Newbies Gone Wild

[turbosat]

The reason you can scan in 119 so easily is that the circular sats used by the pay-tv providers are putting out about 10times the signal strength of the other (linear-polarized) sats. So you have to be on the pitcher's mound to get the signal from most of the fta sats we watch, not just in the ballpark.
You can be 'close' to the dbs (direct-broadcast) satellites and get signals from them. You could prob get them with a pie-tin and an lnbf lol.
Tweak out 119 signal for the best strength you can, then move you dish west about 1/8 to 1/4 inch, see if you can hit 121. Peak the signal strength/quality there, then go for 123.

 

[Tron]

You may, in fact, be on Satmex 5. When I scan Satmex 5, I have to select "FTA ONLY" on my scan because if I don't, I'll end up with a bunch of scrambled channels from 119w next door. 119w is so powerful that my receiver logs transponders from it during a blind scan, even with a linear LNBF. Those channels are all useless, 119w is a Dish Network pay satellite.

 

[CenterFreq]

Sorry I've been gone all Sat night and Sunday. Okay, I've just read all the replies since Sat afternoon. Thank you all for the various explanations of why I see so much pay stuff trying to break through.

Whoever asked about the pole diameter, it is 2 and 3/8 inches. If I mark the current position with a pencil, how much of a turn to the West would be 2 degrees in inches?? I like that idea of trying to get to 123, even if I have to stop at 121 first.

 

[searay43]

Sorry I've been gone all Sat night and Sunday. Okay, I've just read all the replies since Sat afternoon. Thank you all for the various explanations of why I see so much pay stuff trying to break through.

Whoever asked about the pole diameter, it is 2 and 3/8 inches. If I mark the current position with a pencil, how much of a turn to the West would be 2 degrees in inches?? I like that idea of trying to get to 123, even if I have to stop at 121 first.

Hello,

You might have this info already, but I thought I would share it anyway just in case. This sight is very helpful for getting all the info you need in setting up your dish, this will give you the chance to use your compass and sat meter. Here is the sight, Satellite look-angle calculator I hope it helps you. Don't give up, have a great day.

 

[CenterFreq]

Thank you seasay, up there in God's country. I'll look it up.

 

[CenterFreq]

Sorry, I meant searay.

 

[Lak7]

Whoever asked about the pole diameter, it is 2 and 3/8 inches. If I mark the current position with a pencil, how much of a turn to the West would be 2 degrees in inches?? I like that idea of trying to get to 123, even if I have to stop at 121 first.

2 3/8 (.375) x 3.14 ("pi") = 7.4575 then divide by 360 (degrees) = 0.0207 per 1deg
that's about 3/64" for 2 deg

 

[Wescopc]

Whoever asked about the pole diameter, it is 2 and 3/8 inches. If I mark the current position with a pencil, how much of a turn to the West would be 2 degrees in inches?? I like that idea of trying to get to 123, even if I have to stop at 121 first.

With a 2.375" diameter pole you move the dish .0207" per degree of azimuth. So, if you are going from SatMex 5 @116.8° to G18 @ 123° then, in Las Vegas, that would be 182.70° (true azimuth) to 193.10° for a difference of of 10.4°. 10.4 X .0207" = .215" or about 7/32 (1/32" less then 1/4").
Bob

Edit: same as LAK7 said, I was typing while he was posting!

 

[CenterFreq]

Alright, I'm going back up again, but first I have to make an adjustment to the hardware at the base of the pole, to eliminate even the tiniest of slop. Then I have to move the ladder back to the rear of the house and realign the dish. I will be gone for about 20 minutes from the time of this post. Thanks.

Okay, I'm back down. I've moved the dish West, and also secured the base against any East/West "drift". Based upon what I learned from a site recommended by searay above, I had been aimiing too low for a direct hit on 119, so I left the elevation alone (since I am moving the dish West from center).

We are starting the blind scan now. Oh, one more thing: I had mentioned this many, many posts ago, that my receiver makes a different sound sometimes. Well, it is doing it right now, big time! Instead of making a simple beep - beep - beep, etc, it is now making a 5 tone series, starting low and going up to the top note. Then it starts over again. We have only heard this briefly before, but now it is quite steady. Also, we are seeing the ellusive orange band marked "Q". It is getting exciting... even my wife has come back into the room! I will report back after blind scan completes.

 

[Lak7]

"Q" is what you are looking for!

 

[CenterFreq]

Wow! We hit paydirt! More than just Q, we can see and hear things in English, a healthy dose of Spanish, and one or two unknown (to us) languages! Everybody was in the living room! What a total FTA victory! If #2 wasn't away at college, even he would be in there! I had to pull myself away just to report back to all you guys that have put up with us for so long.

We even caught one unscrambled radio station, called "Galaxy-003". We have seen some network stuff we recognized, and plenty of old TV shows for my wife, like those two detective brothers from San Diego, and Magnum PI. There is a channel called Khyber, which we thought may be either India (on the East side of the Khyber pass) or Pakistan (on the West side). But we are just guessing... it may even be Afghanistan.

We also saw an animation of some Arabic rocket launch, possibly a comms satellite, and when I left the room, my wife had the controller, searching for some clear CBS. Coming from rabbit ears, this is very exciting for us. I believe the receiver reported 47 FTA channels, although some are repeats, possibly because our blind scan does horizontal polarization first, then vertical. Some of the horizontals have no sound.

Again, I want to thank all you guys, especially those that have hung with us for weeks. We appreciate all of you, your patience with us especially.

Now I am going to figure out how to use the receiver's EPG, which should keep me busy for days. Anybody know how I can change the icon of this thread to a happy face??
-Jay (CenterFreq)

 

[Lak7]

EPG info is usually added by the "re-seller"(Dish, Direct, ComCast), it's a rare case to see anything there.

List some specific channel names to confirm what you hit.

 

[CenterFreq]

Okay. I guess we can live without that.

Can you tell me about the sounds I described earlier? Does that five tone series indicate a "lock on" or something like that?

 

[Wescopc]

Congratulations!
We can put happy faces here!
Bob

 

[Lak7]

All receivers are different.
If the Q lights up, you found a Live Transponder.
The receiver only reacts to the TP that is listed, you could be dead nuts on a Sat, but if you don't have a Live / Active TP selected on the Set Up Menu, the receiver will show nothing 'cause it doesn't know what to "listen" for.

List some specific channel names to confirm what you hit.

 

[CenterFreq]

Newbies Get Happy!

Give me a minute. I am going to have to pull some family members off of our new-found toy!

 

[CenterFreq]

Thank YOU, Bob!

 

[CenterFreq]

We saw "Research TV" and a Govt site we think might be NASA, but it was just a splash screen - no program behind it. Also so "Peace", but they have a "Sorry for the inconvenience" message, like they're having a problem. Here are some of what we get:

4005 Channel Three - VBA
4007 Galaxy-0001
4008 Galaxy-0002
4009 KMMF
4010 WNYI
4011 KMCC
4012 KKTV
4013 KPBI - AR
4014 RTN Nat Backup
4015 UNIV - Ark
4016 KWCE - RTN
4017 KEYU
4018 KAMT
4019 WNGS
4020 KWWF
4021 KFDF
4022 KUTH - Ku
4023 KEGS
4024 KLMN - GFMT
4025 KUWF
4026 KTVC
4027 KQUP
4028 WMQF
4029 WUMN Ku
and several others.

 

[Anole]

worth repeating

I keep these sites permanently bookmarked.
Use them to help figure out which channel is which:
- FTA List
- our very own The List
- Global CM
.
No EPG on the satellites, but that is available on the internet.
When you're ready to look into that, we have info here.

Glad to see you finally on target. - :up
Give it a rest for a while, enjoying that one bird.
Get used to the receiver , it's settings, et al.
Read threads by others on setting up dishes 'n motors.
Then, when you are ready (I'd give it a few weeks), you can get motorized.
Just don't rush it.

 

[Wescopc]

You are on G10/G18 @ 123W.
Bob