For those out there that own this receiver (or I guess another Fortec receiver), which I understand produces lower signal quality than others, would you please tell me what your overall AVERAGE quality reading is (amongst the different birds in the Clarke Belt)?
Fortec Mercury II Receiver
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It doesn't make any difference what the numbers are. I have had Coolsat, Pansat and Fortec all on the same dish and LNB and the results as far as locking the signals were the same. The Coolsat will lock at above 63 and the others at above 30 but its just a difference in the meters not an indication that the Coolsat gets more signals. Actually, the Fortec and Pansats meters are more useful since a signal in the 60's really means something where on a Coolsat it means you are barely locking the signal.
I'd say my average signal quality is mid-50%. I do find that when the signal quality is only in the 30% range that the picture tends to pixelize a lot more (and crackle, too). On my TSS (True South Satellite) @ 123W, I get, on the weaker transponder 11720/V/27690 signal quality of like 45-48%, but on a stronger transponder, such as 11799/V/26660, I get signal quality ranging from 57 to 63%. Do you think I should go outside and try to tweak the dish a little to try to bump these quality levels or just leave it as is. I have used a combination of USALS and 1.2 to allign the dish on the various satellites as well as tweaked my USALS setting (bumped the latitude and longitude settings just a tad to see if that increased signal quality). Basically, I'd like to boost the signal quality on those satellites that only give me readings in the mid-30%.
Sounds like you are tracking the arc just fine-50 to 60 is a good signal on the Fortec. On some satellites you can use 1.2 to fine tune a weak transponder and the stronger ones will still be ok. Other than that a dish or LNB upgrade may be the only answer.
That's good. I do have a good LNB (the Invacom SNH-031) so I'm not sure if I can get any better than that. What's weird is that certain channels, such as USU on 79W and ABC News Now on 89W, seem to come and go for me. One day they're there and the next day they're gone. Signal quality on the USU has been like zero on some days and then, for some reason, will bounce up to the 40% range. For ABC News Now, I get a signal quality reading, but just no picture. I've read that other people have had problems with ONN on 74W, so I know it's not my satellite system that's bugging out.
every box is different
As W Tracy noted the Coolsat reads minimum as 63
My Pansat 1500 has been known to lock on a 15 quality and it was stable. Fortec reads lower but thats fine. Satworks read lower than that but are rock solid
I've had receivers hooked up to same signal and Pansat will read 60, 75, 61, 77, 63, 70 and everything in between (the meter is spazzy) btu the Fortec will say 50, 51, 51, 50, 49, 52, 50 and is stable
Coolsat has 2 meter settings depending on if you have 1.00 in box or 1.01 (there is 2 factory software in it). 1.00 maxes at 85 but 1.01 will max at 99
I have 2 boxes that show 98 quality regardless of signal. Does it lock? yep. Show 98 quality.
As W Tracy noted the Coolsat reads minimum as 63
My Pansat 1500 has been known to lock on a 15 quality and it was stable. Fortec reads lower but thats fine. Satworks read lower than that but are rock solid
I've had receivers hooked up to same signal and Pansat will read 60, 75, 61, 77, 63, 70 and everything in between (the meter is spazzy) btu the Fortec will say 50, 51, 51, 50, 49, 52, 50 and is stable
Coolsat has 2 meter settings depending on if you have 1.00 in box or 1.01 (there is 2 factory software in it). 1.00 maxes at 85 but 1.01 will max at 99
I have 2 boxes that show 98 quality regardless of signal. Does it lock? yep. Show 98 quality.
when I first got my motor and dish I had a coolsat 5000 and decided to get the arc on circular birds first (as their easy to find) and then tweak in the linear.
I found it quite funny that with my analog meter inline with the coolsat that I could tweak 119 up to 99% signal, but could continue to tweak the signal much much much higher using the analog meter, yet I couldnt get it to go above 99%.
leson learned, their just numbers, they dont mean as much as the % makes them apear to mean, hehe.
those cheap $10 signal meters on ebay are awesome for tweaking signal, their rock solid with no bouncing around.
I found it quite funny that with my analog meter inline with the coolsat that I could tweak 119 up to 99% signal, but could continue to tweak the signal much much much higher using the analog meter, yet I couldnt get it to go above 99%.
leson learned, their just numbers, they dont mean as much as the % makes them apear to mean, hehe.
those cheap $10 signal meters on ebay are awesome for tweaking signal, their rock solid with no bouncing around.
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