Did RetroTV go bye bye?

[Dee_Ann]

We had some wicked nasty storms come through today and all the satellites went out for a few hours except the one with Nasa on it, that one barely skipped a beat.

White Springs has come back on again and some of the channels on the satellite with "This" TV. I can't remember the name but it's near the White Springs satellite.
Some channels are just showing color patterns and an annoying beep, some are fine, and some are just black.

But RetroTV won't come back on. I can tune it to a channel that says
"NBC NEWS CHANNEL AMC9/3F" with the colored background and the annoying beep. I push info and it shows the signal is 100% and the picture quality is 100%.

But when I try to tune to RTNEAST or RTNWEST there's nothing there.
If I push info it shows not signal for a while then a signal pops in and out a few times. Eventually is will settle down on a signal of 90% and picture of 100% but the screen remains black and there is no sound.

It does that on both east and west channels.

It was working ok earlier before the weather got nasty.

I have no idea what in the world is going on, I can't understand it unless they went bye bye.

Thank you!

 

[tvropro]

RTN is so weak that they get affected by any weather event. KU band is susceptible to rain fade unlike c band. Wait a day or two, if it don't come back your dish lost it's alignment in the storm and a tweak will be in order. It was working here fine last night I know.

 

[zamar23]

You may want to look at fine tuning the dish and also RTV channels parameters in your receiver to RTV & AMC9 signal by searching & reading many threads here on this topic. To diversify your "channel portfolio:, why don't you look also on adding OTA Antenna? In many areas it's as good as FTA, and definitely complements it with many high Q HD channels.

 

[turbosat]

RTN east is glitching a little here, West seems to be steady. No weather trouble here.

 

[Dee_Ann]

How odd.

That one channel comes in strong as can be according to it's info, 100% / 100%
It's like a test pattern or something. If it comes in perfectly should not the other two channels as well?

I also found that last night White Springs went on vacation too.
It was working for a while after the storm but now it's totally gone.

I went and looked at the dishes and they all feel solid, they aren't wiggling at all, they feel as strong in the ground as a tree would.

We did get some 60+ mph winds through yesterday but I didn't see anything damaged out in the yard. I was watching it through the patio doors and was worried it was going to rip my wind chimes up but not a one was harmed. Thank goodness.

I really hope that I'm not going to have to go spend another day in the sun messing with those dumb things again. I had sooo hoped all that was behind me.

Oh yes, that reminds me. I still would like to put a single dish with a motor to replace that ugly little gob of grey out back. And I want to paint it like a giant sunflower. If you can paint them grey them I can paint mine pretty. So there!

I dug around and found SOME of the parts to that biggest dish.
I still can't get my PC to see my camera chip but I got a little help from a girlfriend and her laptop and got a few pictures into my PC.

So, I hope this isn't off topic but I started the topic so maybe it's ok if I wander around a bit. I hope.

Anyway. Ok, so everyone says "Bigger is better" when it comes to satellite stuff, right? Like with a bigger dish you have better luck with weak satellites and rain.
Well that sounds good.

And the less stuff, the less complicated, right? I'm all for less complicated.

And I really would like to have the thing with a motor so I can move it around and "explore" what's up there. I have a curious nature. Meeeeeow...

And really, I think that gob of dishes out there right now is horrid looking. Soon the neighbors will come after me with rakes, pitchforks and torches over them.

So I found almost all the parts to this one dish that is pretty darn big. Fully assembled I doubt seriously I will be able to lift it. I'll probably have to get some help from Mr. Nice Neighbor.

Anyway, so I got a few pictures of the thing and I am hoping that someone can tell me where I can get a replacement part, one of the tubes on it is missing.

It looks like it's probably the same brand as those other two I have, the smaller potato chip shaped ones. One of the smaller ones say on it's face "Primestar" and another one (the one I have for White Springs) you can tell it had the same logo on it but was painted over.

I'm sure one of the resident experts will instantly know what this one is.
I just hope that someone can tell me where I can get a part to fix it, where that missing tube is. There's supposed to be three of them from what I can figure out. There's some other holes on the bottom of it but it looks like someone drilled those, they don't appear to be factory made.

Sorry for the random wandering in my own topic, I'm just lost and trying to find a solution to this mess.

Thank you!

 

[turbosat]

Yep that would be a good one to motorize, but it'd take some fabbing. There is a place that sells those lnb-support arm tubes, I hope somebody can chime in with the name of the place as I failed to bookmark it!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Yep that would be a good one to motorize, but it'd take some fabbing. There is a place that sells those lnb-support arm tubes, I hope somebody can chime in with the name of the place as I failed to bookmark it!

"fabbing" ?

 

[Anole]

Oh, yes! - :up
That would be my choice, as well.
The 1.0 meter round Primestar is the perfect dish to motorize!
It's big enough to do the job quite well, but not too big to be flung around on a motor.
(Primestar is just a defunct satellite company ; the dish was made for them by Channel Master)


edit:

"fabbing" ?

Yes, drill some holes, buy some brackets, cut some metal, etc..
Pretty much on par with installing drapery rods, a lighting fixture, or shelves on a wall.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Oh, yes! - :up
That would be my choice, as well.
The 1.0 meter round Primestar is the perfect dish to motorize!
It's big enough to do the job quite well, but not too big to be flung around on a motor.
(Primestar is just a defunct satellite company ; the dish was made for them by Channel Master)


edit:

Yes, drill some holes, buy some brackets, cut some metal, etc..
Pretty much on par with installing drapery rods, a lighting fixture, or shelves on a wall.

Oh oh.. I'm not so good at those things. And I only have a few basic tools, a few little wrenches and screwdrivers. I have a hammer somewhere but it gets lost frequently. What all does this "fabbing" involve? I'm starting to think I might do better to buy something that is already made to work right from the start. This whole project has been a lot of work and I'm no fan of the heat. I'm about ready to put it all on hold until the "winter". If you can call the 2-3 weeks of semi-cool weather that we get down here "winter"..

It's pretty annoying that no one installs these things professionally. I checked a few places in town that advertise to be satellite installers and they all accused me of stealing or told me there's no such thing as free TV.

One place even offered me "amnesty" if I would agree to have them come take away my equipment, sign a contract and have them install a "whole house system". And of course I told him to take a hike. He said I was stealing TV.
LOL. Like I could do that. I'm so sure. Goofball.
But really I was offended that he called me a thief outright and doesn't even know what the heck this stuff is. I think he was trying to scare me into forking over my hard earned money.

Oh, and another reason I would like to have a moveable dish is that I see a lot of channels on the "this TV" satellite are gone now. Those color things are showing on a lot of the channels, they just say "skyport mc" on all of them. So I'm thinking that it would be helpful to move to another satellite to look around without having to go through the misery of moving one by hand.

It's turning out this is a lot harder, a lot more work than I thought it would be.

 

[osu1991]

I didn't bookmark it either, but I believe it is Dow Electronics that carries the replacements for the 1.0 meter Channel Master.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I found a way to get pictures from my iphone into my PC. It's a pretty sad excuse of a camera compared to my Canon but it's all I can manage, my girlfriend took her laptop back home with her.

Here are the pattern things I'm getting,

One of them is on a lot of channels on the Galaxy 18 satellite
SatelliteGuys.US - 123.0°W Galaxy 18 Ku

The other one is the only channel I can get on the RetroTV satellite.
SatelliteGuys.US - 83.0°W AMC 9 Ku

It's just odd that that one channel only comes in now and the other two are blank.
They show a signal in the info but that's all.


update: ok, this is crazy stuff. White Springs is back from vacation. And info shows it to be 100% / 100%
Retro TV is still bye bye though. Sigh.. So much trouble. I guess now I see why no one does this stuff.
Kinda of like that "Do NOT try this at home!" thing you always hear..

 

[Dee_Ann]

well, I have been googling a bit.

I've had no luck finding someone that sells parts for these dinosaur dishes.
A few places I found were for dealers only and would not let me even see the content of their website or products.

But I found a few documents that may be helpful.
I'm still hopeful someone will think of a place that does sell parts.

Here's two documents I found directly related to that big dish.

The back of the dish says

1.0 METER
PART NO.3040642-02
MOLD NO 1 0 M -1
MADE IN U.S.A.


And in the documents, I believe the missing part to be listed as

Item 6
Part 6010100-05
LEG-SIDE-FEED (1.0m)

I'm really hoping someone, somewhere still has one of those.
I'm guessing that without it the dish is pretty much useless.


Thank you!

 

[turbosat]

I scoured around the web and came up short too Dee. Andrew corp owns the CM name , now they're sold as Andrew dishes. But found nobody selling parts,other than lnbs and the mount/bolts. Might be easier to find an electrician (hope you know one) and see if he can take a few minutes and his pipe-bender , and bend you a new support arm. Its standard size conduit, I believe. Couldnt find another place that sold those parts at all, just bolts , and a few of the lnb-arms for the elliptical shape dishes and mounts.
*Haven't got another 1m lying around in the weeds do ya?

 

[zamar23]

It may be easier to find similar dish parts around your neighbors' houses. You may want to post the dish back mount pics to see what work needs to be done to pair it with a motor. Buying a motorized dish set is always an option. Anyway you'll need to buy a good motor and a new Invacom QPH-031 LNB for that whole thing to work as you want. Don't overlook OTA signals, I found OTA to be excellent complement to my Motorized Dish setup. Its also surprising, some local stations aren't available on anything but (free) basic cable, and some only over OTA NTSC signals that are supposed to be cut off by now. ATSC has excellent HD pic quality, its less compressed compare to most sat signals.

 

[osu1991]

Export Items

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/81770-1-0-meter-primestar.html#post723060

You might check with futurevisionsat. They have the legs for the 1.2 and 1.8 meter channelmasters.

The other link is to a post from 2006 stating they got the legs from Dow Electronics for $15. I believe you will have to call Dow to order and check availability. This has kind of stuck in my head as I see a lot of these 1.0 meter Primestars around here and might need some parts one day.

 

[melgarga]

Hi Dee,
Glad to hear you got some rain and survived the rough wx. We finally got some decent outflow stuff here for several hours today. I had a rain related Ku dish issue too.....
Anyway, if you want to publish the name of the company/person that made the accusation, I'd be more than glad to take a bite out of his butt. That is nothing less that cohersion, and an attempt to take advantage of a female AFAIC. If this person, or his employees are truely so uninformed as to make such allegations, I feel the least that needs to be done is enlighten them to their apparent ignorance.
As to parts for your Primestar, if the arms that remain are not bent and needing the other support for alignment, it is likely a cosmetic issue. Unless you intend to hang a bag if bricks from the thing two should support an lnb w/o issue. If the assy is still rigid with just two arms it will function but look odd. As posted, a piece of EMT (electrical metal tubing, aka thinwall conduit) probably 1/2", bent with an electrician's "hickey bar" should be "fabbable".
Fabbing = the act of fabricating, (creating, making, building from raw, usually metalic materials, etc....yeah, it's a guy thing....lol)
You might even find an electrician that you can get interested it the hobby and barter for some of the other equipment you have to liquidate.
First, I'd check if the two arms are as secure (unmovable) at the pioint where the lnb mounts as it would be if there were three.

 

[Dee_Ann]

This is odd.

RTNEAST now says Provider: TandbergTV when I press info.
There is now one of those color patterns in place, the signal is showing to be 100% / 100% and it's making that horrid, continuous beep.

There is no text on the screen like the other one that says NBC something something (see previous picture).

RTNWEST is still black and silent and it still says Provider: RTNWEST under info.
It says the signal is 100% / 100%.

Oh, and it also says this, 11735MHz 4444Ksps Horizontal (for the west)
and for the east one it also says the same thing, 11735MHz 4444Ksps Horizontal.


The other one says 11775MHz 4232Ksps Horizontal
AMC-9/3F Provider: NBCNC Satellite Operations
and it's 100% / 100% on it's signal.

So it looks like to me that RTV did go bye bye.
Surely I can not be the only one that sees this.


Oh, as to the rude people that I talked to about satellite. I'll let karma deal with them. People like that will get what's due them sooner or later.
The little building that one place was in looked like a real dump.
I don't think they will make it as a business, especially when they are telling people nonsense. That sort of thing always comes back on you.

I'm not vengeful or mean spirited. I would prefer to let fate and karma handle matters.

OTA NTSC ATSC

I really need a book or something on all this stuff. But I doubt there is one.


I think I will try to locate and call that Dow company and see if they have the missing part. I for sure don't have the means or skills to make a new one.

Oh gosh, I have such a headache now from googling and reading all day.
I thought this was supposed to be fun. It's really hard work! A real brain strain!

I'm giving up on RTV or RTN or whatever it is this week. I'll give it another look tomorrow. It seems to be off the air for now.

Thank you!

 

[Tron]

One place even offered me "amnesty" if I would agree to have them come take away my equipment, sign a contract and have them install a "whole house system". And of course I told him to take a hike. He said I was stealing TV.

I don't think you want to hear what I would have told him. In fact I wouldn't be able to post it here. He's stealing FTA equipment, so he's not one to be accusing anyone of stealing.

Oh yeah, the acronyms

OTA = Over The Air, referring to programming picked up on a regular TV antenna.

NTSC = National Television System Committee, which is the analog, standard definition television system used in North America and Japan. Also known as "Never Twice the Same Color" by many engineers

ATSC = Advanced Television System Committee, the new digital OTA television system used here in North America.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ah! OTA. I haven't watched local tv in years except during hurricanes.
I didn't get one of those boxes for the new TV. they sent me some cards for a discount but I never used them and they expired. Oh well

I don't know what I'll to next hurricane. Car radio I guess.
I had thought of putting a tv card in the computer but I don't know anything about this newfangled tv stuff. LOL.

There's nothing worth watching locally anyway. Never was, never will be.
Local nonsense doesn't interest me.


As for the jerks, I guess they thought I was just a dumb girl.
I at least was smart enough to know he was full of it. I told him he was full of baloney.
People like him fail. I'll drive by in 6 months to see his out of business sign in the window.

Time for rest. It's been a long weekend.

Thank you guys!

 

[zamar23]

You might be surprised, how many stations you can pickup with a good OTA Antenna and a cheap ATSC & NTSC & QAM (Cable) TV Tuner Combo PC Card. Some larger cities get 30+ OTA stations, and transmit a lot of same stuff, you get for free on sat. I get "This" and RTV on OTA with high quality, while RTV on sat is in fringe at best. Local stations often transmit regional and national content as well, and in high proportion to overall content with limited ads. It depends on your location for sure. For example, in Canada and large US cities like Buffalo and New York national and state programming and news is prevalent in OTA. It may complement your future motorized sat system quite well. Some State Legislation channels or similar are mandatory on cable and at times available only on cable. What can possibly be interesting to watch on a legislation channel? You can often learn more about your state economy status and opportunities out there from such channel than from News, as such debates unleash some policy things and trends that a controlled by parties TV info soup will mask or never reveal.