anymore, plus I haven't been working much lately.
Seriously, I am going to try and do some of the things you listed, just to see if it makes things easier for me. I truly appreciate the tips, and am planning on trying a few of those out tonight, or tomorrow night, or whenever I go back out there again. Maybe I better go back out there tonight, that way I won't miss Judge Joe Brown, etc, two days in a row.
I think I actually have an inline meter somewhere. Hmm...good idea, maybe I better look. I think it even lights up.
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I started thinking about what I said in the last post, where I indicated I got several English speaking chs @ 107W. Now that I think about it some more, I'm not certain if that is entirely accurate. I don't spend a whole lot of time on that bird, yet I was thinking I picked up some English chs. I just looked in my sat list on the S9, currently I have around 52 chs saved on that bird. Not certain how many, if any, might be English speaking chs the more I think about it. I tried to check, but not getting a lock on some of the chs as of now.
But I do agree, bigger is always better. But in my case, a 10 footer or bigger would be out of the question, since a tree to the west of the dish I currently have would be in the way of a bigger dish.
Not that anybody is probably interested, but I went back out last night, retuned the dish, now all of the chs I was getting before are working again, plus some extra ones after I blind scanned some birds. At 107.3W, 66 tv channels and 120 radio stations scanned in this time around. Don't know if that's about right for that bird or not, so maybe some more tweaking is in order? Plus this particular 9/10 FEC feed mentioned in the OP, it's coming in perfect as well. The only thing I can't get a lock on any more that I've noticed so far, tho I don't ever watch this channel, is Rural TV @ 103W. Never had any problems with that channel in the past that I recall. Always seem to be coming in just fine whenever I was flipping thru the chs on that bird. Now I can't even get a lock on it.
Is this satellite at your zenith? If not, that's a no-no. Elevation is only adjusted at the closest to zenith that's possible.
The actuator will adjust dish height more and more as you get further from zenith.
If you do this and elevation on one satellite, you're defeating polar tracking alignment. You are then, in essence, doing a fixed dish alignment, not a polar axis alignment.
Adjust elevation at Zenith, and only at zenith.
Adjust azimuth(Twist mount on pole) on satellites all the way down to the satellite closest to the horizon that you can get. Height there is adjusted with the actuator.
Rural TV @ 103W? Maybe now that your dish is tracking better, you're experiencing some interference from an adjacent satellite* . Might try bumping the dish one way or the other.
*Most likely suspect 3920 V 30000 from 105W
This particular feed mentioned in the OP, it's located at 99W, which is pretty much at my Zenith, tho a hair west of my true south, which I'm assuming should be 95W. My Longitude is around 94 I think.
This is pretty much what I ended up doing last night. I had to turn the dish on the pole a bit, when I was at AMC 7, in order to get the RTV feeds to tune in properly. But in the end, it seems the dish is tracking a little better now than before. So I'm kind of glad I did mess it up the other night after all.
I already tried bumping the dish, but it didn't help.
Since I mentioned 107.3W, does that sound about normal for that bird during a scan, 66 chs and 120 radio chs? Or should I be scanning in more?
Haven't done anything else to the dish since last night. Just checked 103W again after my last post. I finally managed to get a lock on RuralTv by bumping the dish, tho that didn't seem to help last night. It took about 10 secs or so for it show a pic. The pic is stable, don't notice any problems with it.
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