I have a Fortec Star Mercury II FTA receiver. I use my old G.I. analog receiver/positioner to move my big dish from sat to sat., so I have to keep power scanning whenever I want to search out what's on a particular sat. This process takes a while, if I go through several sats, it takes longer than it's worth (so it seems). Do all FTA receivers take that long to powerscan, or is it just something inherant with the Fortec Star I have? Am I missing something in the process (I get frustrated with spending so much time waiting for the powerscan process to complete.)?
Speed of FTA Powerscan
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The Mercury II is a pretty fast scanning unit, so I would first investigate how the Power Scan is being implemented.
Do you save the scans for each satellite so you don't have to scan for most often watched channels or do you erase each time that the dish is moved? Saving channels in a list that is recalled for each satellite will limit the need to scan for only new feeds.
The scan steps can be changed to provide fine detail scans stopping every few MHz to check or wider steps to check every 8 or 10MHz. I find that most channels are easily found with 8 - 10 MHz steps. The larger the scan steps, the less detail for weaker or SCPC channels, but the faster the scan.
What LNB or LNBF type are you using? An LNBF with voltage switching will simply the scanning of both Horizontal and vertical polarities without the operator needing to manually select the polarity on the controlling receiver. If you are using a feed horn with and LNBF, do you select only the one polarity for the scan or do you allow both polaries to be scanned even though only one might be available? You can limit the frequencies scanned by using a start and a stop frequency. This will speed up the scan. The same goes for the Symbol Rates. Decrease the amount of variables that you require the unit to scan and the scans will be much quicker.
The easiest and fastest way to scan and enjoy your C-band dish is to get rid of the analog receiver/positioner and replace with a VBox X or GBox which is controlled by the Mercury II DiSEqC 1.2 mode motor control and replace the servo controlled feedhorn / LNB with a LNBF that is controlled by the Mercury II polarity voltage switching.
Do you save the scans for each satellite so you don't have to scan for most often watched channels or do you erase each time that the dish is moved? Saving channels in a list that is recalled for each satellite will limit the need to scan for only new feeds.
The scan steps can be changed to provide fine detail scans stopping every few MHz to check or wider steps to check every 8 or 10MHz. I find that most channels are easily found with 8 - 10 MHz steps. The larger the scan steps, the less detail for weaker or SCPC channels, but the faster the scan.
What LNB or LNBF type are you using? An LNBF with voltage switching will simply the scanning of both Horizontal and vertical polarities without the operator needing to manually select the polarity on the controlling receiver. If you are using a feed horn with and LNBF, do you select only the one polarity for the scan or do you allow both polaries to be scanned even though only one might be available? You can limit the frequencies scanned by using a start and a stop frequency. This will speed up the scan. The same goes for the Symbol Rates. Decrease the amount of variables that you require the unit to scan and the scans will be much quicker.
The easiest and fastest way to scan and enjoy your C-band dish is to get rid of the analog receiver/positioner and replace with a VBox X or GBox which is controlled by the Mercury II DiSEqC 1.2 mode motor control and replace the servo controlled feedhorn / LNB with a LNBF that is controlled by the Mercury II polarity voltage switching.
Thanks. I have an old 8' Paraclipse (Hydroform) BD with its original feedhorn, and I've been scanning without adjusting any polarity. Maybe I need to be looking at getting a G-Box and new feedhorn(?)... Are these items costly?
I've had this anolog set-up since the early nineties, and I bought the FTA receiver to try and bring life back into my big dish. I've been very close to just bringing the whole system down and selling it, but I keep thinking maybe I can get it back to a point where I can have some fun with it again.
I've had this anolog set-up since the early nineties, and I bought the FTA receiver to try and bring life back into my big dish. I've been very close to just bringing the whole system down and selling it, but I keep thinking maybe I can get it back to a point where I can have some fun with it again.
Not expensive at all. The GEOSATpro C2 is our best performing C-band LNBF and is priced at $25. I would recommend a C-band only LNBF over a C/KU band LNBF, but both will provide very acceptable performance on your dish.
Galaxy Marketing carries the VBox X and it is priced at $49
More free digital C-band channels than ever! I would look into ways to make the experience more enjoyable and less work. Look into upgrading to a SD/HD receiver after you see how easy it is to control your dish and feedhorn again! Your existing receiver will be able to directly control the dish and LNBF allowing you to move the analog receiver into storage.
Galaxy Marketing carries the VBox X and it is priced at $49
More free digital C-band channels than ever! I would look into ways to make the experience more enjoyable and less work. Look into upgrading to a SD/HD receiver after you see how easy it is to control your dish and feedhorn again! Your existing receiver will be able to directly control the dish and LNBF allowing you to move the analog receiver into storage.
Don't give up the dish! Like the man said, there's more free tv than ever. I resisted the 'digital switchover' as much as anybody, thinking it was going to be more complicated than it was worth. But I'm glad I finally ordered that first digital fta box. They have evolved quite a bit. I've been through several , looking, likeyou, for a faster scanner. The fastest scanning, most accurate box I have owned is the Icon I'm using now. Not HD, but it will scan 2-3 satellites in the time the Mercury2 does ( and I still use one of those too-they're several years old-technology now but excellent picture quality, and not so bad scanning either!). One thing that slows the Mercury down is the way it scans, first one polarity, storing transponders as it goes, then the other polarity=then it has go back through those transponders it stored to search out the channels. If you can find one of these Icon or Satopia boxes someplace, grab it, if you want a super fast scan. Mine has locked channels with a symbol rate as low as 1000, those are rare but still nice to know your receiver can do it.
Okay guys, you talked me into keeping my BD set-up and sharpening it up! My intent is to be able to scan a satellite in a timely manner for viewing, then, if I don't see anything of interest, be able to move on to another sat to repeat the process, again IN A TIMELY MANNER... My current dish has always had C/Ku capability, which, back in the day was cool since Ku came in handy for finding interesting feeds (like sports). If that's not as much of an issue now, I can certainly go with just C-band. Sounds like, if I upgrade to a GEOSTATpro C2 (or a C/KU LNBF) and the VBox X, and just go with my current Mercury II, I should be in business. Then, maybe upgrade to an Icon or Satopia later. Does that sound like a good plan? Again, thanks for all your advice with this!
Sounds like a great way to get back into having fun! On the receiver front, I probably wouldn't upgrade from the Mercury II to another SD unit. If you are considering another receiver, go for adding DVBS2 and HD and review the units that the members are recommending and buying at the time you purchase.
Thanks, Brian. I'm thinking I'd like to stay with both C-band and KU. What type LNFB would I need in that case? Or do you think it's not worth the effort... Maybe I'll go onto your webpage to order the stuff we've been talking about. Do you think I would I have much trouble replacing my old receiver/positioner and LNB with this new equip?
Replacing parts is done nearly every day here, lol, by some member or another. Once you get your new lnbf, there will be someone familiar with it and can share how they made it work. Mainly is just putting your dish at true south, installing the lnbf, and adjusting it properly for both c and ku.
Galaxy Marketing sells the supplies that you will need including the C/KU LNBF. Just make sure that you purchase the KU-band Standard version and not the Universal type. You should also purchase a 2x1 22KHz switch if the C/KU LNBF does not have a switch built-in. Your receiver can control the switch between the C and KU outputs. Like Turbosat said, If you have any issue with swapping the LNBF or programming the Mercury II to control the VBox X.
The C2 has superior performance compared to any C or C/KU LNBF. Even compared to our C1 and the original C/K1, the choice of higher quality components and heavy casting of the body make it a strong and reliable performer. Satellite AV was the first distributor in North America to distribute a C/KU LNBF. While the performance on the GEOSATpro C/KU unit consistently outperformed later arrivals during consumers testing, it was never a great seller.
A C/KU LNBF originally got poor reviews because hobbyists were trying to use the units on undersized offset dishes. The LNBF was never designed for the higher F/D and while performance was lower on C-band, it was very critical on KU-band. A C/KU LNBF can be carefully adjusted on a larger prime focus dish to provide very good performance, but there is a slight trade-off when adding the KU-band.
A C/KU LNBF originally got poor reviews because hobbyists were trying to use the units on undersized offset dishes. The LNBF was never designed for the higher F/D and while performance was lower on C-band, it was very critical on KU-band. A C/KU LNBF can be carefully adjusted on a larger prime focus dish to provide very good performance, but there is a slight trade-off when adding the KU-band.
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