My Pansat 9200HD came in late Friday and I've been playing with it all weekend. I have it hooked up to my 10' aluminum mesh BUD with a C-Band LNB and SuperJack II actuator. My Toshiba TRX-80 is hooked up to the actuator and the polarotor so I have to use that receiver both to move the dish and to change the polarity.
Some comments and questions:
1. I had to go outside and tweak my dish's alignment a bit. As expected, analog C-band is much more tolerant of positioning errors than digital. I ran a cable outside and hooked up the TV next to the dish so I could get visual feedback on signal strength and quality on several benchmark satellites. The best signal strength that I could get on any satellite was 92%, and most are coming in at 86-89%.
2. It appears that using my analog receiver to position the dish introduces some type of "drift." I can set the BUD on satellite A and program the position in the receiver, move some distance to satellite B, then come back to satellite A only to find that the signal quality isn't the same, and I have to use the WEST/EAST buttons to gently knudge the dish to the sweet spot.
3. Given the problem encountered with #2, I would think a more modern positioner box with polarotor control would be a good addition to my digital FTA setup.
4. Using the smart scan feature of the Pansat 9200HD, I found plenty of SD channels, but just a handful of HD FTA channels so far.
5. I notice when doing Smart Scan that channels with nice names start appearing in the list during the scan. Does each transponder "advertise" its available channels?
6. The Pansat came with a September 2008 firmware (not the latest 1218 on the website). I noticed that occasionally the box would just lock up, and a total power down/power up was required to get it back responding again. I've since used the USB stick to update to 1218 and have not noticed lock-ups for the little while I've played with the new firmware. Is anyone aware of this problem?
More questions as I can think of them. Thanks again all.
Some comments and questions:
1. I had to go outside and tweak my dish's alignment a bit. As expected, analog C-band is much more tolerant of positioning errors than digital. I ran a cable outside and hooked up the TV next to the dish so I could get visual feedback on signal strength and quality on several benchmark satellites. The best signal strength that I could get on any satellite was 92%, and most are coming in at 86-89%.
2. It appears that using my analog receiver to position the dish introduces some type of "drift." I can set the BUD on satellite A and program the position in the receiver, move some distance to satellite B, then come back to satellite A only to find that the signal quality isn't the same, and I have to use the WEST/EAST buttons to gently knudge the dish to the sweet spot.
3. Given the problem encountered with #2, I would think a more modern positioner box with polarotor control would be a good addition to my digital FTA setup.
4. Using the smart scan feature of the Pansat 9200HD, I found plenty of SD channels, but just a handful of HD FTA channels so far.
5. I notice when doing Smart Scan that channels with nice names start appearing in the list during the scan. Does each transponder "advertise" its available channels?
6. The Pansat came with a September 2008 firmware (not the latest 1218 on the website). I noticed that occasionally the box would just lock up, and a total power down/power up was required to get it back responding again. I've since used the USB stick to update to 1218 and have not noticed lock-ups for the little while I've played with the new firmware. Is anyone aware of this problem?
More questions as I can think of them. Thanks again all.