Newbie Troubles

[Mr Tony]

1) How does 185.5 turn into 82? Is this something useful for me to pay attention to or is this just confusing me?

as noted above, 82 is the satellite that is at the same longitude as you...so on a compass you would point dead south. Here in Minnesota, I am at 93.5W so G26 (formerly IA6 & T6) is my true south. Someone on the west coast would probably use G10/G18 at 123W...the farther west you go, the different satellite would be the true south

2) If it really is 82, where on those lists that I sent does it say that this is a Circular one?

circular are the DBS slots that Dish and Bell ExpressVu use. They are at 61.5, 82, 91, 110, 119, 129, 148

3) If it is a circular one, does that mean I have to use the "C" port on my LNB?

correct

 

[delta_charlie]

There is a number on the dish mount bracket that doesn't say what it is and there is an elevaation settting on the motor mount. Do I just need to set the motor mount elevation setting correctly and not other one? What does the other mount need to be set to?

Hi Themango, how did you do yesterday?

I have not set up my motor yet mostly because I discovered the existing mast I had was not stiff enough to hold vertical with the weight of the motor and dish.

From the reading I did before I gave up on my mast I believe you should set the elevation on the motor first. Check the other side of the motor bracket and see if you have the latitude scale too. If so try setting it to your latitude. Provided your mast is perfect vertical that should do the motor elevation. Next make sure the motor is at zero. Nimiq2 is just a tick right of due south for you so if you have a circler LNB you could use it to peak the dish. If the motor was set to zero and you used the receiver to move it to Nimiq2 the dish should move just a tick to the right (west). At this point you should be good to peak on Nimiq2. I would simply loosen the elevation bolts on the dish and peak the signal without looking at the scale on the dish. My Fortec Star was out to lunch on the elevation scale so I just forgot about it and just peaked without looking.

Please - any of the more experienced members, correct me if I'm wrong but that should be about it for setting the motor in a nut shell.

Hope this helps, DC

PS - check around for a DVD player, some have connections that you can use to hook the receiver to. This would make a very light and portable TV that you could take out to the dish to help in peaking the signal.

 

[themango69]

I didn't get anywhere (but did learn alot) yesterday. I didn't think about the DVD player idea. I do have a DVD player that I think has one (it says Audio Out on it, but I think that it is both as I've not seen this before). I will try it and see what happens. I am headed off to Aquatica now, but this afternoon I'm going to try out all the things mentioned above. Appreciate everyone's help with this.

 

[satcom1]

This helps to understand Clarke Belt

Please see attached pdf file

This thing with the compass and true south is not helpful. It is more accurate to say, your longitude matching satellite. I chatted with one guy a year ago and he set up a solar clock to achieve true south of his dish and still could not get it working.

If you set the plumb and azimuth correctly and tune your receiver to a satellite ( by rotating the dish bracket around the pole )you can peak the signal and lock it down. With USALS everything else will be good. My true south satellite is G28 and I have set the motor up on G10R and everything else trqacked good.

There are obstructions to true south in some cases but that will not stop you from setting up if you can find any satellite and have USALS. What is really important it to zero the motor then goto (Any Bird) and peak for strong signal.
Circular or not.

 

[themango69]

Man this weather is not being friendly at all, got up there for 10 minutes with small tv and it started raining. I then wait awhile and get back up there and it rained again!

I did get to test some things out though. I did not change any of my settings since the last time as I believe them to be correct, so I just moved the dish around with the settings that Lak told me to use. Now, I'm not completely sure about my receiver and this "quality" setting because I have yet to see it ever move. But, with the slightest of movements in the dish - the signal does fluctuate quite a bit and it is consistent. This makes me think that Signal for my receiver means that I'm hitting something. I was able to get it up to around 77% for Signal and then I did a blind scan. I knew I was pretty far of from what I wanted to hit as I was pointing approximately SE rather than SW.

I did a blind scan while at this strong reading and sure enough I did get about 112 channels and approximately 10 Radios. They all show up as EchoSt-001, etc. When it was hitting them, it would say "LOCK" and when I go into edit the channel settings - it actually shows Quality at 100%. So, this is another reason why I am thinking that my one may not actually show Quality until it is on the channel. The place I purchased from, GoSatellite.com said this same thing to me before but I wasn't sure either way - but leaning more towards that.

Because of the rain, I went ahead and switched cable back to CatV cable (doesn't actually say Cat 59, so not sure if it is or not. When I did this, I lost no quality whatsoever and the channels still show 100% lock and a $ sign next to them. I know these are scrambled because of this, but now I need to know what satellite i'm heading so I can then hook up my motor and start moving around to see if it's working right.

Can someone help me determine what satellite i'm hitting please?

Appreciated!

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[Lak7]

You want to be pointing Due South.
How were you moving the Sat, Rotating on Pole or Driving with motor?
When you are connected to the "C" port n the LNB you will only get Circular sats.
Your goal is Nimiq2 @ 82west.
What sat did you have selected in the Dish Settings Menu?

You are hitting 1 of the EchoStar Sats(circular/DishNetwork)
When you Quality, look on the Dish Setting Menu, it may tell you what sat you have found. Look for something like "Echostar 3"

 

[themango69]

I am moving the sat by manually moving the pole/dish around.

Based off of your suggestion, I changed satellite from Nimiq2 to Eurostar3 and did another blind scan and now I get the same exact channels - but now it knows what they are...does that mean progress?

THey are now showing up like:

0001 SPORT
0002 CCTV4
0003 ITVN
etc.

I can provide more channels if that helps, but I think becuase it shows the name that this is what I'm hitting - correct? ----

edited after posting ----- I looked at EchoStar 3 channel listings: http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/dish61.html and this matches up with what I am seeing!! So, I think we are getting somewhere!!!!!

Here are the settings that I'm using in Dish Settings:

Tuner: Tuner1
Satellite: EchoStar3
LNB Type: Single
LNB Frequency: 11250
22KHz: Off
LNB Power: On
Transponder: 12224
Search Options: All
Network Search: On
DiSEqC: Off
Motor: Disable


Please let me know where to go from here.

Thanks again!

 

[Lak7]

You are getting there.
You are pointed EchoStar 3 @ 61.5 west
Mark your position with a Marker
Looks like you need to move the Dish 20deg West and increase Dish elevation a little(not Motor)

 

[themango69]

Mark your position with a Marker

Looks like you need to move the Dish 20deg West and increase Dish elevation a little(not Motor)

These are probably going to be dumb questions, but rather ask then be sorry...

How would I mark my position, is there some website that shows how to do this or if you can explain how to do this as I'm not sure how I would do this to be honest?

As to moving the dish, should I let the motor do this or do I need to get the true south setting before I worry about including motor? If I do move, I assume the only thing you want me to change is the Satellite to Nimiq2, correct?

 

[Lak7]

I did forget to ask:
Your Motor is at the Zero position?

A little less technical, use a Marker (Sharpie) to make a reference line from the Motor Clamp to the Pole, just to give you an idea where you have to move to.

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[themango69]

I have not adjusted the motor settings, so it should still be at zero position. If i'm correct in thought, the movement should not be much to move it 20 degrees. Right now I think I am at 25 for disk elevation, how much higher did you say I should be at when i move it 20 degrees to the right (west)?

 

[Lak7]

For 20deg, not much at all, I would guess about 1/4" to the west.
I would increase the Dish Elevation 2deg or 3deg(27 or 28) and check.
You know is not below 25.
Remember to have Nimiq2 @ 82 selected in the Dish Settings Menu.

EDIT: Did you get the 3ft. cables yet?

 

[themango69]

Ok i went up there and had my wife doing "scan TP" from the menu every time I moved it a tick (after moving dish elevation from 25 to approximately 28). Each time it said it failed. Now, i see that it says it is a strong transponder, but it does not show any channels on it - so I don't know if "scan TP" is really what I want to do with it or not.

I have small RG6 cables now, but I ruled them out before because i was on the roof just using those when I got the signal for EchoStar3 because I replaced them afterwards and saw no change in quality/signal after doing so.

 

[Lak7]

"Now, i see that it says it is a strong transponder, but it does not show any channels on it"
What says a strong transponder.

Did you set the LNB settings for Nimiq2?
LNB- Standard / Single
LNB Freq - 11250

 

[themango69]

"Now, i see that it says it is a strong transponder, but it does not show any channels on it"
What says a strong transponder.

Did you set the LNB settings for Nimiq2?
LNB- Standard / Single
LNB Freq - 11250

If you go here, SatelliteGuys.US - TheList and then click on 82 Nimiq - it shows you the transponder values for that one and stronger ones say "Strong Transponder". Most of them have been the same values you have been telling me so far.

Yea, I did not change those settings as I already had those set previously for the EchoStar3.

So, here are my new settings:

Tuner: Tuner1
Satellite: Nimiq2
LNB Type: Single
LNB Frequency: 11250
22KHz: Off
LNB Power: On
Transponder: 12224
Search Options: All
Network Search: On
DiSEqC: Off
Motor: Disable


I think something must be off on my end because I have moved Dish Elevation like you said but don't seem to hit anything where Nimiq should be. If you can't think of any other settings to change, I may just go up there tomorrow morning again with small TV and move that damned thing over and over again until I can hit it. What I'm afraid of is that the "scan TP" setting may not be what I want and I could be wasting my time. Can you verify that this would be what I want to do when i am testing out if I'm on there? Apparently my receiver does not move in quality, but only moves in Signal strength - so until I do a channel scan of some sort - I really can't tell if I'm on something or not.

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[themango69]

I have uploaded what the sat angle finder is showing for my house:

Picasa Web Albums - Brandon - Satellite

The purple line is what it says I shoul be at. The red X is where my satellite is at.

The Yellow line is approximately where I believe I'm pointing at and the orange is what I believe the angle I should be pointing at.

Just want to make sure I am correct...

 

[Lak7]

EDIT: Keep moving West, as your Purple line shows, Due South


"Scan TP" does exactly that, it tries to find Channels only on that specific Freq.

Don't stop with just the one move.
Raise Dish Elevation 1 deg, and Move Dish left to right slowly, watching for the Quality to light up. You may have to go up a lot more than I guessed. The Dish markings are known to be off quit a bit.

 

[delta_charlie]

Your small 13TV has the RCA type connections on the back? Most of the ones I've used in the past only have the Coax on the back, so just want to make sure. I may have to take you up on your offer because I spent another hour trying to hit 79W and 97W with no Quality jump at all.

Hi Themango, sorry I over looked this message on Saturday. No my 13 inch TV only has the coax input. Your receiver does not have the channel 3 or 4 output?

I will try to PM you with my phone number.

Might be able to run by around lunch time today.

Later, DC

 

[themango69]

That would be great, I got up there again and ran into some issues.

The dish bracket that hooks up to Motor Pole only seems to be able to go 2 ways and each way presents a problem. If I set it up on the lower hole, the dish is basically pointing towards the ground. If I set it at the top pole, it points in right direction (upwards) - but it has limit to where it can only go as far as the screw lets it (which happens to be around 32degrees). I did what Lak said and kept adjusting 1degree on the dish elevation and moved it slightly while checking over and over again with "scan TP" and did not find anything. I started from 25 and went upwards and I now have the dish off as I tried to mount it different ways and found out that it can only go 2 ways.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Delta_charlie, you can email me at damango79@aol.com if you want as I will probably be off and on up there. When I come back, I will check mail and hopefully I will already have it working - but if I don't, I would really appreciate if you could assist me. I now have a small tv up there so it's very easy to test things, but I'm still having no luck with that specific satellite.

I'll keep on truckin though and update when i have one.

 

[themango69]

I did speak with delta_charlie on the phone and he he had some good ideas, but after waiting for the rain to stop - the idea kind of stopped short. I believe that I probably am needing to have it more elevated, but I am hindered by the actual motor pole in doing this. I reviewed the install instructions of all the stuff and they all look correctly installed.

Here is edited picture that shows my delimma:

Picasa Web Albums - Brandon - Satellite

So, if I move elevation up or down, it eventually is going to hit either side of the red points. Once it hits this, there is no way to move it any further. I sat and looked at it for awhile and I see no way to solve this so I would think everyone would have this problem.

Can someone please explain how this can be done please to allow for higher elevation angles?

Thank you....

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