Coolsat 6000 setup problems

Status
Please reply by conversation.

tonydix

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Apr 22, 2007
203
0
Bocas del Toro, Panama
I have the coolsat connected to a 2 metre offset dish which has a brand new Geosat pro GSL 1a Bullet.
I am trying to locate Galaxy 19 and not succeeding .
I have set my elevation to as close to 70 as I can guess because off the unknown dish offset and the azimuth to 238 true. Dishpointer says I should have a LNBF rotation of 57 degrees How do I achieve that?

My Coolsat setup is follows :-
Dish setting :-
LNB Power ON
LNB type Single
LNB Freq 10.750
22KHX off
DisEqC off
Legacy SW off
I get 93 % level and 5% Quality

If anyone has suggestions about what I am doing wrong they would be much appreciated

Thanks

Tony
 
Dishpointer says I should have a LNBF rotation of 57 degrees How do I achieve that?
When standing Behind the Dish, the LNB would be rotated 57 degrees Clockwise, or towards the Sat you are aiming for.
If the LNB does not have a Skew Scale on it, a minute on a clock is 6 degrees.
 
The skew is not quite as critical as the azimuth, or elevation, but you need to be pretty close with it.

Once you have the skew dialed in as Lak explained above I would pick an elevation , then sweep your azimuth a few degrees to each side of your compass heading.

On the elevation I would try the dish face elevation from around 44-48 degrees, that is assuming that your dish has a offset in the range of 22-26 degrees (44-48 + 22-26 = 70 degrees +/-).

If you get nothing raise/lower your dish a degree and repeat...and repeat, until you get a signal.

Your receiver settings look correct to me if you have no switches inline, just need to be tuned to a hot transponder on the satellite you are scanning.
 
I have the coolsat connected to a 2 metre offset dish which has a brand new Geosat pro GSL 1a Bullet.
I am trying to locate Galaxy 19 and not succeeding .
I have set my elevation to as close to 70 as I can guess because off the unknown dish offset and the azimuth to 238 true. Dishpointer says I should have a LNBF rotation of 57 degrees How do I achieve that?

My Coolsat setup is follows :-
Dish setting :-
LNB Power ON
LNB type Single
LNB Freq 10.750
22KHX off
DisEqC off
Legacy SW off
I get 93 % level and 5% Quality

If anyone has suggestions about what I am doing wrong they would be much appreciated

Thanks

Tony

Tony,

You have all the same angles that I would have found for your location (238.37 degrees true azimuth, 69.58 degrees elevation and +57.2 degrees LNB polarization angle).

If you stand in FRONT of the dish, the LNB polarization angle of +57.2 degrees should be close to 9.5 minutes before the hour on a clock. No skew or zero degrees skew or polaization would be straight up on the hour, +90 degrees would be 15 minutes before the hour and -90 degrees would be 15 minutes after the hour. You could make a mark on the LNBF at the 0 and 90 degree positions and divide the area in between into equal parts to help judge your angle.

Notice that Lak7 mentioned CW rotation of the LNB when standing BEHIND the dish, so when you are in FRONT of the dish, it is CCW in direction.

Your dish elevation of 69.58 degrees may be difficult to judge without scale markings on the dish. You can use a sturdy wooden yardstick or board laid across the face of the dish (vertically) and read the elevation angle from an inclinometer.

You will have to subtract the offset angle of the LNBF support arm from 69.58 degrees to determine what the inclinometer should read. This is akin to what Phlatwound is stating to do, only that he is assuming that you don't know what the offset angleof your dish is so he is assuming a range of 22 to 26 degrees as the offset angle. Therefore, if you don't know the exact angle of your dish offset, you will have to use a trial and error approach within this range of offset angles that are typical for most dishes.

If I recall correctly without researching it, there should be only a small error between true azimuth and magnetic azimuth in Panama. Your magnetic compass should read reasonably close to true azimuth. I would estimate within +/- 5 degrees. You can look up the necessary correction factor on line by searching magnetic declination charts if you want to know for certain.

Then, you need a good solid transponder to search for as you "pan and scan". I always use 12153 MHz Horizontal, SR 20.000. This may not be the strongest TP signal, but it is reasonably high and always broadcasting. This is the TP that carries the Al Jazeera news station and a good one to rely upon.

Good luck Tony, please keep us informed of your progress! :)

RADAR
 
Thanks for all this advice guys it is much appreciated. I have now rotated lnb to achieve the skew as you have described. My dish mounting makes it much easier to adjust elevation than azimuth so I am positioning azimuth as best I can using a gps and than varying elevation from 40 to 50 degrees in 1 degree increments.After this I will change the azimuth by about 1 degree abd start the elevation changes all over again. At each point I am doing a blindscan which takes about 2 mins so progress is slow but i will persevere until I get something.
Thanks again for your help
Tony
 
If it's a used Dish, do you know where it used to be pointed?
Can your Big Dish pick up the same Sat? You could use that as a guide.
 
The dish is used but was dismantled before I got there so no help there.Big dish is a good suggestion. I will see what I can find with thhe big dish and then try for aaccurate elevation and azimuth. I am a little unclear about the order you use the menus on the coolsat. Should you stay with the dish setting menu moving the dish and looking for good quality in green bars and then try a blind scan or should you do a blind scan after every small adjustment of the dish position ?
Thanks again
Tony
 
The dish is used but was dismantled before I got there so no help there.Big dish is a good suggestion. I will see what I can find with thhe big dish and then try for aaccurate elevation and azimuth. I am a little unclear about the order you use the menus on the coolsat. Should you stay with the dish setting menu moving the dish and looking for good quality in green bars and then try a blind scan or should you do a blind scan after every small adjustment of the dish position ?
Thanks again
Tony

Try to get the highest quality, then do a blind scan. Doing a blind scan after every small adjustment would be very tedious.
 
I am a little unclear about the order you use the menus on the coolsat. Should you stay with the dish setting menu moving the dish and looking for good quality in green bars and then try a blind scan or should you do a blind scan after every small adjustment of the dish position ?
Thanks again
Tony

Try to get the highest quality, then do a blind scan. Doing a blind scan after every small adjustment would be very tedious.

Tony,

Regarding using the menus, don't stay in the DISH SETTING menu. Use that only to set up your basic parameters. i.e. LNB type and local oscillator (LNB) Frequency etc. Save your settings (press EXIT and you will be prompted to SAVE).

I wouldn't worry about any switch settings yet and I definitely wouldn't connect any switches until you have the dish dialed in. Adding the switches at the start can often cause problems and confusion.

The reason you don't want to stay in the DISH SETTING menu to align the dish is because this menu looks at only one transponder from the satellite you have selected. It only presents the signal and quality level for the first transponder in the list. This transponder may not be a good one to use. It might not be operational, or it might be a feed TP and therefore only broadcasting at certain times of the day or it might be a very weak one for your location.

If you select either the MOTOR SETTING or the MANUAL SCAN menu, you can select the transponder you want to monitor while you dial the dish in.

After you get the parameters set up in the DISH SETTING menu, switch to the MOTORIZED SETTING menu and select USALS and enter your latitude and longitude coordinates in the ANTENNA POSITION, then highlight GO TO and press OK.

Next, go to the MANUAL SCAN menu and scroll through the "FREQUENCY" list and ensure that the transponder frequency you want to monitor is listed. If it isn't, you will have to add it manually (note the green "ADD TP" button on the screen. This corresponds to the green button on the remote.

You will have to enter the TP frequency, symbol rate and polarity, then EXIT and SAVE. If you have BEEP TONE option, select it as ON. This will help when dialing in the dish.

If you locate a really HOT (I mean strong) signal you may press OK while in the MANUAL SCAN menu and it will scan just that one TP. This may be helpful to determine what channels you are getting. If the channels match what is supposed to be on that sat and TP, then you know that you have aligned your dish to the proper sat and then all you need to do is fine tune for the optimim signal level and quality.

Once you have found one TP and confirmed that you are aligned to the proper satellite and fine tuned the dish and everything, then you can use the blind scan to find all the other active TPs on that satellite.

If you have a good firmware version installed in your Coolsat (try version 006 from this site: http://ftafirmware.freehostia.com/ ), you should also see a provider identification banner "pop up" in the upper RH corner of the screen. For the TP that I mentioned in my previous response, this ID banner will show "Globecast". Some TPs show UNKNOWN or just a blank banner, but normally there will be something there that will help you identify if you are on the correct sat and TP.

RADAR
 
Last edited:
Thanks very much guys. I have downloaded the software as suggested by Radar and begun to search again as he suggests. Nothing so far but we are a long way south. Thanks for all your input I will keep you posted.
Tony
 
Just wanted to let you all know that at last I have found Galaxy 19 at 97.
Reception on most stations is good. At last we have TV news in English !!
Many thanks to all you guys who gave me so much help.
I may try to motorise the dish , so I am sure I will be back for more help.
In the meantime many many thanks.
Tony
 
Status
Please reply by conversation.
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)