Help waking up my backyard dino

[hsoberanis]

Hello Everyone I'm in California, new to this forum.
I have a big dish in that came with my house 6yrs Ago by then I tried to use it and called a tech I found in the yellow pages, to tune it up and get it to work, after him inspecting and testing the equipmet diagnosed it wasn't worth fixing or investing any money in it, OF COURSE he ended up signing me up for dishnetwork contract wich I have kept for the last 5Yrs.
My system components are: 10' motorized mesh dish, Home Cable Concepts HCC990 receiver looped to a Satwork ST3618 dvb, I have not been able to see lnb appears as if I have C/Ku lnb (to high to reach).
After going thru different threads, thank's to all the good advice of you guys, I have been able to tweak and troubleshoot different issues now I have the dish moving East and West, at this time the only channels I get succesfully is c-span, QVC, HSN, satellite? I've been playing with the dish and get some channels that give me very poor quality picture, unsuccesful trying to fine tune.
I have some questions if anyone can help me with this; Are the receivers something I can keep? or should I upgrade to a better quality? are there subscription channels over this system or would it be better to keep just for FTA capturing? What kind of equipment(lnb, receiver, etc) do I need for SATMEX5, GALAXY25, HISPANASAT1, AMC6?

I anyone can help your advice will be greatly appreciated

 

[gabshere]

First to the group

next pictures are your friend here

you might need to get up there and find out what setup you have , lnb's models and what degree they are older lnb's are easily replaced this day and age . plus your lnb's might be ok just something in the feed blocking some of the signal like wasp nest ect so that will have to be checked out.

since you listed getting some analog channels that shows that at least your system is working. you can move the dish on eastward picking a satellite with a analog channel and once you find it you can switch to the Satworks (DVB receiver) and try to tune a digital channel. (i don't have a satworks but some here have them or have had them in the past , i suspect you would have to manually enter some of the transponders to gain those signals )

if you haven't had luck tuning with the satworks make sure you are tuning c-band signals on the satworks

 

[turbosat]

One more beginner tip>Don't pull out the satellite cable while the box is powered up, could cause damage. I know I've done it a few times , forgetting about that , and nothing happened, but it's good to be safe and always power down before connecting the satellite coax-in.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Hello Everyone I'm in California, new to this forum.
I have a big dish in that came with my house 6yrs Ago by then I tried to use it and called a tech I found in the yellow pages, to tune it up and get it to work, after him inspecting and testing the equipmet diagnosed it wasn't worth fixing or investing any money in it, OF COURSE he ended up signing me up for dishnetwork contract wich I have kept for the last 5Yrs.
My system components are: 10' motorized mesh dish, Home Cable Concepts HCC990 receiver looped to a Satwork ST3618 dvb, I have not been able to see lnb appears as if I have C/Ku lnb (to high to reach).
After going thru different threads, thank's to all the good advice of you guys, I have been able to tweak and troubleshoot different issues now I have the dish moving East and West, at this time the only channels I get succesfully is c-span, QVC, HSN, satellite? I've been playing with the dish and get some channels that give me very poor quality picture, unsuccesful trying to fine tune.
I have some questions if anyone can help me with this; Are the receivers something I can keep? or should I upgrade to a better quality? are there subscription channels over this system or would it be better to keep just for FTA capturing? What kind of equipment(lnb, receiver, etc) do I need for SATMEX5, GALAXY25, HISPANASAT1, AMC6?

I anyone can help your advice will be greatly appreciated

Hsoberanis,

Sounds like the equipment is still operational, that is a good sign. But, the subscriptions have run out so all you are able to pick up are the channels which are in the clear. That is also a good deal for you, in my opinion. After 6 years, the dish may not be perfectly aligned if it ever was to begin with, you never know. It must be close, however as you are getting the FTA C-Band channels, at least some of them.

Do you have a C-Band technician in your local area? The DN techs will generally always want to ignore the C-Band stuff to promote DN Ku band stuff and sell that to you. That is their job and no offense to them, that is simply what their job description entails. You cannot ask a DN tech to set up DirecTV for you, that would be a conflict of interest. Requesting that they service or inspect a C-Band system is equally out of their general field, unless they are also a hobbyist and will do that off the clock.

However, there are independent agents out there who specialize in satellite services and may be authorized to install C-Band, Ku band and any providers equipment. These are the guys you want to consult with.

Since I am not really versed in C-Band equipment, I won't even try to tell you anything about the receiver or the LNB and the dish. I could only provide you with generalities that you already know.

My advice, other than reading what others can tell you here, is to have a tech that is well versed in C-Band setups inspect your dish and LNBF and positioner and other peripheral equipment first and give you some on-site advice reqarding the overall system that is already in place.

If the fellow or gal is knowledgable, they will give you an honest assesment for free or nearly free. Get their opinion first and let them inform you of what all the components are (model and make). They should be able to identify this rather quickly.

Take their information and toss it around here with the C-Band gurus and then you can find a bunch of information.

Try bringing some pix to the table at the same time if you can, that will help immensely.

As is, it appears that the equipment is in operational status, but we may not know all that it is capable of without further information.

Try to gather that first if you can. If you are not certain, pix will help.

AcWxRadar

 

[gillham]

Hello Everyone I'm in California, new to this forum.

Are you near the Bay Area by any chance?

 

[hsoberanis]

First to the group

next pictures are your friend here

you might need to get up there and find out what setup you have , lnb's models and what degree they are older lnb's are easily replaced this day and age . plus your lnb's might be ok just something in the feed blocking some of the signal like wasp nest ect so that will have to be checked out.

since you listed getting some analog channels that shows that at least your system is working. you can move the dish on eastward picking a satellite with a analog channel and once you find it you can switch to the Satworks (DVB receiver) and try to tune a digital channel. (i don't have a satworks but some here have them or have had them in the past , i suspect you would have to manually enter some of the transponders to gain those signals )

if you haven't had luck tuning with the satworks make sure you are tuning c-band signals on the satworks

Hi gabshere, thank's for the welcome and the advice, I tried what you recommended it really worked, I was able to point to some satellites and voila!! I got some signals being that my analog tuner(I think HCC990) only gets a few signals and most of the time is just a noise signal on the screen, this is like shooting to the air or fishing, you never know what you gonna get, I like it although I would need more time to do all the scanning, Is there any receiver that you recommend for faster scanning? here I'm adding some pictures it might give you an Idea of what I'm working with. Thank's a lot

 

[hsoberanis]

One more beginner tip>Don't pull out the satellite cable while the box is powered up, could cause damage.

Thank's for the tip, turbosat I'll be careful

 

[hsoberanis]

Hsoberanis,

Sounds like the equipment is still operational, that is a good sign.
Do you have a C-Band technician in your local area?

Take their information and toss it around here with the C-Band gurus and then you can find a bunch of information.

Try bringing some pix to the table at the same time if you can, that will help immensely.

As is, it appears that the equipment is in operational status, but we may not know all that it is capable of without further information.

Try to gather that first if you can. If you are not certain, pix will help.

AcWxRadar

Thank you for the quick response; In fact the equipment is operating great!! I believe it just takes more than I can imagine to operate, so far I have invested some time reading threads, and some websites that provide technical info. I was able to find AMC6 Nasa channels with perfect broadcast, some spanish programming wich I believe is Satmex6, my next step will be find all the satellites manually, it appears as if the receiver I have doesn't have any option to find satellites. I uploded some pictures maybe you know something about the equipment I have and give me some help

thank you again!!

 

[hsoberanis]

Are you near the Bay Area by any chance?

Hi, gillham I'm far from you Inland Empire, riverside Co

 

[gabshere]

well it sounds like your in business
you can use the home cable concepts to move the big dish and use the satworks to display the digital channels.

now there is a drawback to that the analog receiver will control the polarity and move the big dish. do you have a remote to the home cable concepts receiver (HCC)? the HCC receiver is just a rebranded General Instruments 350i ( there are others i think crosses to a GI 450i)
so with the remote you can program your HCC receiver with satellite locations and change the polarity. then with the satworks ( and i'm not very familar with the satworks , don't know if you can use a channel editor with it or not. if you can that would be the easiest and add all the c-band satellites and channels from the list) from what i can see it looks to be a c-band only feedhorn.