Fortec Mercury II - Still having a problem!

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satcustomer

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jun 19, 2006
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California
The problem I initially discovered a few weeks ago while blind scanning still continues today! Say, for example, I blind scan and 11913/H/6625 scans in as a new frequency. Either one of two things then occurs: the frequency completely disappears from the screen or the new frequency will change to, for example, 11913/H/45000. Is my receiver toast?
 
The problem I initially discovered a few weeks ago while blind scanning still continues today! Say, for example, I blind scan and 11913/H/6625 scans in as a new frequency. Either one of two things then occurs: the frequency completely disappears from the screen or the new frequency will change to, for example, 11913/H/45000. Is my receiver toast?

You could contact Fortec Star's tech support and see if they have heard of this issue. I have heard the Mercury II has some bugs.
 
Satcustomer, asking what bird your on is just a general question, your response sounds defensive.

I had a merc II for a while, I never saw anything like what you are experiencing. Possilby you have too many TP's stored in the receiver? That was the only time I had any problems with my merc II. It started acting real funny during scans after a period of use. I deleted a bunch of stored TP's and everything returned to normal.
 
Apologies for appearing defensive. Wasn't meant that way.

I had already deleted a bunch of transponders. In fact, I did a total master reset twice and the problem still occurs.
 
I used the heck out of merc II when I had it and I never saw what you are reporting.

I know you mentioned another thread, I can't seem to find it though. What else have you done to narrow it down to the receiver? I'm just curious mostly. It really sounds weird to me and I would have to believe maybe the receiver is on the fritz too. Have you contacted Fortec?
 
There doesn't appear to be any problems with my dish or coax so it must be the receiver given the problems I'm having. If I manually input a frequency, there's no problem; only when I blind scan and the receiver finds a new frequency is there a problem. Even after I did a master reset and deleted a whole bunch of satellites and (zero signal quality) frequencies, the problem persists. It's pretty annoying because I'll have to stare at the screen and write down any new frequency that pops up so I can manually input into the receiver should it disappear from the screen or magically change to another frequency. And, yes, I did send an email to Fortec's technical support. Waiting for a response.
 
I believe this may be related to my Coolsat sticking on some blind scans. Anole's question regarding which bird could be important. Say there are two adjacent birds and you are pointed between them, or you are pointed at the weaker and the stronger still manages to horn in. If there is a transmission on the same frequency from both birds same freq. same polarity but different symbol rate then it is possible that the receiver could become confused as it finds two valid symbol rates on the same freq. I guess it all depends on the software and how clever it is at recovering in this situation.

Example: whenever I blind scan G10R I have to avoid 11.931V. So I scan H first, then V up to about 11.920 and then again V from 11.940 to the limit of the LNBF. Lastly a manual scan on 11.931V and I should have it mostly covered.
 
Okay, the example I provided occured while scanning 79W. I noticed that it also tried scanning in GBN which is on 72W. I've also noticed the problem on 89W. The point I'm trying to make is that when I first got this receiver, I never had any problems. Now, it's never ending.
 
since you are getting some pretty significant bleed over from 72 when scanning 79 it makes me wonder if your dish /motor is out of alignment a bit. I never get anything from 72 when I am on 79, I have a 90cm fortec dish. When I'm on 74 I sometimes get stuff from 72, but that is only 2 degrees seperation.

You mention 89 also. what is going on with that sat? You say you are getting 72 signal when pointing at 89?
 
Ok, so at 89, you are between 87 and 91. Is it always the same TP that shows up and screws up on 79 an 89 or are the two different, but the same 1 always shows up for 79 and the same 1 always shows up for 89?
 
narrowing down the suspects...

Well, if you're certain you could blind scan without this problem in the past...
... and you've done a full factory reset of the receiver...
... one has to wonder about your dish, LNB, motor, and where it's mounted.

Have you added any new equipment?
Maybe an in-line amp? If so, maybe it's overloading.

What is the dish?
What LNB?
What is your motor mounted on?
The idea of being slightly out of alignment is a reasonable alternative, if it's not the receiver.

How long have you had the receiver?
Has it been subjected to any trauma?
Perhaps a 2-year old and a cup of orange juice? :)

edit: oh, here we go...
I was looking through your old posts for a clue....
Did a blind scan on AMC5 (79W) and for some reason while it was scanning, the receiver said "moving satellite dish" and then upon completion of the scan, it moved the dish to AMC6 (72W) and to GBN, which it seemed to pick up while scanning AMC5 (79W). I'm using a Fortec Mercury II receiver. Anyone else experience this and/or know why this would occur? About two weeks ago I did a master reset on the receiver because I had transponder overload.
 
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I think it's random as far as the transponders that show up and then disappear.

I have not added any new equipment to my FTA system. I'm using a Fortec 36" dish, Invacom Universal .3dB LNBF with a Stab HH90 motor. I don't have any switches. Motor and dish were professionally mounted so it's unlikely there are issues there. I've had the system for probably about eight months or so. No children here to bang the receiver.

What about if I "tweaked" the system by changing very slightly the lat and longitude on the receiver's set-up page?
 
I've done the "tweak" you mentioned, it works for me when I was peaking my setup, but since you have done nothing to the setup, I can't see a slight misalignment causing that kind of problem.
I am kind of at a loss here on what the cause is outside of the receiver malfunctioning.
You mention you get a moving dish message after scanning one sat and the receiver moves back to 72w. Very weird unless you are telling it to scan multiple sats in succession.
I suppose you don't have another receiver laying around? Or have your tried reflashing the box with firmware? I see the fortec site has a new firmware release on March 30, 2007, have you tried updating the box to that?
 
I would at least try it. You may need to put your dish back to it's zero/reference position before you do it. I can't remember if the merc II loses the lat long info with a firmware flash.
 
Actually haven't tried downloading the new firmware. Can't imagine that would help too much or would it?

Download the new version of Mar.30...1.43...the switch issues have been resolved among other bugs to date..my Merc II is working great..The only problem..which is minor to me..is when I'm doing consecutive power scans..say for example 3 satellites in a row,it tends to loose the correct time,which I have to re-set..I have contacted Don at Fortec about this issue,but no reply yet..
 
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