I started playing with my new 5' mesh last night

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drhydro said:
If you would like i can loan you a videocipher module so that you can see if you are getting enough signal to pick up the sub channels, drop me a pm if interested.

He should be able to, when I was experimenting with a P* dish I was getting enough signal on some satellites to cause my VC module to kick.


Incidentally, Shawn if I read your post correctly about the ASC421 I think you found the same thing I stumbled across last weekend. The lnbf isn't backwards, but some of the satellites use reverse polarity. In other words, on normal polarity sats. odd numbered transponders are vertical and even are horizontal, but on reverse polarity sats. odd are horizontal and even are vertical.
 
Iceberg said:
please refrain from posting feeds in public areas (see the sticky in the FTA area for more info) :)

I didn't post any. The videocipher module kicks in any time your receiver is tuned to a videocipher encrypted channel. It normally just comes up with a message saying you're not subscribed to the channel and gives a code that you can use to call your programming provider with to get access.
 
iammike said:
He should be able to, when I was experimenting with a P* dish I was getting enough signal on some satellites to cause my VC module to kick.


Incidentally, Shawn if I read your post correctly about the ASC421 I think you found the same thing I stumbled across last weekend. The lnbf isn't backwards, but some of the satellites use reverse polarity. In other words, on normal polarity sats. odd numbered transponders are vertical and even are horizontal, but on reverse polarity sats. odd are horizontal and even are vertical.
That may be the case but I'll know more when I get further into it.

I was going by the Lyngsat charts. I had the dish pointed G10Rish and was changing sats in the antenna setup menu when I noticed a flicker of quality when I passed Anik F2. I had already goofed the transponder list for G10R so I selected it and did a smart-scan.

I saw the transponders lining up and by looking at what was coming back I ass-u-me'd I was on G1R. Then BBC world popped up. This threw me for a loop. I started flipping through lyngsat and realized the channels I was watching were on G13. I changed the sat to G13 and had no quality at all on the transponder I was just watching. That's when I realized that the polarity was backwards. I clocked the ASC 90° and sure enough, the signal quality came up.

On the Transponder with BBC World I was seeing 45 or so on the Pansat. It spiked up in the 50s and I was playing with it, so I know there is room for improvement.
 
I think Iceberg was talking about Pro-96's post. FWIW, the channels on that transponder are on Lyngsat (Toon Disney / SoapNet) but are apparently now encrypted :(.

Shawn
 
Shawn,

I thought it was a typo the first time, but you mentioned clocking your ASC 90 degrees. I guess I'm probably showing my ignorance, but what does that mean?

Mike
 
iammike said:
Shawn,

I thought it was a typo the first time, but you mentioned clocking your ASC 90 degrees. I guess I'm probably showing my ignorance, but what does that mean?

Mike
I took the 0° mark which was straight up and down (12 o'clock position) and it's now pointed at the 9 o'clock position. I effectively skewed the whole LNB 90° counter-clockwise in the scaler ring.

Shawn
 
Shawn95GT said:
I took the 0° mark which was straight up and down (12 o'clock position) and it's now pointed at the 9 o'clock position. I effectively skewed the whole LNB 90° counter-clockwise in the scaler ring.

Shawn

Ah, that makes sense. I thought you were referring to some highly technical lnbf concept that I'd completely missed. :) I'm putting my dish on the pole this weekend, so I'm reading all of these posts with much interest today.
 
Now I'm working on dialing in the arc. I found some demo software that pretty much re-affirmed my guesses as to the proper elevation / declination settings.

I wasn't having and luck on the West end of the arc so I tried the East and I was rewarded with a slew of stuff on PAS9. I also noticed that I had a whole lot of East left and was able to dial in Intelsat 805. I have more room to go East still! I don't think I'll hit AMC 12 anytime soon but the potential is there.

I started messing with the mount and noticed that lifting the dish on AMC3 GREATLY improved the signal. I moved the actuator West and the mount Easy and pretty much doubled my signal. I re-tuned Pas9 & I805 and saw some great improvements there too.

I'm working my way back West now.

This is going to be tough choosing 'only' 20 or so sats to view. So far PAS9 is a keeper. I saw at LEAST half a dozen placeholders for feeds.

This is fun stuff :)
 
I'm tracking 45w through 135w so far. The Cascade belt (trees) is starting to kick in west of 135. Luckily there isn't much over there but that won't stop me from trimming the trees. I was able to get over to 148w with the Ku dish on this same pole but the SG2100 put it far enough away from the pole to help see around the trees. That and my Ficas growing like gangbusters right now isn't helping matters!

I got 10%-12% on AMC7 (137w). I bet I can shoot for that Ancorage mux after I trim my trees :dev

It's kind of scarey. I've saved just the c-band stuff in 1.2 and I've only got like 8 slots left for the Ku only sats...

Pick and choose indeed!

Shawn
 
Pics!

It's far from done as I still need to put the landscaping back together and run the satellite ribbon cable etc.

The dish is aimed at Sol 2 in the pics.

Notice the new and improved more neighbor friendly pole height.
 
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Shawn95GT said:
On the Transponder with BBC World I was seeing 45 or so on the Pansat. It spiked up in the 50s and I was playing with it, so I know there is room for improvement.
Just as a point of reference Shawn, on my 10'er i am pegging the meter on my pansat 2700 with that TP. Hopefully playing with your setup will get you better sq numbers.
 
drhydro said:
Just as a point of reference Shawn, on my 10'er i am pegging the meter on my pansat 2700 with that TP. Hopefully playing with your setup will get you better sq numbers.
That was also with the ASC421 LNB.

I think I'm feeling the effects of the LO Stability. Until I blind scanned it didn't look like I was going to see some sats at all (like G10R). I was seeing that same 10% or so flicker on the Outdoor Channel's transponder. Once scanned in I'm seeing 50+.

I'm hoping that the 8115 helps the SQ a bit :). It's 15k vs the 13k of the ASC but on the Ku side I've read of MUCH improved results with the high stability LNBs. My signal meter is all over the place right now which I guess is normal on a Pansat. I've found that I need to switch between several transponders AFTER blind scanning to optimize the signal. I think the C/Ku feedhorn will help here too as I can then get it set dead on on the Ku side.

It's wierd - the far low East sats are the ones pegging the meter for me. I'd have guessed those would be the worst.
 
Many birds to the east do not have much traffic in the area, on the west part of the arc, there is far to many birds, and they are nearly all spaced out by 2 deg, so this will cause problems with a undersized reflector on C-band.
 
lol the far east sats are the ones i cant see now due to heavy foliage, next time i install a BUD i am going to do it in an area with no trees.......
 
I hope this picture helps? Note where and how the LNB and feedhorn are attached.

jackpeas said:
Hello I am jackpeas In Chciago,ILL.I got a 5' ft dish and need your help with the centering of the scalar ring.Its has 3 leggs.I am using a c/ku feedhorn on it.Focal point is 23.10 and f/d is 0.39.Its on a base.I amtring to find 6 oclock,12 oclock,9,3 oclock. Help with any tips hints.You can YIM me,msn me,skype me jackpeas.Thank you Ken 2400 My southmost sat is amc3 or k3@87deg.
 

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The Norsat 8115 arrived today :) . I'm going to put the C/Ku feedhorn together with the Norsats and wait until I get the ribbon cable etc installed to put it on the dish. This 8115 is huge!
 
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