Dave here, having some trouble getting this dish dialed in. It is a 6 1/2 ft uni-mesh c-band, GE 4DTV Reciever. I replaced the lnb and actuater arm recently. I have always had trouble with G5/C4 reception. The rest of the satellites are doing ok. All the digital channels are fine also. I have everything reprogrammed, east- west limits are set. Just cannot get the snow and static out of those two satellites. I also broke loose the adjusters on the dish, and moved them both directions,, one at a time. No luck, acts as its as good as it will get. Why is only G5 and C4 giving me grief? Also wondering where i can see how much signal is being recieved, I ran across this in the set up mode, but cant find it again. Any help/comments would be appreciated. Thanks Dave
Dish Alignment Troubles / Help ?
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Your setup and 4dtv strength
Hi Dave:
Depending on where you are, a 6.5 ft BUD is marginal size wise...what LNB do you have? it is also possible that the transponders you are having trouble with are also marginal for your location. It is possible that you are not tracking that part (here it is the west part) of the belt quite right (a little fine tuning). If you have a strong east and a weak west, you are off just a hair! All tweaks are compromises between east and west reception. BTW: C4 is a pretty old bird too!
To see your signal (or Quality) strength on a 4dtv.
Go to Options>6>4>4> pick a satellite, press enter, and the screen will come up with signal/Quality meters
dave E said:
Hi Dave:
Depending on where you are, a 6.5 ft BUD is marginal size wise...what LNB do you have? it is also possible that the transponders you are having trouble with are also marginal for your location. It is possible that you are not tracking that part (here it is the west part) of the belt quite right (a little fine tuning). If you have a strong east and a weak west, you are off just a hair! All tweaks are compromises between east and west reception. BTW: C4 is a pretty old bird too!
To see your signal (or Quality) strength on a 4dtv.
Go to Options>6>4>4> pick a satellite, press enter, and the screen will come up with signal/Quality meters
dave E said:
Well 8.5' is what you need for proper C-band reception, you will need a bigger dish, 10' is a good choice.
Did you try adjusting your true south or just your elevation?(to adjust true south rotate the entire mount on the pole about a 1/8 inch and then check for improvement) After adjusting true south you will have to bump dish (using motor)to left or right depending on which way you rotated mount on pole.You may also need to adjust elevation. REMEMBER make real small adjustments and check for results. I usaully take a sharpie(marker) and mark mount and pole first then adjust this way if things get worse you can always move it back to the exact same position before you started. And bringing the receiver and TV outside to the dish is very useful also.
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Well, did a little bit over the weekend, too much snow/ ice to go up on the roof and do any adjusting with the dish. But for now i can tell you that the replaced lnb is a eagle aspen 17 degree made for newer digital recievers? Thinkm I only gave $20 for it new on ebay. There was no difference made changing lnb's. I live right in the center of Northern Illinois on the Wisconsin line. I was able to pull some signal percentages for ya. Looks like the only satellites i aim at often are way towards the west swing. G9/19 gives 90%, C3/7 86%, G5/11 90% and C4/21 shows 90%. I will program one towards the east and see what it shows. Guess i am wondering what else may have went wrong up there? What is the small blue box the sets behing the lnb? (polorizer?) I am thinking about getting a California lnb, heard these were the best not sure what style to go with for my set-up. This 4-dtv worked perfect for the last 5 years, still not ruling out the dish getting knocked off track a bit. I will try to pick up true south and tweak it from there. May be a while though, I wont mess with it standing on a 24ft ladder. Keep you guys posted,, thanks again.
Found something interesting today. Went to the videocipher side of the install, and noticed that the signal was much lower than what shows while programming in the adjusting mode. Went to options, 9 for videocipher, install data. This is the black screen that shows unit id #, program provider #, etc. Only showing 60% on G5/22 and others I listed above. Big difference from what it shows for signal while tweaking 85,90,etc. hmm? Snow is melting quick,Gonna go up this weekend and try shifting the entire dish looking for true south, and trying to pull more signal.
Not too sure
I am not too sure of myself here but I would guess that the different strengths between what the VCII shows and the receiver shows, are NOT relative to each other (in other words would not be the same reading).
Good luck this weekend
jeff
dave E said:
I am not too sure of myself here but I would guess that the different strengths between what the VCII shows and the receiver shows, are NOT relative to each other (in other words would not be the same reading).
Good luck this weekend
jeff
Dave, I am In Ogden, Utah and I had this same problem, years ago when I installed my own 8ft True Focus dish 24 years ago. I had everything what I thought was perfect. I went in to my Home and had a bit of a picture. I tried everything. I have a friend who came out and moved the dish that was installed over the post in the ground and he moved it about 1/2 inch and I had a perfect picture after that. This was in 1982 and I really believe that CBand is Great, but the Cost Just has not been worth it for me. We Cband users have seen it go from Free Channels to everything going Digital and I now have Directv with more channels than I ever had with CBand for a less cost. I have kept the East Feeds for channels and I watch shows Hours before I see them locally. Don't be afraid to try things with your dish. Mark where you were, before you change something and if you went to far, you know where you had it previously. Learn from these other members experiences and "WOW" you will find out that others have been through it before and "WILL" save you alot of time. My problem right now is Correcting a problem with my picture after installing a new LNBF and Not getting a brighter picture. I would think after 24 years of having a CBAND Dish, someone would have had experience with this. Hopefully and Maybe someone will help me as I have told you my experience. Take care and Enjoy and Good luck correcting the problem. Allen
I know this may sound strange to all of you but it has worked for me ever since we set up our first 10 footer in 81. Since then I have aligned several for friends and relatives while adding an additional 10 footer and a couple of 1 meter ku's for my own place. It just happens to be easier for me since Im an avid amateur astronomer. In any case I usually plop an extended pole on the polar shaft and align with polaris during the evening, then check my starcalc for when the sun will cross my south position the next day. In my case my lnbs are on quad poles with the poles running on the north south axis of the dish but if not available a string on the axis will do as a center mark. Then as the sun crosses my true south I simply center the dish on true south using the shadow of the scaler ring and north south line. For me it beats trusting a compass near large metal structures and generally fooling with magnetic deviations. Total time spent in alignment is less that 5 minutes although it requires two trips out to the dish (evening and then the following day). However given the general degree of senility I display with age I can understand why others would prefer to use their standard recommended procedures.
SD
SD
Att Dave: C band cost is cheap COMPARED TO "OTHER"
When you think about it...BUD subscriptions are cheaper and you can still go ALa Cart for subs (quarterly, semi annually or yearly!. The equipment you buy is easily justified by not having to lease the D* stuff and their outrageous subscription prices (cable is bad too). AND THEN THERE IS THE 2 YR COMITMENT! Most of my friends with pizza pans pay from $500-800 per month...now that is expensive! BTW...why an LNBF for the BUD...wouldn't you do better with a Corotor and separate LNB's? <True Focus was a good product> Of course, Digitalk is the only way for BUD people to go these days and your analog receiver as well as the actual quality of the analog signal could be part of the problem.
I had a demo of Direct TV at my home, by a friend in the business who had never seen C-Band 4dtv. The poor guy was blown out the door when he saw his Direct TV stuff on my plasma TV(lousy). Then I rehooked up the 4DTV and that basically pushed him out the door, especially when he saw REAL HI DEF!!!!
YOU MIGHT ALSO PICK UP AN INEXPENSIVE (UNDER $20) METER FROM ONE OF THE SPONSORS HERE...They can really help in tweaking.
Jeff
bigal01 said:
When you think about it...BUD subscriptions are cheaper and you can still go ALa Cart for subs (quarterly, semi annually or yearly!. The equipment you buy is easily justified by not having to lease the D* stuff and their outrageous subscription prices (cable is bad too). AND THEN THERE IS THE 2 YR COMITMENT! Most of my friends with pizza pans pay from $500-800 per month...now that is expensive! BTW...why an LNBF for the BUD...wouldn't you do better with a Corotor and separate LNB's? <True Focus was a good product> Of course, Digitalk is the only way for BUD people to go these days and your analog receiver as well as the actual quality of the analog signal could be part of the problem.
I had a demo of Direct TV at my home, by a friend in the business who had never seen C-Band 4dtv. The poor guy was blown out the door when he saw his Direct TV stuff on my plasma TV(lousy). Then I rehooked up the 4DTV and that basically pushed him out the door, especially when he saw REAL HI DEF!!!!
YOU MIGHT ALSO PICK UP AN INEXPENSIVE (UNDER $20) METER FROM ONE OF THE SPONSORS HERE...They can really help in tweaking.
Jeff
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