HELP with NASA on a 6 Foot stationary

[Cband55]

Does anyone have experience pointing to 87 I only get the bouquets on 91 they come in at 60%, but have a hard time locking 87 NASA on a 6 foot stationary?

my question is to anyone that has experience pointing a 6 foot stationary to 87, from 91 do you have to rotate the LNBF? and also how much do you move the dish from 91 to 87 on a Stationary.

Any Meter is useless since they all give me big levels.

 

[Tron]

I have a six footer on 87W for NASA, and have no problems locking any of the main channels or the LIMO feed. The main channels (HQ1-HQ4 plus HQ5, which is an occasional HD feed) come in around 80-85 quality on a Visionsat IV-200. The LIMO feed is around 65Q.

As for the skew (rotating the LNBF), I am located at 90.1W, so the difference in skew between 91W and 87W is negligible, as is the difference in elevation. Depending on where you live, however, you may need to adjust both to some extent.

 

[skysurfer]

Does anyone have experience pointing to 87 I only get the bouquets on 91 they come in at 60%, but have a hard time locking 87 NASA on a 6 foot stationary?

my question is to anyone that has experience pointing a 6 foot stationary to 87, from 91 do you have to rotate the LNBF? and also how much do you move the dish from 91 to 87 on a Stationary.

Any Meter is useless since they all give me big levels.

I would imagine 6' is poor for NASA TV due to not being 2-degree spacing compliant, but I don't have any experience with undersized dishes because I only use 2-degree spacing compliant dishes to receive NASA TV.

I don't think the skew will matter much since the satellites are so close.

If the meter is useless because they all give big levels, you need a different meter. Get a meter that is like a portable satellite tuner so you can not only see the levels, but you can get a lock and a signal/noise reading to know the quality of the lock (or even if you are locked at all).

 

[B.J.]

I don't think the skew or the 2 degree issue will be a problem. A while back, while trying to guide someone to the NASA signal, I found that I could get a fairly strong lock on the NASA channels while peaked on the next sat over (I think G28). That NASA signal is pretty strong. I also think that a meter should help. Those hand held meters are often somewhat useless on KU, since they tend to get confused by nearby DBS sats, but on C-band, I've always found that they work pretty well. Of course, the meters won't help with skew, but you can set that fine by just eye-balling it.

 

[Blindowl1234]

TVU is by far the strongest channel on 87w for me. I usually try and lock it first. I get it at 60 plus on the Fortec. Nasa is usually at 45 or so. I'm not sure which dish you're using..if it's the 6 foot Fortec or similar? on the stand as I call it....move it a an inch to inch and a half east. I used a sharpie and marked everything when I had mine set up that way. 87W is close to my true south so it's easy for me...Hope that helps Blind

 

[Mr Tony]

I had my Fortec 6 footer aimed at 87W for about 2 weeks. Its back at 99W now

Worked really well for Nasa and most all the other channels. If you check thelist under 87W all those channels I picked up with the 6 footer here in Minnesota. Some quality readings off the Pansat (30 threshold on most channels)
TVU was highest at 90+
NASA was 60+
NASA Limo was 45
The TP with INN, @ Sports etc was 45-46
ThisTV 60-65
Salem Radio was 60

also got tons of horse race feeds on vertical side

 

[TRG]

Up until today I had no problems with my 6' Fortec Star receiving NASA TV. Now the signal goes from around 70 to nearly 0 and then back up again in a few seconds. I remember having this problem before but I'm not sure if it cleared up on its own or if I did something. I hope I can figure this out before Monday's launch.

 

[scottc98]

NASA comes in enough to be stable on my 4footer. If we have high winds, it breaks up. Your 6 footer should be fine. As Ice stated, try TVU first or ThiSTv. TVU is in the 60s for me so it should be pretty hot for you.

 

[Cband55]

My problem is that I get a momentenious lock of 15% when I try to swing the dish east to Nasa but then I loose it does any one know of a instructional video of how to move a stationary cband dish or just move it blindly until you get a lock.

there is a launch tomorrow I wonder how many people are doing the same thing as me, as its one of the last 4 shuttle launches in history.

thanks

 

[Cham]

Try 3835 H 2734 on AMC-3 and maximize the signal This is the THIS TV feed. It should come in 60-80% quality on a 6' reflector. I get 99% on my 10' dish. You might change the skew a bit to peak the signal but I don't think it would make much difference but every combination of equipment is different.

Once you get that peaked try 4000 H 28112 NASA transponder.

To peak your dish; if you know approximately where the satellite is and you are close (you get a lock), try moving the dish horizontally about 1/10 degree at a time to get the max signal. Then move the dish vertically in very small increments to the strongest signal. You may have to repeat the horizontal then vertical adjustments again once or twice. Remember to move very small increments at a time.

I have a small portable TV and bring the receiver and TV right out to the dish when ever I have to make aiming adjustments, and tap into the LNB line at the grounding block.

What kind of receiver and LNB and feedhorn do you have? Also do you have any switches in line? Might help us to know this info.

I will be watching the launch as well, hope you can get your system working!
-C.

 

[Cband55]

Im using a Pansat 6000 to lock it has a audible signal meter and the LNB is a DMS LNBF Cband, and no switches conected directly to the dish

 

[Cham]

Ok sounds simple with one cable going from your receiver to the LNBF. make sure your LO is set to 5150 in the receiver too. I am guessing you can hear the audible signal meter from the dish...
-Maybe try to move the LNB in and out of the scaler ring in case your focus wasn't adjusted properly. Do a search on "focal depth" for instructions on how to measure and calculate this dimension if you haven't done that before.

-Another thing to try is switching polarity, use vertical instead of horizontal for the transponders in my previous post. Just enter the transponder info in the advanced scan menu with V instead of H. If that works your LNBF may be installed 90 degrees out.

Keep trying!
-C.

 

[Tron]

CBand55, were you able to lock NASA-TV? It is still coming in strong at 80-85Q here. Launch coverage for STS-131 began at 1:15 a.m. Eastern. I started a mission thread for STS-131 here.