hi, got a few questions from a noob

[Dee_Ann]

Grrrrr!

Today, I AM going to find White Springs TV.

I woke up and turned on retro TV and there was a show on one of them about killing animals for fun, aka "sport" and football stuff on the other. Um, nope. Not in my house! :rant:

So now that I *know* that I can use the old grey dish and the birdog together I'm going to try to use that dish to find White Springs.

I'll worry about the direcpc dish later. Besides, the grey dish is bigger anyway and everyone says that is better on satellite.

Someone said I am starting a "dish farm". I presume that to imply a lot of satellite dishes installed. Oh no.. No no no no...... Do. Not. Want.

I still insist on having only one that moves around. I can paint it to look like a big sunflower.

But a bunch of them? No thank you. That's what I want to get away from.
Right now I'm just learning. And figuring out what I will end up needing to get to replace all these stupid things. They are ugly and a pain.

Someone said I'm proficient. Hehehehe! If you call spending half a day, every day for 3 weeks to find one satellite proficient then I guess I might be. I kind of think that most other people could do it in 5 minutes. Especially with that fancy pants meter I bought.

Well, I got a few snipets of TV from White Springs last week so I go close enough to it to sneak a peak. I'm going to find that silly thing today and get a good picture on it if I have to sit out there with an umbrella and a cooler full of lemonade!

Thank you again for all your wonderful help and information, it is starting to sink in.

 

[hd fan]

Melgarga, I am a Cuban in Canada, I am already so happy that I have a Dish not to mention the birdog meter , lol. Who cares if I have no control over the meter! , Our TV did not even have a UHF tuner back in Cuba and it was black and white and I was the remote. Lol. Let the native complain, not me, lol.

Ok , Dee_Ann , Let me assume you have the meter configured with the last list of sats from the birdog website. As you posted before , there was an option for KH Galaxy 27 129. Use that one , that one has the WSTV carrier as it is the only TV Station on that Sat on Ku. Remember that WSTV uses low SR , only 2920, so move the dish slowly as it takes longer for the birdog to lock with low SR signals (below 4000).

It will acctually be easier if you use the option for the Starband Internet Service that also has 3 Transponders there. They use very high SR and stronger signals. It might say something like, KH Starband Galaxy 27 129. It was added recently as New to the birdog website so I dont know if you already have it in your birdog.

Good luck with the heat and the mosquitoes, the signal is all yours this time baby, lol.

 

[osu1991]

I would look at picking up 123w very close to 129w. There are lots of English channels and ThisTv shows lots of movies and such.

Hey a field of sunflowers would look good in the yard instead of a single sunflower.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I would look at picking up 123w very close to 129w. There are lots of English channels and ThisTv shows lots of movies and such.

Hey a field of sunflowers would look good in the yard instead of a single sunflower.

Ooooooooooooo!!!!!! Patty Duke! And Mr. Ed!! YES!! YES!! YES!! YES!!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :::::

This has moved to my todo list for today as well.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Wheeeeee!!!!! I found 123 with big grey!

I can say that something is not quite right just yet though.
The birdog shows "found" but the gauge on it for quality shows zero.
None the less, on the TV it says the signal/quality is 100%

And I *think* I found the "this" channel. It says that in a logo and there are cartoons playing on it now but it shows up as "KFDF" for it's name. Oh and it says e/i in the upper right corner of the picture too.

So, that's something, I guess. It looks like there are a number of channels on it.
Maybe something more than was on the 97 satellite.

I think that the birdog files you get from their website are out of date as they don't seem to work too well except for the pay stuff. I guess that's who uses these things the most and not home owners playing DIY free stuff.


More stuff...

Once I found the 123 satellite with big grey I lined up the direcway dish on it too. It comes in great on that dish now. So big grey is now free to move over to White Springs 129. I hope. I am worried about the trees.

Also, still, the birdog does not acknowledge that the 123 satellite is there even though I'm watching that satellite and the meter is hooked up in the middle.
It does NOT work with direcway stuff, period.

But big grey is not direcway and the birdog works fine on it for finding satellites so that's going to be the one I try to get White Springs with.

I'm starting to see why you guys use all these abreviations and acronyms now, it's easier than typing out the whole thing every time.
I also can not remember the names of all these satellites but the numbers are easier to remember, I assume that if I refer to satellites by number rather than name that people will know what I'm talking about. Right?

 

[osu1991]

Congratulations!

I find it easier to just refer to the obital location such as 97, 123, 129 and so on because the names seem to change frequently or one person will use the old name and someone else will use the new name of a satellite.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Congratulations!

I find it easier to just refer to the obital location such as 97, 123, 129 and so on because the names seem to change frequently or one person will use the old name and someone else will use the new name of a satellite.

Awesome! That will make it so much easier on me. It seems like there are a dozen Galaxy something satellites and plenty others all have similar names. What the heck are they thinking? Why make things so complicated? And why must everything be different from one to another? I don't know why they just don't make it all the same so you can use one dish and one tuner to see whatever you want.

Well, my joy at finding "This" TV was shortlived, they are running westerns all day.

Hopefully tomorrow they will have something nicer than men killing each other.

I'm taking a little break from the heat then I'm going to go back out and find White Springs with big grey.. I am going to find it.
I just keep repeating that to myself...

Thanks all!

 

[zamar23]

Dee_Ann

Now you need to start slowly turning towards a whole sat system planning: optimal component selection, signal amplification & distribution & recording, weather proofing, grounding, switched connections, multifeed with several LNBs on each dish, multiroom setup with several receivers, motorized setup, equipment upgrade passes, etc. Sat systems planning & install & setup may give more $$$($$...$$) than working from home. And you can outsmart any guy on this job if learn for a while, especially in your area where everyone was fulled that FTA is illegal as you say, so install competition is scarce, and most DN/DT installers know next to nothing about FTA stuff. Engineer your own sat system before the "D" day! However, there's a Dish roof mount component to it that you'd need to master. Instead, you can setup a local sat store, being the most competent and popular (like this thread) shop in your area. :up

 

[turbosat]

Be sure to look at your "skew" setting on that round lnbf, you can see what it is set for by looking at the front of the thing, where the 4 little brass looking tiny bolts are-the scale is numbered and theres a tiny little mark at the Zero position too, I think. It can be adjusted by loosening those 4 little bolts and then twisting the "coffee can" round part of the lnbf. If you had it set right for 123, its prob close enough to work on 129 since its not that far away from 123. If you found the Research channel on 123 and This TV too, then you were getting both H and V signals.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I am watching White Springs TV right now! @party:clap@party

The bird dog would not see the 129 satellite at all so I changed out the lnb for a different one then used the birdog to find and fine tune BR Dishnet 129. The meter showed a 100% signal and 98% quality so I bolted everything down tight and changed the lnb back to the original one.

I went inside and Ta-da! There it is. In all it's terrible glory, WSTV!

Oh oh, company is here, I must run, more later..

 

[melgarga]

.............More stuff...

Once I found the 123 satellite with big grey I lined up the direcway dish on it too. It comes in great on that dish now. So big grey is now free to move over to White Springs 129. I hope. I am worried about the trees.

UUUUUMMMMMM HHMMMP.
Can you say DIIISSHHH FAAAAARMMMM.......lol
Way to go Dee, now go drive your company nutz talking sat stuff all evening....lol
Take a well deserved break and have fun.
You are taking position/skew relativity notes arent you????

 

[hd fan]

Congrats!. 97W has way more channels than 123W , around 100 vs 50 I think, so if you only got a few channels on 97 it confirms my theory that the birdog is working fine it is just that it did not have a lock to the carrier it looks for. the same thing just happened with 123W, it looks for the 11720V carrier that barely got a lock to, yet you tuned to a channel on another TP (probably 11800V) that has a stronger signal.

Why the different names? , well , SATS only last a few years , usually 12 (ran out of fuel) so they have to replace it , some they die too soon for technical reasons and if not , imagine if they also change the names for the new SATS. It is better to keep the name and just change the number over the years.

Why is so different from one another? , Well , we are just lucky to have the freedom and equipment to receive those signals , they are only mostly intended for professionals in the broadcasting industry , not us. Depending on several factors some SATS have more TP than others and different kind of services , therefore they have to be different.

We are also lucky that regular users keep databases of thsi signals as there is no official database compiled by the SAT operators. they do not have to to operate their SATS.

 

[turbosat]

Congrats Dee, I knew you could do it. That makes you "smarter than the average bear!"
(remember that cartoon, hehe)
Here's a channel guide for it, bookmark it so you can find it later, the lineup changes a little ,weekly:
White Springs TV - Home Page

 

[Dee_Ann]

Wow!

I'm tired. It was sooooo hot out...

I am excited to have gotten these dishes working!

One of my girlfriends came by just as I was finishing up and she just rolled her eyes and said "You go girl!"..

She wasn't all that impressed I guess. Oh well..

So now I think I have a dozen or so channels to watch. A little variety.

I was bored with RTV, it's almost all guy stuff with one or two exceptions.

I discovered the "This" channel but by the time I found it they were playing westerns, ALL DAY.. Killing. All day.....

I am looking forward to the Patty Duke & Mr. Ed shows in the morning though I'll have to record them for later, I'm not getting up THAT early to watch them.
I think there are a few other shows on "This" that I may like, I haven't looked too far ahead on their website yet.

I also found White Springs and see that they play a lot of scary *old* B movies. Or worse.
Hehehe.. The bad quality adds to the atmosphere. It reminds me of TV when I was a little girl. We didn't get a color TV until the 70's and it was always breaking. Dad had that set apart to work on more than we ever watched it. I didn't get to watch much TV in the 70's.

I guess I'll figure out over time what plays, when and where.

I have to say, this was one of the hardest, most challenging things I've ever done!
And I couldn't have done it without you guy's help.
Thank you very much, every single one of you! You guys are awesome!

I hope I don't have to do this again for a long time!

One thing I would like to do though is learn how to write a custom file for the birdog so that it works with the direcway dishes. Then I can use the meter to very precisely adjust the dishes so they are as good as they possibly can be.

One thing I do know and have know for a long time, rain and satellite doesn't mix well. I understand that the bigger a dish is, the better it helps with rain and also the better it's lined up as well. Lining them up is HARD!

There are a few things I don't understand like why some of them show you what's playing now and next and some of them don't say anything at all, you have to guess what's on.

And some of them, the sound is messed up, like retrojams, the sound comes out the theater speakers but no sound plays in the rest of the house on the other TV's.
White Springs is also that way, it comes out of only ONE speaker in the living room, there are 6 of them, but no sound in the rest of the house. Other channels work fine, come out everywhere in the house.

And some channels, people talking comes out from behind me instead of in front like it should. That's sort of disturbing, to hear voices from behind, especially when I'm here alone.

I did not put all this stuff together, my ex did. I have no real idea what all he did. It was his little project that I pretty much overlooked. He had it set up so I could watch Fashion TV and that's all I really cared about. And I rarely watched it at that.

That reminds me, Fashion TV seems to be replaced now with an HD channel. I tuned it in and I could hear everything crystal clear but there was no picture at all.
Is that because of the scrambling?

Oh, and I left one of those little dishnet dishes up out there, I played with it at first to try and learn how to find satellites with the birdog. Can I use it for anything? Or does it only work on pay stuff? I was able to find a lot of satellites with it using the birdog but they all said Dishnet or Directv on the meter. I guess both of those are pay to watch.

Wow.. What an experience.... I'm so tired and sunburned.. I promise you one thing, I am NOT going outside tomorrow and messing with that stuff. I'm going to sleep in tomorrow and maybe watch some fun oldies in the morning and enjoy coffee in bed with my dogs at my feet. I think I earned myself a day of relaxation for all my hard work. Whew!

Once again, thank you all so very much! :
Luv you guys, nite nite!

 

[zamar23]

Small dish can deliver NASA, Ion, and local channels with such shows as "Law and Order" and similar in clear on 119W. Ion has movies regularly. Clin Eastwood was the hero all rainy day this Saturday. If you list all sats you catch so far, we can suggest what else interesting you can catch from space - just mention all dishes you have already mounted, and all working LNB models you have in stock.

Do you understand, how all your dishes are connected to a single PC, so you're able to switch btw them? Learn this, if you want to switch to a motorized dish later or add more LNBs. If you run out of mounted dishes, but want to catch more sats, you can install several LNBs on each dish in a standard or adjustable bracket depending on dish type. It may be your next challenge: learn how to position and aim an LNB (not the dish) to catch a sat. If you run out of working gear, look through stock of companies listed on top of this forum pages.

Most HD Channels like Fashion are duplicated in SD, but both types are now scrambled in Nagra3 on DN sats. Understanding encryption is always helpful to avoid doing anything illegal.

To handle sound issues, you need to learn more about Dolby Digital Surround Sound (AC3) and PCM Digital & Analog Mono / Stereo sound support in Sat Receivers and Home Theater AV Receivers, and a sat channel sound track selection. Look through sound threads on this forum, and Listening Modes info in your AV Receiver Manual. How the sound output is controlled in your setup - by an AV Receiver directly or via your PC Sound Card (what kind of cables are coming out of the PC)?

How about a new Sat Shop opening project in prospective?

 

[Tron]

Congratulations, Dee! Job well done ...

I'm sure the problem with the DirecWay dish is that the Birdog is not able to control it for some reason or other. Some of those LNBs were only single polarity, this might have something to do with it. Really not a problem, though, as you can always just bolt on a different LNB ...

Wait until you see some of the interesting feeds that come and go on the satellites!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Small dish can deliver NASA, Ion, and local channels with such shows as "Law and Order" and similar in clear on 119W. Ion has movies regularly. Clin Eastwood was the hero all rainy day this Saturday. If you list all sats you catch so far, we can suggest what else interesting you can catch from space - just mention all dishes you have already mounted, and all working LNB models you have in stock.

Do you understand, how all your dishes are connected to a single PC, so you're able to switch btw them? Learn this, if you want to switch to a motorized dish later or add more LNBs. If you run out of mounted dishes, but want to catch more sats, you can install several LNBs on each dish in a standard or adjustable bracket depending on dish type. It may be your next challenge: learn how to position and aim an LNB (not the dish) to catch a sat. If you run out of working gear, look through stock of companies listed on top of this forum pages.

Most HD Channels like Fashion are duplicated in SD, but both types are now scrambled in Nagra3 on DN sats. Understanding encryption is always helpful to avoid doing anything illegal.

To handle sound issues, you need to learn more about Dolby Digital Surround Sound (AC3) and PCM Digital & Analog Mono / Stereo sound support in Sat Receivers and Home Theater AV Receivers, and a sat channel sound track selection. Look through sound threads on this forum, and Listening Modes info in your AV Receiver Manual. How the sound output is controlled in your setup - by an AV Receiver directly or via your PC Sound Card (what kind of cables are coming out from the PC)?

How about a new Sat Shop opening project in prospective?

Hmm, lets see. There is a little box with a bunch of connectors that all the dishes connect to then a wire runs from there into the house.
It says Disqec on it, I think. I can't begin to imagine how to pronounce it and probably spelled it wrong. From what my neighbor explained, it changes the dishes around and connects them to the pc when the pc tells it to, like when I change channels. Or something like that. I understand basically that it changes the dish connections but I don't know how. Yet.

On the Dishnet stuff, you mean like THE NASA? They have a tv channel? What in the world for? They have free stuff on the pay satellites? Oh, wait, is it like the 129 one where it shows two satellites at the same place?

Scrambled stuff. Obviosuly that is pay tv. I wouldn't think they would scramble free stuff. If they do then I'll skip it. I don't think anything here will descramble it.
I do have a few of those old tuners that say Dish and Directv and a few others. But I'm sure those are for pay tv only. The free stuff is hard enough, I'll leave the other stuff well enough alone..

Sound. Oh boy. That's a can of worms. I'll see if I can figure out what is connected to the pc. I have never messed with that one, it was his little project. I just watched tv on it sometimes. He built it and kept it working. I'll get a flashlight and see if I can figure out what's connected to it and how. All I know is there is a silver tuner box that I have to turn on to listen in the living room, it says "RCA Home Theatre Receiver". It also has a radio built in that I listen to a lot. To watch tv I have to press the buttons on it until the display says SAT/OPT PL II 5CH and a light on it says SAT-CAB.

There are 5 speakers on the walls and one on the floor, that one is the boom-boom speaker.

Also I can watch from anywhere else in the house. How that's done, I do not know.
He even had it so I could watch tv on my laptop out on the patio. I only did that once because I couldn't work and watch TV at the same time. Sort of dumb.
If I want to work and watch TV it was easier to go inside and turn the tv on.
He was mad that I was unimpressed with that. I guess it was his crowning achievement. Whatever..

Let's see, what else... I still have a few of those big grey dishes, one is oblong like what's out there now and there's a big round one about chest high I think. It's pretty big. But all the parts are missing, as far as I know.

I still hope to get rid of all these things and just put one little dish on a motor in their place and paint it up pretty. I just realized that I can't paint these wide dishes to look like flowers. They need to be round for that.. Sigh.....

One day if it ever cools down a little I need to go through all this junk and make a list of everything so I can sell it or maybe trade it.

Wow.. I'm so sore and tired from all that stuff the past few days. And worn out from the heat. I'm totally staying inside today and doing, nothing...

Yes, a lifting a coffee cup is the heaviest work I plan to do today.

Oh, I messed up scheduling the stupid PC to record Patty Duke & Mr. Ed this morning, I put the wrong dates in the stupid thing. I need to fix that today and hopefully tomorrow I'll have some neat old shows to watch. Gosh, I haven't seen Patty Duke in years.........

TTFN guys!

 

[Anole]

no doubt:

I had no doubt, with all that drive and determination [:rant:], you'd have success. -
Congratulations. - :up

Now ya see why we enjoy the hobby. It can be very rewarding when we whip a new problem.
Some enjoy the challenges even more than the watching.

Finding a special part on sale can be exciting, too.
Of course in your case, the ex has already accumulated many fine pieces.
You are exceptionally lucky to have all that great material on hand to choose from.

 

[zamar23]

Do you have any standard or adjustable Multi-LNB brackets like these? They'd help to add more sats without extra dishes, if you still "carry" extra LNB supply. What sats did you manage to catch so far? We can suggest more...

Can you post a pic of your switch outside the house showing its model? You may need another one to add extra sats. Do you have any distro boxes in the basement where cable is coming in, or linked to your PC TV/Video Out ports?

It seems your sound is controlled by RCA AV Receiver, and not by a sound card. Look through its Manual for Listening Modes choice and switching, and Mono signal assignment btw speakers. Learn to select a channel audio track with your PC Card.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=1866766

Yes, commercial broadcasters carry some clear channels for legal and/or marketing policy reasons. Look at another dish farm below - no sunflowers so far. After all you went through, hope you better understand why it was so important to recognize your ex's effort...

 

[HIFI]

boom-boom speakerWow you really are a girl!