Really don't know what's wrong

[stanleyjohn]

I still kinda think that the heat of the day is shutting something down on your dish set up.Without making anymore adjustments see if you get back your signals after dark or early mourning.A dish pointing toward the south during a summer day can get really hot.Im not sure your going to like this one but If you start running out of ideas then get another LNB! even a cheap one and run just that to your receiver and see what results you have.PS what you said about the little movement on the Feed horn makes sence!When i did my LNB adjustments it didnt take much to go from great quality to no quality.

 

[shankle]

Hi Stanleyjohn,
I still have an old c-band feedhorn that I could put on. It has no adjustment
and works fine for C-band.
As I said before, tomorrow I will run it down to 135d and try some analog
channels. At least then I will probably have the lnb set correctly.
In the past, before the tree incident, I was running this same Norsat 8515
c-band lnb with a black cover over it and had no problems for years.

A thing that I think I have been doing wrong is adjusting the elevation
and Azmuth on each sat. Somebody said that I should set the elevation
at Zenith or near Zenith and never touch it anywhere else. So the only
setting that changes with a new sat is the Azmuth. Is that correct?
Azmuth doesn't seem to get me any Q. That's why I have been changing
both of them. Really I don't see what Q does anyway. I ran it for years
with a decent picture with the Q at Zero.

 

[stanleyjohn]

If you have been adjusting elevations at different satellites other than the zenith that thats a no no.You should always try to make your adjustments at your closest zenith satellite. Then scope out the rest af the arc to see that the alignment is correct.A question! since that tree incident have you used what was used during that time with good success? Maybe that tree may of damaged more than you thought.Heres a interesting video that may help!i know it was a help for me. Boresight News Videos Note!! click on 3rd one !Tracking made easy.

 

[shankle]

Hi Stanleyjohn,
Wow, now that's a satellite dish. I'm guessing but it must be a 12 footer.
Good article.

I will not touch the elevation anymore after I set it at Zenith.
I have also been assuming that metal bars on the top and bottom
give the same reading on the inclinometer. This is also probably wrong.
With only the Aznuth to adjust I doubt I'll ever see the Q go above Zero.

The Norsat LNB is ok. Tonight I was able to get a very bad Analog signal.
That is encouraging as none of the C-band would come in. This tells me
that the alignment of the feedhorn is off because of the guy wires I
installed. The button hook was off center buy about 1/2 inch.
I have high hopes for tomorrow.

Thanks much for helping.

 

[stanleyjohn]

:up:up Glad to help! It may take longer and cause more pain than you want but in time you will have a pretty good selection of free tv to watch.

 

[Lak7]

A thing that I think I have been doing wrong is adjusting the elevation
and Azmuth on each sat.

Is this a motorized Dish?

 

[FaT Air]

BUD - and yes, mistake there in adjusting elev. on the end

In a nutshell,The standard procedure to tune up a BUD,

First
make sure it's assembled with the proper declination. (I think you're good here)

Second,
Set your polar angle according to your latitude.
Drive the dish to Zenith with the actuator. locate the closest to true south C band sat, by rotating the polar mount on the pole for max Q. snug up the azimuth bolts, but not too tight.
Note: If the closest sat is a few west of true south, fudge the dish a few degrees west.
Fudge east if sat is east a few degrees. This is the last time we touch the azimuth, or polar mount rotation, at or near Zenith.
Then adjust the polar angle for Max Q. Do not adjust the declination, just the polar angle.

Third,
Find a sat as near the end of the arc that you can. Check Q level. Then maximize Q by rotating the polar mount on the pole slightly(AZMIUTH), and drive the dish E or W with the actuator, looking for an improvement in Q. If Q dropped, You've adjusted the azimuth the wrong direction. Repeat as necessary till no more improvement is gained. Do not adjust elevation here! Just azimuth and use the mover.
If Azimuth was adjusted NOT on your furthest E or W sat, see if you can get a signal there, further east or west, and repeat the AZIMUTH adjustment.

Fourth,
Recheck Q on the center again and readjust the polar angle if necessary.
(this is usually a very small re-adjustment) If a Large re-adjustment was necessary, It may indicate that the declination angle is not right.
Fifth, Recheck on the east or west end. Tighten azimuth bolts, elevation locks and then- - END, program sats.

The attached pic may explain this procedure.
BTW- Glad to hear that you've got that feed centered.
Still, there may be a temperature issue with something.

 

[shankle]

To Lak7 - yes this is a motorized dish.

To Fat Air,
I'm printing off your instructions. Will give them a try tomorrow.
I'm confused by your terminology.
Polar angle is my axis angle of Latitude 29.10 + declination 4.62 or 33.94.
I think....

Then in # 2 you say set the Azmuth and never touch it again.

Then in # 3 you say to slightly adjust the Azmuth.

One thing I was NOT doing was maximizing the Q with the actuator.
Will give that a shot also.

 

[stanleyjohn]

Shankle! Looks like Fat Air discribed what to do just like the way the guy in the video did.Check the video again and i think you will see that its what Fat is talking about.

 

[FaT Air]

Polar angle is my axis angle of Latitude 29.10 + declination 4.62 or 33.94.

Well, sort of. If I remember right, your most southern C band sat is a little west of you, so with the mover, move the dish up to near zenith, just off to the west. If it is east, just off to east. Then rotate the whole shebang (polar mount on pole) till you get something on that sat. Then, with very slight E or W movements, go back and forth to maximize your Q . Snug up the bolts that prevent rotation of the mount on the pole. You are now done with rotation(azimuth) at center. Adjust Up / Down for max Q.

Then in # 2 you say set the Azmuth and never touch it again.

You never touch or adjust Azimuth (rotation of polar mount on the pole) AT ZENITH, EVER AGAIN, after locating our zenith sat, only on the end of the arc.

Then in # 3 you say to slightly adjust the Azmuth.

We're not at Zenith now, we are at the end of the arc. That's where we adjust azimuth.
Rotating the mount on the pole.

After locating our ZENITH sat with AZIMUTH, ADJUST ELEVATION. and don't touch azimuth at zenith again.
On our end of arc sat, adjust AZIMUTH. and don't touch elevation at the end of the arc.
If you mix the two, you're workin' against yourself.
I hope that cleared things up,
I know it may be a bit frustrating, but I know we're getting there.
If you notice, moving the dish East or west at the end of the arc also moves the dish up and down, That is the elevation adjustment we are going for at the end of the arc.
so there is no need to adjust the elevation adjustment on the dish at the end of the arc. The mover does it. We just have to get the left and right correct.

 

[shankle]

Hi guys - I sure hope you don't give up on me. I had a bad day today.

Since I installed the guy wires I have not been able to get any C-Band.
So I ran the dish West to 133d W (G12) and adjusted the feedhorn until I
could pull in The Classic is Arts Showcase on Analog tp5. I got a nice
clear picture. Therefor I though, this same program is on C-Band, so
I should be able to get it. Signal was 55 and Q was zero. No amount of
messing with the elevation or Azmuth would get me otherwise.
Kind of discouraged now, I went up to my closest Zenith bird at AMC 3
(87d). No amount of messing with the Azmuth or elevation would get
me more than a signal of 60 and Q of Zero.

The pole coming out of the ground is round. The pole mount for this dish
is square. Loosening the bolts to correct the Azmuth gives a lot of play
on the face of the dish. They also bind making fine adjustment difficult,
requiring more loosening. This I would think could get me way off.
Don't know what to do about this except spend $1,000 for a new dish.
I'm not starving but I am not rich either and retired.

 

[Lak7]

So I ran the dish West to 133d W (G12) and adjusted the feedhorn until I
could pull in The Classic is Arts Showcase on Analog tp5.

That's good.
With a nice clear Pic on Classic Arts Analog, power up the FTA Receiver, go to that Sats Transponder Setup Menu, add the Classic Arts DVB TP info:
Freq:3816
Pol: H
Scan Rate: 3000

See if you get a quality reading. If nothing, only adjustment to try is the Polarity.

 

[shankle]

Hi Lak7,
I already had it programmed in wrong.
Polarity was vertical. Will try again in the morning.
But I don't think that's going to solve my C-Band problem.

 

[Lak7]

I already had it programmed in wrong.

Are you using an LNBF?

 

[shankle]

Hi Lak7,
Yes I am using the Chaparral Corotor ll Plus.
My focal depth is 37+"
I had a bsc621-2d which I am going to junk. Couldn't get it to work at all.

 

[FaT Air]

I have one question. I believe you stated you are using a Uniden Analog IRD to drive the dish, and can get Classic arts on analog, then you said "you fire up the FTA rcvr" How are you getting the LNB connection to the FTA rcvr, do you disconnect it from the analog rcvr and plug it into the FTA I.F.
input? If so, your analog is still controlling the polarity servo on the feed. So if you can get the analog signal sparkle free, I can't see why the digital was not receivable.Selecting an odd or even channel with the analog receiver switches the polarity the FTA receiver sees. And may also be powering the LNB, (depending on how it's all wired together). What polarity is programmed in the FTA is sort of meaningless.

 

[shankle]

Hi FaT Air,
I did get c_band with my present setup last week before the guy wire thingy.

To answer your question about the Uniden Analog I turn it off when using
the FTA receiver.

The wiring setup that I have has been working fine for years before the
tree incident torn up my dish.

I will check the guy wires again tomorrow. Maybe they have moved.

 

[Lak7]

Since you are NOT using an LNBF.....
Once you have the Classic Arts Analog tuned it, try the FTA unit, keep in mind that the Analog Receiver is controlling the polarity, so use the Analog Unit to cycle thru the full polarity range while watching the FTA for any sign of Quality.

 

[FaT Air]

On the analog receiver, odd channels will be one polarity, even channels the opposite.
And turning the analog off, you will lose power to the LNBs.
And wait a while after a polarity change, the FTA may not respond right away

 

[Lak7]

Shankle, you do have the FTA unit properly slaved to the Analog receiver?