Hi Everyone _ I'm kinda lost

[bswole]

Hi everyone, I'm in Alabama, and I'm new to the FTA arena. I seem to be having some trouble setting up my new system. Been at it for days now, and I'm starting to think something's wrong with me, ha.

My setup is as follows: Viewsat 9000HD, Invacom universal LNB, Winegard 31" dish, and SG2100 motor. I've got an absolutely unobstructed view of the sky. Lat 33.180 Long 86.226.

I started out with my mount, and got it absolutely plumb. I then mounted the motor, set the Latitude on the mount, pointed it true south. I then set the declination on the dish to 30 - 5.4.

Then I picked Intelsat 5 at 97.0W (199.2 locally for me). I've adjusted the eleveation up/down, and the right/left to end up with a signal strength of 80 to 90 steady. However, it seems no matter how much messing around I do, my quality has never moved off of 0.

I'm at a loss as to what I should do next. Any help, advice, tips or tricks, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

Brandon

 

[chapelrun]

Couple Questions

What are you currently using as a starting Elevation - I figured 49.7 deg.

Also, when setting the Elevation what are you using as a reference? One of the mistakes I made at first was assuming the middle of the Elevation bolt was the Angle but most Elev marks are to the left of the bolt.

Third, how is the Viewsat 9000 setup?

You may want to try a known strong TP on 97W

97W (G25 AKA IA5)-12177 V 23000 or 12152 H 20000

My first guess is your starting Elev is a bit off.

 

[TiminMb]

Have you set the receiver to a live transponder? Dish centered on the motor shaft and tightened down?

Is the motor moving under control of the receiver? If so, motor the receiver to USALS for IA5, then move the motor on the pole to peak the signal left right. Try little changes in elevation at the dish and sweep slowly again. Dish should be pointing pretty much South at 199 degrees, so only a little left and right will be needed to find signal. Its the up and down that gets tricky. The dish itself will sit at and angle that will be similar to other offset dishes in your neighbourhood, to get you in the ballpark.

IA5 is my due south sat as well. Only being up North, the dish sits darn near vertical.

 

[gabshere]

also check setup and make sure your using Universal & the correct LO for it .

pick a live transponder from The List and tune with it.

I then mounted the motor, set the Latitude on the mount, pointed it true south. I then set the declination on the dish to 30 - 5.4.

that sounds right except your TS sat should be 87 probably

although some dishes are close to accurate some have a mark adjustment nut and others center on the nut. i've seen some dishes off a few degrees. but with the zero reading on Quality sounds like lnb setup

 

[glen4cindy]

You should be picking your true south satellite to aim first. This will put you at the very top of the arc. If you don't start with true south, your arc will probably be off.

Your true south would be AMC 3 at 87.0 W.

Check Lyngsat and make sure that you are on an ACTIVE transponder for the satellite you are trying for. This was one of my biggest mistakes.

The elevation scale is off on some of the Fortec dishes. Which dish are you using? If it is a Fortec, the elevation could be off by around 5 degrees.

Near 50 degrees elevation doesn't sound right to me, IF it's a Fortec dish, around 31 sounds like a good starting point. Elevation is the most important factor. Also, make sure you used the LATITUDE scale on your motor to set your latitude. There is an ELEVATION scale on the motor too, don't use that!

EDIT: Never mind on the Fortec dishes, I see now that you are using a Wingard

 

[turbosat]

Great-more Alabama folks! Welcome in!
Check your private messages,might be able to help you out.

 

[bswole]

Wow, thanks for all the quick replies guys! I very much appreciate all the help.

It sounds like my mistake might have been trying to aim true south, then trying to swing over and find Intelsat 5. All the literature I read said to try and find it first instead of trying to find a true south sat first. I'll give finding AMC 3 as glen4cindy suggested. It makes sense to me for me to try and find a southern sat first, as that's where I'm initially aligning my dish to anyway. Thanks for the suggestion.

The starting elevation I set to 30 on the dish, which is what all the papers for the motor suggested, then minus the 5.4 declination.

As for using the correct LO(?), transponder, etc - I guess this is where I show my true "green"ness. The viewsat has a list of satellites in there, and they have all the fields filled in with default settings. I have no clue what to do besides use those defaults.

BTW, I have my receiver connected to the motor, and the motor connected to one of the linear ports on the LNB. The receiver turns the motor quite well.

I'll try finding the true south satellite this afternoon and report back with my results. Thank you again everyone!!! I can't wait until I can contribute and help someone.

 

[Lak7]

Is you Invacom LNB the Quad-031, it has 2 "C" and 2 "L" connections?

 

[glen4cindy]

As for using the correct LO(?), transponder, etc - I guess this is where I show my true "green"ness. The viewsat has a list of satellites in there, and they have all the fields filled in with default settings. I have no clue what to do besides use those defaults.

Check Lyngsat for an active transponder. When I was installing my dish, I just chose the first transponder listed in the box for the satellite I was aiming for, but, I later found out that this one was not active. Once I checked Lyngsat and chose that transponder to peak my dish, I found it in no time. Once you succede you will be amazed at how easy it actually was!

 

[bswole]

Is you Invacom LNB the Quad-031, it has 2 "C" and 2 "L" connections?

Yes, it is the quad with 2 L's and 2 C's.

glen4cindy:
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm researching how to do that now, ha. I searched for Lyngsat and found a page with all kinds of sats, but no real info on active xponders. Iceberg's thread on "I need a strong transponder" lists this for AMC3: (AMC3)-11736 V 8333 or 11716 H 4859. Is that what I'm looking for?

Sorry for all the questions; I really am spending hours on research. There's just so much to take in all at once!

 

[Anole]

Yes, Iceberg's list, or use TheList, which also makes note of strong transponders used for tuneup.


TheList is a service of SatGuy's, and it's right here on our server.
Qwert1515 set it up and is always adding new features, but the strong transponders have been there from the beginning.

 

[rv1pop]

Yep, that is what you are looking for. Set the receiver to one of those and try moving the dish/motor very slightly around where you think it should be. If you do not find anything before you get too frustrated, do a blind scan -- if you elevation is right, you probably will get something, that will tell you where you need to go.

 

[Lak7]

I find it very easy to set up to Nimq1 @ 91west (bigger signal)
Connect to the "C" port
On the Viewsat, goto the Sat Setup menu, select
Nimq1
LNB "Standard"(not universal)
Freq. "11250"
22Khx: none
Diseqc: none
Motor: "USALS" enter your Long / Lat(use the up / down on remote for west / north) and save. motor should move just a little west.
Adjust for best Quality by Direction (With Out using "Power" to move motor) and Elevation
The Viewsat should show the Sat Name(Nimq1)at the top in the Sat Setup menu.
Once you have that, "Snug" up bolts.
Next setup one of the EchoStar at the far East(echo 3 @ 61.5 west) or West (echo 1 @ 148west) using the same setup as Nimq1. The motor should Drive East or West. Peak signal, with out using "Power" to adjust the position. Bounce back and forth until you can't get a higher Quality.
Then connect to the "L" port on the LNB, setup FTA Sats using "Standard" &"10750" and you should be Close, little Tweaking may be necessary. Last is to TIGHTEN Up and RECHECK Sigs.
Have fun!

 

[Anole]

oops, I missed that!

Yea, when the OP said he had a universal LNB, I took that as gospel.

Truth is, there are specific meanings for Universal or Standard linear LNB.
And they use different LO frequencies.

Then, for Circular, that has its own meaning.
You use another different LO frequency.

Lak7's instructions above seem to cut through all the confusion.
- Get on the arc with easy-to-find circular birds.
- Then go back and fine tune on the harder-to-get linear birds.
Should lead to less frustration.
Wish I had that LNB so I could try the procedure that way.

 

[bswole]

I guess I'm not understanding the elevation thing. The motor book, etc says I set to my lattitude on the mount, then 30 on the dish minus 5.4. That makes my elevation on an inclinometer 24.6. However, I look at the sat finders, and they're showing my elevation should be in the 50's. I'm lost as far as that goes.

On looking for AMC3, I did a blind scan, and found I was pointing at Nimiq 2 (at the 24.6 elevation). My signal was about 80, but the quality was pretty low. It found some channels, but with no video. Because of that, I determined I must not be aligned south properly, so I ligned up again at 183 deg on the compass for true.

As a side note, when looking at the front of the dish, is it normal for the "wand" the lnb is on to be slightly off center to the left (facing the dish)? I stand in front of the dish, get a sense that the dish is pointing straight at me, but the lnb seems to point slightly left.

I'm now doing a blind scan of what "should" be AMC 3, but finding nothing.

I guess tomorrow I'll try the method suggested by Lak7 (thank you by the way).

This sure is frustrating!

 

[turbosat]

Brandon point the dish at your south satellite and stand in front of it then, take a look. Should be fairly straight then, but if it looks wrong check to be sure nothing is bent.
Remember the dish twists (to compensate for varying skew angles) as it moves east and west from true south so it might just be an optical illusion. And yes it will look like the dish is pointing straight ahead, almost, at times, that's the way an offset dish reflects signals..

 

[glen4cindy]

I guess I'm not understanding the elevation thing. The motor book, etc says I set to my lattitude on the mount, then 30 on the dish minus 5.4. That makes my elevation on an inclinometer 24.6. However, I look at the sat finders, and they're showing my elevation should be in the 50's. I'm lost as far as that goes.

On looking for AMC3, I did a blind scan, and found I was pointing at Nimiq 2 (at the 24.6 elevation). My signal was about 80, but the quality was pretty low. It found some channels, but with no video. Because of that, I determined I must not be aligned south properly, so I ligned up again at 183 deg on the compass for true.

As a side note, when looking at the front of the dish, is it normal for the "wand" the lnb is on to be slightly off center to the left (facing the dish)? I stand in front of the dish, get a sense that the dish is pointing straight at me, but the lnb seems to point slightly left.

I'm now doing a blind scan of what "should" be AMC 3, but finding nothing.

I guess tomorrow I'll try the method suggested by Lak7 (thank you by the way).

This sure is frustrating!

At Nimiq 2, you are not far from where you should be for AMC 3. If you had some quality, that means you were very close. If tapping the dish east or west does not improve your quality, it's time to tap the elevation up or down by 1 degree to see which way it needs to go to get better qulaity. Nimiq 2 is just 5 degrees east of AMC 3 so you need to go to the west 5 degrees which is not much!

You are getting something so that means you are very close! As Turbosat said, your dish will "tilt" left and right as it moves across the arc so seeing the LNBF arm a little to the left is probably perfectly normal. Nothing should be bent unless your package was crushed or something like that. I was worried about mine being bent too until I realized that it is normal for the dish to tilt like it does as the motor moves.

 

[Tron]

However, I look at the sat finders, and they're showing my elevation should be in the 50's. I'm lost as far as that goes.

The listed elevations for the satellites assume a fixed dish, not a motorized. When you use a motorized dish, you have to take into account the elevation of the motor itself (you appear to be about where I am in New Orleans, as far as latitude is concerned. I'm at 30N) added to the dish elevation. Set the motor to 30 on the latitude side of the bracket. The dish elevation of 24 sounds about right for this latitude as well.

Are you near Mobile?

 

[Lak7]

I did not mention, using my method, the "Circular" Sats are scrambled. OK to lock on to, only a few Free channels though. This will get you on the Arc.
I think you hit Nimq2 @ 82 'cause of Magentic Deviation. This throws a compas off a few deg.

It's like watching a Bobber, as it starts to move a little. Soon another one will be hooked.

 

[bswole]

Thanks guys, I'll give all this a shot and report back again.

One other crazy question. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the Viewsat 9000, but when I'm looking at the channels, is there a way to bump the sat right or left? The only way I've found to move the sat is on the antenna setup screen. Does that mean once everything is setup, I even have to go back to the setup screen to change sats? The documentation with the Viewsat was pretty sparse!