Putting up my FTA satellite in the morning

[dashaund]

Okay guys I'm excited. I've got the pole and my motor mounted on the roof and will be putting up the dish in the morning (got to go to work and I've done all I can in the heat up there). I've got a Fortec Limetime Classic NA, a Fortec 90cm dish with a Invacom QPH-031 LNB. According to SatFinder, my true south sat is Nimiq 2 (zip is 29690). From my readings here, I understand that this is a DBS satellite. Knowing that, with the circular polarity of 031, I will be able to pull something in in order to line up my dish, right? While almost everything on there is encrypted the are a couple of "info" channels that are in the clear...would I tune to one of those, or can I just lock on to any TP? I figured it'd be best to ask ahead of time instead of crawling up there and become baffled. Thanks a million, you guys are the best.

 

[iafirebuff]

Congrats on your setup! You will love it

 

[brada]

You are right, there is not too much to watch from there, but for dish alignment it will work perfect: you will get a signal from all transponders, and you can scan them and see their names, that's enough for start

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

With the Invacom quad just use the circular side to aim at Nimiq-will work great. Just remember the signal should be very high on that bird-make sure you have a number around 80 quality to be "right on" it.

 

[LordAlex]

Use 12268 H 20.000 it's a boomer! If you could probably get a signal off that with crinkled pie plate

 

[brada]

One more thing:
Nimiq is a DBS sat and it has a very strong signal: You don't need a perfect alignment to see it.
Even you get the good signal from Nimiq, move to AMC sat at 79° W with USALS, and you may be surprised, your alignment is off. So, adjust as needed. Strongest TP on this is 11900 - H - 2170.
Good luck!

 

[Dr_Brian_Oblivion]

Make sure your pole is STRONG and LEVEL.
This will save you tons of time in the long run.
Make TINY adjustments and take a few valium before you hit the roof =)
Good luck and may the satellite gods smile on you.
Keep us informed.

PS I got the signal from Nimiq in sooo strong once, it actually knocked my dish over!

 

[digiblur]

Find the signal with Nimiq first. This will get you in the ball park. Find a few other circular birds (119, 110, 61.5, 129, etc.) this will show you where the dish needs to "look". Then get over to the "L" port on the LNB and tune in the linear birds, these are harder to find, but you'll have an idea where the dish needs to point already.

 

[dashaund]

Wow, thanks guys. I was expecting about two replies, but seven...jeez. You guys really are supportive! Think I have some vallium around here somewhere, haha. Yeah, I figured that that satellite is pretty strong, so I hope it's easy for me to find. I'm in a REAL hotspot for DirecTV...I fine tuned my triple-lnb dish to get a 99% signal strength. It has to be a white-out type rain for my picture to even skip, mustless go out, haha. Thanks for the help, and I certainly will keep you posted. BTW, for those who have had a motorized dish for a while, how often to you have to go out and readjust the dish? Do the motors slip often? I'm using an SG2100. I'd like to stay off the roof as much as possible.

 

[Dr_Brian_Oblivion]

I have had my motor hooked up to a 1.2M dish and a 90cm dish and have never had any slipping problems. Just snug those bolts and you will be fine =)

 

[dashaund]

Due to other "distractions" this morning, I didn't get to spend as much time with my dish as I had planned. I only got about two hours of tinkering in. I mounted the dish and started aiming. I was aggravated at first (the vallium helped, hahahaha) since I couldn't get a hold of ANY signal. While aiming at Nimiq 2 (well, I thought I was) I found some kind of signal. After doing a blind search, I found that I had pulled in one of the DISH network sats, and found a promo for a PocketDISH receiver. Anyone know what sat this is? I know I'm offline of course. Anyways, I'm having trouble with the motor too. How do I tell it where a satellite is? When I lock on a sat, then go after another, then I try to return to that sat again, it goes to where it thinks it is, not to the position I had it where it worked. Err! At least I peaked out at 93% on that bird. It's definately frustrating but I know it'll be rewarding when I'm done.

 

[digiblur]

Due to other "distractions" this morning, I didn't get to spend as much time with my dish as I had planned. I only got about two hours of tinkering in. I mounted the dish and started aiming. I was aggravated at first (the vallium helped, hahahaha) since I couldn't get a hold of ANY signal. While aiming at Nimiq 2 (well, I thought I was) I found some kind of signal. After doing a blind search, I found that I had pulled in one of the DISH network sats, and found a promo for a PocketDISH receiver. Anyone know what sat this is? I know I'm offline of course. Anyways, I'm having trouble with the motor too. How do I tell it where a satellite is? When I lock on a sat, then go after another, then I try to return to that sat again, it goes to where it thinks it is, not to the position I had it where it worked. Err! At least I peaked out at 93% on that bird. It's definately frustrating but I know it'll be rewarding when I'm done.

What channel name did it scan in as?

 

[dashaund]

Not real sure. I'm at work right now. My receiver thought it was Nimiq 2 but I know better than it. From what I recall it said TV01 or something like that (channel 1).

 

[Mr Tony]

If its 61.5 there should be a test screen that says "you are aimed at 61.5 orbital slot"

Only problem is satellite slots 61.5, 148 and 119 all have a copy of Dish 101 on it

 

[dashaund]

I know it found like 81 TV channels and 17 radio channels (I believe these totals are right), but the only FTA one it stored in the channel list was the PocketDISH promo channel.

 

[digiblur]

Not real sure. I'm at work right now. My receiver thought it was Nimiq 2 but I know better than it. From what I recall it said TV01 or something like that (channel 1).

Your receiver doesn't think it was anything. You told it to scan in the current signal to Nimiq 2. You could name it "dashaund's bird", hit scan, and it would put all the channels under that sat.

Try to rescan it in "ALL" mode and see what other channel names come up then reference that against Lyngsat. You'll soon find out where you are at.

 

[dashaund]

Okay. I'll give that a shot tomorrow afternoon. I have class in the morning. First day back...at least it's my last year in college. I'm studying Electrical Engineering for those that might be curious. Like I said, I'm just glad I picked up SOMETHING...that's a lot better than nothing. At least I know it's working. I might go over this "easy setup" guide that I found on here for the SG2100 and see what I might have done wrong. I'm certain that I lined up my True South incorrectly. I must've not compensated for magnetic declination correctly. Of course, I do wanna see where I'm at in the sky. Thank you all for the replies. It certainly makes things easier having help from all of you. Can't wait till I know what I'm doing so I can help others.

 

[Tron]

You can use Google Earth to find south by finding your house and checking the orientation of south to your property. That's a trick a lot of us have used

 

[dashaund]

Day 2 seemed to be A LOT better. Figured out my TRUE south and lined it up. Within about 10 mins I found Nimiq 2 which was easy to find. I've got it locked in at 93. Scanning for other sats has seemed to be a challenge though. I'm playing with it now and I'll soon post my findings. I got a hold of AMC 5 at about 85% for most TPs. I'm working on SBS6 right now. These are weaker and tougher than the DBS sats (obviously). I'll keep you guys posted.

 

[brada]

I got a hold of AMC 5 at about 85% for most TPs. I'm working on SBS6 right now. These are weaker and tougher than the DBS sats (obviously). I'll keep you guys posted.

I would not move out of AMC5 until getting a best signal from it.
With motorized setup, if you get one sat right, all the rest will come easily