Signals on 121W?

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Blindowl1234

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
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SouthWest Ohio
Well I experimented a little yesterday, trying to compare the difference between my Fortec 6 footer, and my 8.5 Paraclipse.
Let me give you the scenario...The Fortec is ghetto moved sat to sat. The Paraclipse has a dead acuator so I manually move it too (that's next summers project!). I set both dishes on 121w and wasn't impressed. Both dishes get Sportstime Ohio, Sportsman Channel no problem signal above 55%. Jewelry Tv, Sorpresa no problem either on the six footer. The Paraclipse 8.5 gets the above mentioned plus Gospel Music Tv (FFE), Imaginasian, Al Jazeera, ETTV. It goes down hill from there though on the 8.5 footer. SETANTA at 28% no pic, Documentary 28% pixelated, America One 32%-OK,..... Veria, France 24 locked in no pic at 28%.......On the Fortec receiver the threshold is about 30%. The TP that SETANTA, VERIA, etc is on must be the weak one as I have very little luck with channels on it on the 8.5 footer. Anyone else having the same luck with a 6 footer? Better luck with a 10 footer? I'd hoped for better results with the 8.5 footer than I'm getting. Thanks Blind:)
 
I've noticed with the 6 footer there seems to be 2 "sweet spots"

If I use say Sportstime Ohio as a benchmark I can get
STO
Cox (encrypted)
Sportsman
TVW
STO HD
Baby First/Gospel
RFD HD
the rest are kaput...nothing or barely registering

But if I moved it east then America One, Biz Television, and EuroNews comes in real well but I lose other channels that I got before
 
Thanks Ice, I started to PM you knowing you had the same six footer I have. I found the same two spots you did as well. Guess the channels are going to not be so kind to me. Blind
 
Well I experimented a little yesterday, trying to compare the difference between my Fortec 6 footer, and my 8.5 Paraclipse.
Let me give you the scenario...The Fortec is ghetto moved sat to sat. The Paraclipse has a dead acuator so I manually move it too (that's next summers project!). I set both dishes on 121w and wasn't impressed. Both dishes get Sportstime Ohio, Sportsman Channel no problem signal above 55%. Jewelry Tv, Sorpresa no problem either on the six footer. The Paraclipse 8.5 gets the above mentioned plus Gospel Music Tv (FFE), Imaginasian, Al Jazeera, ETTV. It goes down hill from there though on the 8.5 footer. SETANTA at 28% no pic, Documentary 28% pixelated, America One 32%-OK,..... Veria, France 24 locked in no pic at 28%.......On the Fortec receiver the threshold is about 30%. The TP that SETANTA, VERIA, etc is on must be the weak one as I have very little luck with channels on it on the 8.5 footer. Anyone else having the same luck with a 6 footer? Better luck with a 10 footer? I'd hoped for better results with the 8.5 footer than I'm getting. Thanks Blind:)

3780 V 29270 on 121W (G-23) is booming on my 7.5'. I can also get it on my 6' and naturally on the bigger dishes it's tea with the Queen.
 
I HAD made a big ol' post on what I'm getting with both BUD's

apparently it got ate by the ghost in the machine. As have other posts...

8.5 footer with a BSC-621:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...vu-plus-n-list-watching-tv-2.html#post1803553

With a 10 footer I get all TP well, except one or two trandsponders that are weak.
It's a three-way split between all transponders 72% 75% and 80% quality on the Coolsat meter.
The two that are weak are 64-65%

Euronews is at 72% today and AmericaOne is 66%
 
I've noticed with the 6 footer there seems to be 2 "sweet spots"

If I use say Sportstime Ohio as a benchmark I can get
STO
Cox (encrypted)
Sportsman
TVW
STO HD
Baby First/Gospel
RFD HD
the rest are kaput...nothing or barely registering

But if I moved it east then America One, Biz Television, and EuroNews comes in real well but I lose other channels that I got before

I have found this to be the case too. On other satellites as well. I thought it was because of the 6' dish was not large enough to "gather" them as well as a bigger dish.
You would not have this effect with a 8' or 10' dish right?
 
I HAD made a big ol' post on what I'm getting with both BUD's

apparently it got ate by the ghost in the machine. As have other posts...

8.5 footer with a BSC-621:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...vu-plus-n-list-watching-tv-2.html#post1803553

With a 10 footer I get all TP well, except one or two trandsponders that are weak.
It's a three-way split between all transponders 72% 75% and 80% quality on the Coolsat meter.
The two that are weak are 64-65%

Euronews is at 72% today and AmericaOne is 66%

Meinename, you are saying that in your test there is only a 3% increase in signal from the 6' to the 8.5'? (72% 75%).

I am able to pick up a 8' dish for free from someone, which I was going to swap out my 6'. But if it is only 3% increase it would not really be worth the trouble.

Would the 3% be for this satellite or across the arc? think I should get the bigger dish or just stick with my 6'? (it hides real nice).
 


I have found this to be the case too. On other satellites as well. I thought it was because of the 6' dish was not large enough to "gather" them as well as a bigger dish.
just out of curiosity what other sats do you have this same issue? I've seen some like G16 where one or maybe two channels may be off but 121 is the only one with this many

You would not have this effect with a 8' or 10' dish right?

in most cases yes
 
That's right, it's usually one or a couple. G16 does come to mind (just this morning), where I have to bump it a bit to get the Wyoming station without it breaking up.
I find some feeds like this too.

Also, is it just a 3% signal difference between a 6 and 8 footer?
 
Meinename, you are saying that in your test there is only a 3% increase in signal from the 6' to the 8.5'? (72% 75%).

I am able to pick up a 8' dish for free from someone, which I was going to swap out my 6'. But if it is only 3% increase it would not really be worth the trouble.

Would the 3% be for this satellite or across the arc? think I should get the bigger dish or just stick with my 6'? (it hides real nice).
No, I'm not being clear, as usual.

I was saying that the quality I got on the TP on the 10.5 footer at 121W could be almost lumped into 3 categories. Weaker TP's at 72% some at 75%, Strong ones at 80%

Never had a 6 footer to play with. I would like on since it would be portable, but I only have the larger dishes to play with.

I'm wondering if a newer STRONG signal from Anik F3 @ 118.8W is wiping out/interfering with the EURONEWS signal on the 6 footer because it is too small to properly reject it.
An 8.5 footer (2.6m) is able to reject 123W and 118.8W Properly.

Attached an oldie but a goodie to show you what I mean.

I'm surprised you are having such a problem with the EURONEWS TP.
The 8.5 should pick it all up.
I know i could pick up Everything on "The List" including AmericaOne on the 8.5 foot dish.
 

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Played around with a GEOSATpro DVR1100c, 1.2M and C1 LNBF with standard scaler yesterday. Thought that it might be of interest to this thread.

Locked on at 40 - 50 SQ (Threshold on DVR1100c and DSR100c/200c is approx. 30%):
Sportstime Ohio
STO
Cox
Sportsman
TVW

Registered below 30% threshold:
STO HD
Baby First/Gospel

Other TPs do not register.
 

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nice chart. i know my 10' dish has a 1.7 degree beamwidth on c band. It has .5 degree beamwidth on ku. my 7.5' has a 2.1 degree beamwidth on c band i think.
 
I should point out that while I have an easy time with the 121W transponders on any of my C-band dishes, the 2.3m, 3.0m and 3.2m all have single ortho feeds with Norsat 8115s. The 1.8m has a modified dual ortho with 8115s on C-band and a Invacom universal quatro on Ku. Everything has been tweaked on a bench spectrum analyzer and all lines have been leveled and equalized where necessary.

In particular, I 'cheated' the f/D on the 1.8m because it is almost exclusively used for low elevation work. Gain taper/noise rejection isn't as important under those conditions, so this improves the CNR in that regime and may give a little better adjacent orbital position rejection. While I should get more noise at 121W as it is at a higher elevation for me, the 121W transponders are generally plenty powerful. A bit of adjacent orbital position rejection may be helping, though. I don't have to use different 'sweet spots' on the 1.8m for different 121W transponders

I too wonder why OP's 8.5' is having problems with 121W. My 2.3m is set up in a fairly standard manner and doesn't have any issues. Off-track alignment, improper f/D setting, off-center or defocused feed or a lossy feed/LNB could be part of the problem.
 
Well I've read everyone's posts and maybe I'll get to try 121w again. The weather is still decent but I'm sure with November coming that will change. I've got the 8.5 footer pointed at 99w usually. If it's tweaked perfect, pretty much everything is at 45-55% except for Wyoming which is at 30-38 and Wapa at 68-72. I do enjoy the fact that on the larger dish I get sats with 2 degrees separation easier. Blind
 
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