LNBF & Dish Size

[ShaneLinder]

Well the new tech got my motor working now but I can't get a lot of channels on Galaxy 25 or a few other satellites. The tech told me the problem is my dual output LNBF has a noise frequency of .5dB and should be .3dB for a 36" dish. The .5dB is for a larger dish.

He commented that Galaxy 25 has a weak signal here in south Texas and it comes in much better with a 39" dish. In fact, he says with a 39" dish a person doesn't need a motor to pick up the various satellites. Are 39" dishes a lot more expensive? He said the old Prime Star dishes work well too.

So anyway, he is ordering me a new dual output LNBF and I should be in business next week. I do get all the AMC4 channels I am aware of except KUIL FOX. The scan doesn't even pick it up. The scan picked up SafeTV but not Cornerstone. But again, I have LNBF issues.

 

[jayelem]

Hi Shane , I think we have a couple members here from the Rio Grande Valley who might be able to give you testimonial on the signal quality from Galaxy 25 but from what I could see looking at a Footprint Map on Lyngsat you are borderline 47-48 db and a 36 inch dish is more than sufficient.

I'm sure most signals will come in better with a bigger dish but the notion that a 39 inch Primestar would replace a motor just isn't true.

A better LNB will definitely improve your signal quality and you've said that you have ordered one thru your tech friend , my opinion is that you shouldn't sell yourself short on the technical aspect of FTA and might get some fulfillment from tweaking your own dish or changing an LNB.

BTW I'd love to be in your part of Texas any winter , 2 yrs ago I took my family to Nuevo Progreso in the month of February and I really enjoyed the weather.

 

[Mr Tony]

Shane
The tech is full of.....well to be polite...boo honkey

lets break down the issues

Well the new tech got my motor working now but I can't get a lot of channels on Galaxy 25 or a few other satellites.

right there is problem 1. You should get almost all the channels up there with a motor. Unless the channel is very weak you should be fine. The only sat I have issues with is Satmex5 and that is due to a bad footprint in MN

The tech told me the problem is my dual output LNBF has a noise frequency of .5dB and should be .3dB for a 36" dish. The .5dB is for a larger dish.

WRONG! I've used .3, .4, .5, even a .8...right now I use a Sadoun .4 dual on my 30" dish and can get all the G25 stuff just fine near the "other" border (MN) I use ot use a DMSI .5 dual for almost a year with no issues

He commented that Galaxy 25 has a weak signal here in south Texas and it comes in much better with a 39" dish. In fact, he says with a 39" dish a person doesn't need a motor to pick up the various satellites. Are 39" dishes a lot more expensive? He said the old Prime Star dishes work well too.

he's wrong again. Checking Lyngsat (pic at bottom) both of us have the same levels (48) so the dish should work fine. Again, I'm using a smaller dish than you.

So anyway, he is ordering me a new dual output LNBF and I should be in business next week.

that won't help. He didnt aim the motor right.

I do get all the AMC4 channels I am aware of except KUIL FOX.

that should come in just fine. Its lower than the others but works just fine.

The scan doesn't even pick it up. The scan picked up SafeTV but not Cornerstone. But again, I have LNBF issues.

no you don't Shane. I hate to say this but the tech doesn't know what he's doing. Has he aimed a motorized system before? I forget exactly where in S Texas you are but 97 should almost be your true south satellite.

the stuff on AMC4 (3ABN, Hope, LLBN) are thundersticks (very strong signals). I can pick them up with a 20" dish carefully tuned. What kinds of signal quality are you getting on those channels?

 

[Mr Tony]

looks like jayelem beat me to it

 

[qwert1515]

Also not all LNB specs can be compared, one companies measurement of .3 db might be worse than another measurement of .5 db.

Here is an interesting page: About LNBs

 

[jayelem]

my opinion is that you shouldn't sell yourself short on the technical aspect of FTA and might get some fulfillment from tweaking your own dish or changing an LNB.
.

The misinformed tech is the very reason I suggested Shane get more involved , and yes 97.0 west is the true south south sat for Progreso ,TX.

Shane when your ready let us know a little bit more about your equipment so we can steer you in the right direction , and if you like take some pictures of your setup and surroundings ........... I love Satellite dish pics.

 

[gabshere]

man when i first set up my motor it took days and i still didn't get it right ( couldn't get USALS to work at al but could get 1.2 to work on all the sats except extreme ends. last week i set up anothe motor and it took 5 minutes i know it works from 72 - 123 dead on )

thats with a primestar old type lnbf .08 it gets H & V seperate

now to give your system a test . if he has set it up close try switching the motor control from USALS to 1.2 and bump it slightly east or west and see if the signal improves. my bet is it will.

good luck

 

[ShaneLinder]

He has set up motors on Ku dishes before in this area. He did have a hard time getting the receiver to control the motor. The previous tech I had here gave up at that point. This guy did eventually get the motor working. He spent about four hours here today. He is coming back tomorrow to install a receiver I am getting for my den. (I'll have one in the living room, one in the kids' room and one in the den. When GloryStar's new DVR comes out I will put that in the den and put the slave receiver in the kids room.)

OK. Signals
Hope Level 79% Quality 72%
3ABN level 78% Quality 72%
Supreme Master TV Level 77% Quality 39%
CCTV 9 Level 82% Quality 48%

Is it possible that the dish isn't right on the arc? The LNBF that came with the dish is N.F. .4dB When I showed him that he said that would be better than what I have on it now but it is only a single LNBF so it wouldn't allow for a slave receiver.

I'll take pictures tomorrow.

 

[Mr Tony]

He has set up motors on Ku dishes before in this area.

that worries me then. Since your true south is G25, all he would have ot do is set that up and the rest should fall into place

OK. Signals
Hope Level 79% Quality 72%
3ABN level 78% Quality 72%
Supreme Master TV Level 77% Quality 39%
CCTV 9 Level 82% Quality 48%

Those are low...in comparison (checking on the Pansat 9200 with 30" dish...my true south is G26 at 93W) the qualities on mine
Hope...95
3ABN..99
Supreme...74
CCTV...76

Is it possible that the dish isn't right on the arc?

bingo Its off by a little bit

I'll take pictures tomorrow.

always like pictures

It sounds like you're close but the arc isnt right. The satellites within 6 degrees of your true south (so from 103 over to 91) should all read pretty good numbers (at least 75 quality or so)

I would have him put the motor back to zero and lock in 97W the best he can. Use the transponder 12177 (this has the TBN channels on it and is very strong) to lock it in. Then switch to 11966 which has Russia Today and is weaker to fine tune it. The rest should fall into place from there

edit: might have found the issue...when I put in the info jayelem gave (city & state) I get this
Longitude: 98.0°W

so the true south is off by a degree. So the motor should move a degree first before aiming the dish. That's why its off..

 

[gabshere]

looking up channels
of course its hard for me to compare # when i don't have the same receiver
but i did try to scan cornerstone over on ku @ 97 and failed to pick it up

EDIT : i see Ice answered before my reply but i would agree it slightly off
the satellites close might not show it ( or be off a lot but if you move to g10 @123 you probably can't pick up transponders at all with USALS)
he can probably loosen up the motor mounting bolts slightly and move the whole motor east 1 degree and be bang on.

 

[Mr Tony]

weird...

cornerstone and safe TV are on the same transponder (12115)

 

[digiblur]

I knew something sounded funny about that tech from the get go... hours to install...two trips? and he is a professional?

I'm calling shenanigans on his words. You shouldn't lose channels by installing a motor. You should gain. Make sure the ENTIRE ARC works before you pay him a dime.

 

[gabshere]

i deleted the transponder and rescanned and picked Cornerstone up

my coolsat scanned it in originally as 12113 V and i manually entered it as 12115

EDIT:
Shane before you make adjustments to the motor verify that the long & Lat cooridanites are correct and in the receiver correct
to get the closest it would be nice to get a GPS reading.

 

[ShaneLinder]

Well, I am giving this guy a chance because he knows more than me and the only other guy I could get to come out gave up on it. As a commercial building contractor I have learned I have to work with the workforce I have, not the one I want to have. He is ordering the 0.3dB LNBF and we will see how it works with that. It isn't much of a cost anyway and I am learning from all this. I may one day invest in a bird-dog and start doing installations as a type of voluntary, missionary work.

I do appreciate all the advice you guys give. This place is great. It is like my compass in the world of FTA.

 

[gabshere]

may one day invest in a bird-dog and start doing installations as a type of voluntary, missionary work.

I have found that these devices are just a mini version of a receiver they are just loaded with a unique transponder for each satellite and bundled into a small package. small enough to be portable for an installer. so a receiver is just as good its just not as compact

good luck with the install , i understand what you mean by working with what resources you have available. i think the install is close so maybe he will give it a tweak today and be on target.

 

[ShaneLinder]

I had a problem with my laptop so I didn't get those pictures downloaded. I'll try that later tonight. I switched my dual LNBF with the single LNBF that came with the dish originally. It is 0.4dB. That made a big difference. I have all the Christian channels on Galaxy25 except Cornerstone. I guess I need to input that manually but don't know how. My kids are stuck to the TV now watching SOAC (Smile of a Child). That is coming in with 49% Quality and freezes for a second every few minutes (kids don't seem to mind).

 

[Mr Tony]

If you're using the Fortec 49% is barely above the threshold (40 is threshold) before the pixeling starts

I just got done aiming my 36" dish at G25 and on that transponder I get 65 or so...and on my Pansat 1500 30 is the threshold

so the dish is close..but could be tweaked

 

[rv1pop]

Shane, I am not following all you are saying, I am not motorized -- well not a dish motor. But I got all GS* on G25 and AMC4 in the parking lot of WalMart is CC, TX with the 39" dish duct taped to the bumper of my motorhome. Took 40 minutes. The problem I had was figuring South.... Those roads run at some strange angles.
POP

 

[ShaneLinder]

I think it is easier to get the signal with a 39" dish. Corpus Christi is 150 miles north of where I am. I am 10 miles north of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico or "Las Flores" as the locals call it.

 

[ShaneLinder]

Well I got my new dual output .3 dB LNBF today. Here is the difference.

.5 dB
Hope Level 79% Quality 72%
3ABN level 78% Quality 72%
Supreme Master TV Level 77% Quality 39%
CCTV 9 Level 82% Quality 48%


.3 dB
Hope Level 80% Quality 72%
3ABN Level 79% Quality 74%
Supreme Master TV Level 82% Quality 61%
CCTV 9 Level 83% Quality 62%