OTHER Success at hitting AMC 21(125W, etc) with my HugesNet repurposed dish!

[jessica6]

I finally hit it! This one seemed tougher to find than Galaxy 19 (97W).
I got 7 channels, all on the same transponder 12180-V 30000. I tried a blind scan after that, but still only found that 1 transponder.
But, I'm happy.
Here's a picture of my dish. I did have my LNB pointed a little high up until today, so I lowered it such that it's parallel to the arm to which it's mounted; that seemed to do the trick!

 

[primestar31]

I finally hit it! This one seemed tougher to find than Galaxy 19 (97W).
I got 7 channels, all on the same transponder 12180-V 30000. I tried a blind scan after that, but still only found that 1 transponder.
But, I'm happy.
Here's a picture of my dish. I did have my LNB pointed a little high up until today, so I lowered it such that it's parallel to the arm to which it's mounted; that seemed to do the trick!
View attachment 155124

Don't leave those mirrors on there, IF you don't want laser drilled holes through your lnbf...

 

[c-spand]

You may want to bring that lnb a little closer to dish. And tilt up a bit. Tr to get it close to what was on there.

 

[a33]

I did have my LNB pointed a little high up until today, so I lowered it such that it's parallel to the arm to which it's mounted; that seemed to do the trick!

You did that by bending the LNB-holder towards the dish?
That way you did bring the LNB-head a little closer to the dish, and put the LNB in a little larger offset position.

Your new-found aiming angle of the LNB is not an optimal direction for this dish.
So it looks like the LNB is still not at the optimal spot, at the moment. So I can support the hint by c-spand , I guess.

Greetz,
A33

 

[Cham]

That type of dish does have a longer focal length than most FTA dishes. The LNBF does look like it's aimed a bit low. Should be aimed an inch or two below the center of the reflector usually, but difficult to tell from the photo due to the angle it's taken.
Yes 97 is reletively easy to aim at. Other satellites with weaker transponders can be tricky, and I have found 125W Ku to be finicky.
The PBS channels are a must-have for FTA for sure!

 

[cyberham]

Now that you've accomplished this much, you're over the worst. Maybe after a little more tweaking per tips above, go for 103W. It has some good viewing. Or even 117W has a couple of good channels. If you can see as far east as 91W, it is worth finding too.

 

[arlo]

Next task. The NASA channels on 127W. The UHD channel is amazing.
My personal thought is your lnb is aimed a bit low looking at other setups.
Then again, that's me.

 

[cyberham]

She can't receive the Nasa channels via satellite since they're on C-band.

 

[arlo]

She can't receive the Nasa channels via satellite since they're on C-band.

....grrrr...*#%&....more coffee!

 

[jessica6]

I took some better pictures. How does my LNB look now?

Also, this is a closeup of my LNB(F):

Does it matter which of the 4 ports I use? I thought they were for multiple TVs. If that's the case, and each TV has its own receiver, wouldn't the LNB be receiving power from all 4?

 

[arlo]

I still think you would gain a few dB signal with it a little more towards the dish center.
As for the quad. Yup. A receiver per port.
"The Quad LNB is now the most common LNB out there and the type we fit as standard even when our customer only requires one cable as it allows further cables to be added at a later date. With a Quad LNB you can run four cables from it, this could be for four separate satellite receivers, two separate PVR recordable versions, or alternatively one recordable PVR in one room and two separate satellite receivers in two more rooms."

 

[Titanium]

Once the LNBF is powered the voltage and 22KHz tone on the other ports only select between the high (22KHz On) or low (22KHz OFF) band or the polarity vertical (13vdc) and horizontal (18Vdc). Occasionally, there are switching conflicts when the other receivers are on other AC power source circuits or have been mis-wired.

 

[cyberham]

You can use any of the ports. They're the same. My opinion is your LNB needs to look a little higher on the dish. At this stage, don't take our word. For this fine tuning, you need to be able to see the TV display as you finely tweak the LNB both in position and skew. This means either having a portable TV beside the dish, or using a satellite meter. Or the best idea is having a receiver (like an Edision...) which supports a smartphone app for remote operation via wifi. In this case, you simply monitor the received quality on your receiver using your smartphone at the dish.

 

[Brct203]

Congratulations on finding AMC21! It is indeed a bit of a tricky one. You might find that if you move the dish slightly to the east, you might be able to get KBS World on 123W while still getting the PBS channels on AMC21.

I agree that the position of the LNBF seems a bit low. As Cyberham suggested, the best way is to have a receiver and TV near the dish and tweak while watching the signal quality on the TV. One important detail to keep in mind... since the dish acts as a mirror, every time you adjust the height of the LNBF relative to the arm, you should re-peak the elevation of the dish. In other words, adjusting the LNBF alone is not enough because the dish aiming was possibly wrong to start with as it was compensating for an incorrect LNBF position - you should experiment with different heights and peak the elevation each time, to find the best combination. You might want to take precise measurements and write down the result to keep track. It's very easy to lose track of what the signal quality was and of where the LNBF was 5 adjustments ago

 

[FTA4PA]

If you experiment with changing the aim of the lnbf or the elevation as some have suggested make sure you mark/measure everything before moving anything so you can get back to where you started if things don't go well.

 

[arlo]

I still think you would gain a few dB signal with it a little more towards the dish center.
As for the quad. Yup. A receiver per port.
"The Quad LNB is now the most common LNB out there and the type we fit as standard even when our customer only requires one cable as it allows further cables to be added at a later date. With a Quad LNB you can run four cables from it, this could be for four separate satellite receivers, two separate PVR recordable versions, or alternatively one recordable PVR in one room and two separate satellite receivers in two more rooms."

Imagine going from this to this. I got every last little dB of signal I could out of it. Long retired now. It was fun and at times hair pulling. I just looked in the garage attic. Lnbf throats are more towards the dish center than the bottom.

 

[jessica6]

You can use any of the ports. They're the same. My opinion is your LNB needs to look a little higher on the dish. At this stage, don't take our word. For this fine tuning, you need to be able to see the TV display as you finely tweak the LNB both in position and skew. This means either having a portable TV beside the dish, or using a satellite meter. Or the best idea is having a receiver (like an Edision...) which supports a smartphone app for remote operation via wifi. In this case, you simply monitor the received quality on your receiver using your smartphone at the dish.

Yes, I am using a portable monitor. It looks like a tablet with a mini HDMI port. Only problem is it's kinda hard to see it outside during the day.

 

[cyberham]

I've used an umbrella positioned to shade my monitor from the sun so I can see it better. It gives neighbours something to talk about.

 

[jessica6]

I'm about to set the whole thing on my roof to see how it works. The house came with coax routed to the roof already, so it should be easy.
Then if I'm happy, I'll get a motor. Any advice on which motor? I found this one on these 2 sites:

STAB HH90 DiSEqC Horizon To Horizon HH USALS Motor NEW • Sadoun Sales International

STAB HH90 is the smallest HH motor in the market today.

www.sadoun.com

and

HH90 USALS | Satellite Antenna Rotor - Stab

HH90 USALS | Satellite Antenna Rotor - Stab

satelliteav.com

 

[cyberham]

SatelliteAV or Hypermegasat may be the only places that still have stock of these types of motors. They're both good motors.