My FTA system's been setup and functioning well for about two months. Recently noticed that the signal quality has decreased across arch. So, yesterday afternoon I went out, checked my dish (and the various nuts and bolts holding the dish in place) and peaked the settings. My dish has a very strong and stable support and the pole is plumb. After the fine tuning, I was able to get much better signal quality (actually as high or higher) than I've ever had. By the way, I'm have a Fortec Mercury 36" dish with a STAB HH90 motor and my latitude is 38 and longitude is 122. The elevation markings on the dish, when compared to the motor, are not very clear. According to sadoun.com, with the HH90 motor, the dish elevation should be set at 38.1. However, it looks as if the signal across the arch is peaked when the dish elevation is closer to 39ish. Is this common?
Question about Dish Elevation
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Since the average Joe like myself doesn't have a Sat meter is their a good way to check the tuning on my dish? Alot of KU feeds are fuzzy as well as some C band. My only receiver is an analog Uniden Supra. I don't believe it has a signal meter. Not really sure. Thanks
What do you mean fuzzy?
If its a snowy picture that's a connection problem between the receiver and TV
If its just the quality of the picture, its all about bandwidth. Some channels have GREAT first generation picture quality then there are some (Mainly on IA-5) that are worse than on line streaming!
If its a snowy picture that's a connection problem between the receiver and TV
If its just the quality of the picture, its all about bandwidth. Some channels have GREAT first generation picture quality then there are some (Mainly on IA-5) that are worse than on line streaming!
Yeah I mean somewhat snowy and noisy of course. The weird thing is like today for example...... on SBS6 there were several college football games. On one of the transponders the game came in great. On like the other 3 games I had a snowy and noisy picture, even after fine tuning. I'm thinking if alignment was off I wouldn't get one game real good? Just not sure whats up here
I believe Boomer is using only analog in which case I'd be checking the polarity servo or fine tune the skew etc.
Inno said:
That is correct, analog only. Manually adjusting these settings helps but, I couldn't get it completely snow free. In fact it was barely watchable without driving you nuts. The wrench in the whole thing is that game I mentioned on the same sat that came in perfectly.
Ideas?
Well what I'd probably do if that's the case and you've tried all the "user" adjustments you can, I'd suspect one of two things.......actually make that 3 things Either alignment ( dish has moved a bit over time) or possibly a tired LNB or an aging coax cable. Any of those is possible as not all transponders are created equal, it may be that that game was on a particularly strong transponder and the other channels are only average. With a poorly aligned dish or weak LNB an average strength X-ponder can become a source of trouble.
If you can set up your receiver and TV outside, or perhaps see your TV from the dish, just take the dish and see if you can move it up or down a bit and see if that improves the picture.........it may be as simple as adjusting your elevation a bit (I'd guess it'd have to be moved upward due to gravity). If that makes no difference and there are no obvious line of sight issues etc. I'd first try just temoprarily putting in place a fresh piece of coax. If that doesn't work, see if you can find an LNB to try. Through a process of elimination you should be able to find the problem.
If you can set up your receiver and TV outside, or perhaps see your TV from the dish, just take the dish and see if you can move it up or down a bit and see if that improves the picture.........it may be as simple as adjusting your elevation a bit (I'd guess it'd have to be moved upward due to gravity). If that makes no difference and there are no obvious line of sight issues etc. I'd first try just temoprarily putting in place a fresh piece of coax. If that doesn't work, see if you can find an LNB to try. Through a process of elimination you should be able to find the problem.
Inno said:
Thanks for your advice. That sounds like a good plan of attack.
I was looking at an SF-95. Do you or anyone feel this would be a good investment or, do I really not need it? Also does it work "well" with C band?
The SF-95 is a great tool to get you onto the Clarke belt, but its best to use a LIVE transponder from the satellite you are aiming for and watch the signal quality meter on a TV at the dish.
The SF-95c now comes with an in-built compass.
http://www.dmsiusa.com/sf95.htm
The SF-95c now comes with an in-built compass.
http://www.dmsiusa.com/sf95.htm
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