S10 "Out of Range" Message??

[Andrew K]

I'm trying to get my dish positioned to 15W using USALS, but the S10 won't allow it. It shows the "Out of Range" message. My longitude is 81.6W, and that's what I have the receiver set at. Using the DiSeqC1.2 feature is too much of a bother. I have everything else set to USALS, and it works fine. What's going on here?? The difference from 81.6 to 15W is 66.6 degrees. I'm pretty sure that is within the limit. Any help or suggestions?

 

[AcWxRadar]

I'm trying to get my dish positioned to 15W using USALS, but the S10 won't allow it. It shows the "Out of Range" message. My longitude is 81.6W, and that's what I have the receiver set at. Using the DiSeqC1.2 feature is too much of a bother. I have everything else set to USALS, and it works fine. What's going on here?? The difference from 81.6 to 15W is 66.6 degrees. I'm pretty sure that is within the limit. Any help or suggestions?

Andrew,

That is actually beyond the limits for USALS. You will have to switch over to DiSEqC 1.2 to get the motor to travel to this sat.
The limit for USALS is about 59.5 degrees (DiSEqC 1.2 will allow you to go about +/- 68° from your site longitude). I am not
entirely sure of the exact limit for each (down to the degree or tenths of a degree) but I think I have these pretty close.

I don't get an "Out-of-Range" error with my AZBox, I just have to visually watch the dish and motor to see if it moves there or not.
If it is out of range, it will kinda jerk around a few degrees and then just go back to the last known valid sat that it was positioned at.

RADAR

 

[Andrew K]

I was playing around with the DiSEqC1.2 and manually moving the motor east, and when I went outside, it appeared to be working. The dish was so far east, that it looked like it was pointing downward. It's such a pain using that DiSEqc1.2 feature on the S10 though. It doesn't show me a good signal when I'm trying to aim it at that satellite. Perhaps I just am not using a good transponder to aim the dish.

Does anyone else receive 15W? And if so, what's an up-to-date strong transponder I can use? It's been a few months since I've had the dish receiving anything from 15W, and I lost all the channels I had saved.

 

[AcWxRadar]

I was playing around with the DiSEqC1.2 and manually moving the motor east, and when I went outside, it appeared to be working. The dish was so far east, that it looked like it was pointing downward. It's such a pain using that DiSEqc1.2 feature on the S10 though. It doesn't show me a good signal when I'm trying to aim it at that satellite. Perhaps I just am not using a good transponder to aim the dish.

Does anyone else receive 15W? And if so, what's an up-to-date strong transponder I can use? It's been a few months since I've had the dish receiving anything from 15W, and I lost all the channels I had saved.

Andrew,

Once you have experienced USALS you definitely don't like to have to revert back to DiSEqC 1.2 motor control. USALS is just such a spoiler!

Here is a trick that I use with my AZBox / Coolsat 5000 when trying to set up the motor with the AZBox. Since the AZBox's signal quality meter is a little slow to "lock on" I connect my Coolsat 5000 to the LOOP OUT of the AZBox and connect the Coolsat to another small TV.
I set the Coolsat up for a fixed dish operation (motor control set to OFF). Enter the satellite and the TP data and monitor the signal quality meter on the little TV connected to the Coolsat while I step the motor with the AZBox controls. Works really slick!

Of course, you have to know that your motor and dish are perfectly aligned and tracking the arc first. If your arc is off, your dish might pass over the top of or below the satellite and not give you a detectable signal. Dish/motor alignment is very critical when you get out to the fringes of the horizon.

RADAR

 

[Tron]

I live at 90W, and 30W (Hispasat) is out of USALS range on my S9 ...

The best solution is a fixed dish if that is possible. So much easier than fooling around with DiSEqC 1.2, and waiting forever for the motor to travel to the far Eastern end of the arc...

 

[cyberham]

...Does anyone else receive 15W? And if so, what's an up-to-date strong transponder I can use?...

MSNBC 11709 V 3195 or TPAI / RTVGE 11964 H 14714. They seem to always be on. MSNBC scans in as "Service 1".

 

[Andrew K]

MSNBC 11709 V 3195 or TPAI / RTVGE 11964 H 14714. They seem to always be on. MSNBC scans in as "Service 1".

Are the Arab channels still on there from 11806 V 7596?? That's the TP I was using and not detecting anything.

 

[cyberham]

Are the Arab channels still on there from 11806 V 7596?? That's the TP I was using and not detecting anything.

Yes, there are 3 Iranian channels on that tp. They're all in Farsi language all the time so they're not so interesting to me. But they always have a signal (sometimes color bars on IRINN after sign-off in evening my time) so you can use them for orienting the dish.

 

[xtgold]

don't feel bad,I can't get 15w either.

 

[Andrew K]

You can see my setup shown in my avatar. I think the problem I'm having is that when the dish is moved east, it hits the leg of the tripod. I'm not 100% sure if this is the problem, but I'll have to check when I get a chance to go ontop the roof. Last year, I was receiving 15W just fine, but I've made some dish adjustments since then. I moved the dish lower on the pole.

 

[cyberham]

I too lost 15W for a while. When I regained it by just touching up elevation very slightly, I learned that these extremes of the arc when the dish is on a motor become tricky, especially if not using a mast in concrete. You have a mini-tower as do I. Mine is mounted on the ground on dirt. After getting the tower mast perfectly plumb one time, then touching up orientation of the dish, I can now just go to the mast at any time with a level and check that it is perfectly plumb. That bubble in my level has to be dead center with at least two measurements at right angles on the mast. If not, I correct with shims under the tower feet. Since following this, I've kept 15W and other sats solid ever since, only needing to touch up slightly on azimuth sometimes with the motor.

Since you know you had it fine one time, that simplifies life. And you know the tps are still there and strong. So just go find them!

 

[Andrew K]

The pole is not perfectly vertical, but it has been receiving 30W to 125W with my motor. The pole is a tad bit off (not much), and there's no way of correcting it either. The tripod was mounted into the roof long before I even got into FTA, and it wasn't centered at the peak of the roof. I had to compensate by using the tripod screws below to line up the pole as vertical as possible. The tripod is lined up with the roof trusses, and I'm not going to bother moving it.