Newbie needs help....

[oleleho]

White coax cable....RG 56 ?
I use a .2db LNBF at least that it was advertised for, but thinking that it is a .4db or worse. Some companies may not be very truthful about specs. Besides I played with an 500 dish a while back using the same LNBF and still was able to get a few channels on 97w.

Are you sure that the coax you are using is good? To make sure take the coax off on both ends and look at the ends very careful...look for a bended center core, frayed strains of your shield that could touch the connector and /or center core etc etc.
Best would be to replace it with an known good coax.

Set the dish on a table to raise it enough to get a view over the railing to see if that helps any.
How far is the building away across the street ( your aiming direction ) and how tall is that building.

Yes the coax cables were good as I used other ones too just to make sure.
There are two condo buildings, the closest one and the one farther away. The two dishes of my neighbours are actually somewhat blocked by the same railing and buildings. But maybe because they are paid satellite with high frequencies they don't really matter.

Anyway, I'll try to raise the dish by putting it on the table or something.

 

[oleleho]

is the pole the dish is mounted on level(pinted straight up)? it looks like it's tilted forward a bit which would render your elevation settings inaccurate . Just eyeballing it, it looks like your dish is pointed at the horizon which is way too low for 97w. where are those other dishes on the balcony pointed at? I'm assuming dish network and expresssvu? If so then 97w would point at halfway between the two azimuth-wise

I'll check again by eyeballing it.
Yes one dish is the bell expresssvu, the other one I'm not sure what, probably ariza. But the latter is facing the same direction, more or less. The bell faces slightly different angle. But if I point my dish at halfway between the two the signal finder stops squealing.

 

[catamount]

Catamount

Aha this is what I wanted to ask you guys. Yes I bought that $20 dish with modified arm. When I asked what does it mean she told me and I saw it myself that it was to short. So rather than returning it all the way to Taiwan they just extended it by themselves.

But the LNB was bought separately and it's the linear one. However, do you think there is still unforeseen effect because of that?[/QUOTE]


Whether or not it is linear or circular doesn't matter as far as focal distance. The lnb has to be a certain distance away. On the seesat site, it says your dish is offset 24.62 degrees. This seems right. Other specs on their site seem wrong, in my view. If they sold these with a bracket on the end, you should have put the linear lnb in the bracket, if possible.

Catamount

 

[oleleho]

Catamount

Aha this is what I wanted to ask you guys. Yes I bought that $20 dish with modified arm. When I asked what does it mean she told me and I saw it myself that it was to short. So rather than returning it all the way to Taiwan they just extended it by themselves.

But the LNB was bought separately and it's the linear one. However, do you think there is still unforeseen effect because of that?

Whether or not it is linear or circular doesn't matter as far as focal distance. The lnb has to be a certain distance away. On the seesat site, it says your dish is offset 24.62 degrees. This seems right. Other specs on their site seem wrong, in my view. If they sold these with a bracket on the end, you should have put the linear lnb in the bracket, if possible.

Catamount[/QUOTE]

OK, this is the specs you saw:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Antenna Size: 36"/90 cm[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Reflector Optics: Offset[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Offset Angle: 24.62[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Aperture Angle: >75%[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Horizontal Axis: 85cm[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Vertical Axis: 95cm[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GAIN@11.8 GHz Ku-Band: 39.4 dB[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Focal Length: 510 mm[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]F/D Ratio: 0.6[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Material - Steel[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Colour - Grey[/FONT]

Which specs seem to be wrong and how would I correct it.

I think I'll first measure the focal length to know whether or not it's 510 mm. The rest, I'll await more input.

 

[catamount]

I was only concerned about the focal length of 510 mm. I thought that my 30 inch dish was more, but perhaps I was mistaken. Yes, check the focal length. I haven't had a dish up for three months, but yesterday I put up my 1 meter and found 91, then 97. If interested, I can post the TP's I use for locating those sats. Since I'm in the maritimes, the quality levels may be similar to your's in Richmond Hill.

Catamount

 

[FaT Air]

Focal point on an offset dish

Measure the focal length from the bottom lip of the dish to the LNBF face. May measure slightly 'short' as the focal point is within the feed throat

 

[oleleho]

I was only concerned about the focal length of 510 mm. I thought that my 30 inch dish was more, but perhaps I was mistaken. Yes, check the focal length. I haven't had a dish up for three months, but yesterday I put up my 1 meter and found 91, then 97. If interested, I can post the TP's I use for locating those sats. Since I'm in the maritimes, the quality levels may be similar to your's in Richmond Hill.

Catamount

Sure, I certainly don't mind. But the TPs you got are for C band? (As your dish is 1 mt).

 

[catamount]

Once I put my dish up, I took out the Cband lnb and put in a starchoice bandstacked lnb for ku.

For 97 west sat, I use 12053 V 22000 to aim. Pretty easy for me to get here and gives good quality on other TP's.

On 91 west sat, I used 12010 V 11575. This one was really strong. I had quality of 30 showing when I hooked cable to receiver. Peaked it to 89/90 quality, which is really high for a Viewsat.

Good Luck, Catamount

 

[northgeorgia]

{oops! I didn't mean to press "dislike" on a previous post! Think my mouse button slipped}

Keep us updated, oleleho!

 

[oleleho]

{oops! I didn't mean to press "dislike" on a previous post! Think my mouse button slipped}

Keep us updated, oleleho!

I will, my friend. Hopefully this Saturday will make my day

 

[Conky]

you could always try putting a circular lnb in your dish and try to aim it at 91w nimiq. it's easier to hit and once you find it you could get a better idea as to how accurate your dish's elevation scale is and adjust your focal point. (of course you'd have to change the Viewsat to Satellite Nimiq1, LNB freq 11250,TP Freq 12559 ) Once you peaked nimiq1 you could swap out the lnb,put the receiver back to linear settings and try blind scanning Galaxy 17. Then to get Galaxy 19 you'd move your dish 8 degrees west and 2 degrees lower

Once you do find any satellite mark your azimuth and elevation with a marker so you have a reference point

 

[SatelliteAV]

The dish is a Azure Shine build and is a similar base model as the the GEOSATpro 90cm build http://www.satelliteav.com/p/shop/?ws_pid=606&ws_cat=470.

If the dish is mounted on a plumb and level mast, the elevation scales are usually quite accurate. The modification by the reseller is bizarre and if not done correctly will mess with the aiming as the focal point of the dish will not be in the correct sweet spot.

The face of the dish will be tilted back slightly. Since the offset angle of the dish is 24.62 degrees, the reflector will only be tilted back 14 degrees to be aimed at a satellite located at 38 degrees.

 

[oleleho]

The dish is a Azure Shine build and is a similar base model as the the GEOSATpro 90cm build http://www.satelliteav.com/p/shop/?ws_pid=606&ws_cat=470.

If the dish is mounted on a plumb and level mast, the elevation scales are usually quite accurate. The modification by the reseller is bizarre and if not done correctly will mess with the aiming as the focal point of the dish will not be in the correct sweet spot.

The face of the dish will be tilted back slightly. Since the offset angle of the dish is 24.62 degrees, the reflector will only be tilted back 14 degrees to be aimed at a satellite located at 38 degrees.

No wonder it was sold cheap.

 

[johann12]

No wonder it was sold cheap.

No wonder that you where not able to get a signal. I went to one of the sites and it is still selling $20 bucks in canada.
You made me pull my hair out, but it is worth it. I started out knowing nothing about FTA, but I sure was able to get a signal.
I went back to do some more reading, just in case I missed something.
It sure is good to be on this forum with members like this.

That's why it pays to shop with an reputable dealer.

They will stand behind their products.
They will support their products.
And you are able to ship it back cheaper if they have to replace a product and if they are around here and not somewhere across the oacean.
Also it keeps you from getting insane.

Before buying anything ask members here what they think about it.

 

[oleleho]

No wonder that you where not able to get a signal. I went to one of the sites and it is still selling $20 bucks in canada.
You made me pull my hair out, but it is worth it. I started out knowing nothing about FTA, but I sure was able to get a signal.
I went back to do some more reading, just in case I missed something.
It sure is good to be on this forum with members like this.


That's why it pays to shop with an reputable dealer.

They will stand behind their products.
They will support their products.
And you are able to ship it back cheaper if they have to replace a product and if they are around here and not somewhere across the oacean.
Also it keeps you from getting insane.

Before buying anything ask members here what they think about it.

I got the signal, it's always between 80 and 85%. But the Q keeps zero regardless the signal strength.
OK let me summarize what I did from early morning, and still with no luck>
- I raised the dish position by putting it on the table (see photos), so no railing or other dishes blockage issue)
- I fixed the post so it's firmly "rooted" to the ground and was fully vertical
- I measured the focal length, and it was 510 mm from the LNB holder to it's vertical arm
- I played around with the LNB position, pushing and pulling towards the dish centre point and by rotating its skew position.
- Also for my curiosity I tilted the dish to its max and min vertical angles and max left and right angles.

It turned out that the position I got now was the same as before when the dish was not put on the table, i.e. the position where my satellite finder sounded its highest noise.

Interestingly, as you can see in the photos, this position was exactly facing the close by long term care centre building and high rise condo. When I move the dish away by tilting up more or moving to the left more, I got no signal.

I'll keep trying to read more so maybe I can eventually find what I'm looking for.

 

[cyberham]

I will tell you only one point since you have so many helpers here already. Signal intensity of 85% does not mean you are receiving any signal. If you have 0% signal quality, then you are receiving ZERO signal. This was confusing to me when I started. I think the people who make receivers (Brian?) should change this since every new person gets confused by this.

 

[oleleho]

 

[oleleho]

I will tell you only one point since you have so many helpers here already. Signal strength of 85% does not mean you are receiving any signal. If you have 0% signal quality, then you are receiving ZERO signal. This was confusing to me when I started. I think the people who make receivers (Brian?) should change this since every new person gets confused by this.

OK thanks. So what does that S 85% mean then?

 

[cyberham]

All the signal intensity reading indicates is that power is being sent from your receiver and reaching your LNB. It is affected very little by the signal being received. It does vary slightly as you tune across a signal, but basically you need to watch the quality reading to know how much signal you are receiving. At this point, in this thread, I don't think you have ever received a signal since I believe your signal quality has always been 0~5%.

 

[northgeorgia]

I wonder if the LNB is at the right point yet. I still haven't been able to get an old World Direct dish to work -- discovered some time later that someone had bent the lnb holding arm completely up to toss it in the trash, and couldn't ever find the correct angle. Do you think your arm is at the correct position? Just tossing out ideas...