The Mystery Of The Disappearing NHK World Channel

[Christopher Cromwell]

I might have to reset the motor while I am up there too. Either that, I will have to wait until I get a fancy handheld expensive signal finder. That finally explains why I'm not getting anything correctly. I may have to address the crushed metal pole sooner than I planned.

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[Christopher Cromwell]

As you can see in this latest pic of my C-Band dish, the good news is, I have a backup Invacom Ku LNB pointed at the 99.2W satellite on the 1.2M C-Band dish. The other backup Ku LNB to the left is for the 87W satellite. This was my latest experiments I was working on for the past month. I was trying to get a second C-Band satellite on the same dish, and while I got an excellent Ku signal on the 91W satellite as well as a few other ones, I couldn't get any signal from the C-Band LNB; no matter what transponder I tried. I messed with it in the hot humid heat for a good half day each weekend that was half decent out. The plastic C-Band bracket ended up breaking in half the other day, pretty much ending my experiments for 2 C-Band LNB's on one 1.2M dish. Depending where you live, you might be able to make it work for you however. Im not exactly sure why it didn't work for me on the 3-4 satellites I tried, unless the sun outage had something to do with it? Anyway, I gave up on the experiments, and just installed the two extra Ku LNB's at both satellites as back up's, in cases like the one I am having now with the motorized dish. The first half of my experiments worked, but the other half didnt work out. I don't think I could have picked up a defective C-Band LNB, but I still have it as a back up in case I need one later on.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

This is insane!!! I still can't bring up NHK World or RT or Shalom TV either on my backup 99W LNB on the 1.2M dish! I am manually trying to put in the transponders, but the receiver either says no channels, or no signal at all. Does the Galaxy 16 satellite uplink facility have it out for me or what??!! Does anyone have the transponder for Shalom TV? I deleted all of my old transponders earlier, so I have nothing to go back to.

 

[jorgek]

Shalom TV is on 11801 H 30000 Gal 16.
You mentioned scanning in tons of channels. What are they? Could you be on 97W instead?
I have only 18 channels scanned in. 11 are scrambled, 4 Radio channels and NHK, RT and Shalom.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@jorgek, on my motorized dish I thought I was getting a ton of channels on Galaxy 16. I found out later, like you mentioned, my dish got moved somehow from the weather or wind a few degrees east I think. I will have to go up on the roof and do another alignment. In the meantime, I thought I had a back-up Ku LNB aimed at the Galaxy 16 99W satellite on my 1.2M C-Band dish. I did a blind scan, and only got 8 channels off it; mostly news feeds and no radio channels. I manually entered in the transponder information for Shalom TV which comes in at a killer signal, but no channels are on that however. I then tried to manually enter in the transponder info for the NHK World with multiple variations, but no signal at all there. I wondered if I was on the wrong satellite, or if satellites share the same frequencies, but the Newsone Feed channel says I am on the Galaxy 16 satellite, so I don't know what the malfunction is now. I put in 99.2W followed by 99.0W on the satellite list, but got the same results.

 

[jorgek]

You can temporarily in USALS change you LONG by a degree or 2 to move the dish to the correct spot.
Have you verified your LNB settings?

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@jorgek, oh. I checked again, and like you correctly mentioned again, I am on the 91W satellite instead. Geezz!! I must have brought up the same frequency that are shared on the 91W and 99W satellites and thinking the whole time I was on the 99W satellite. Back up to the roof I go I suppose.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@jorgek, I did double check my LNB settings, they are correct. I did try to remotely move the dish in USALS to bring in NHK World on my motorized dish, It wasn't coming in at all no matter what direction I choose. My C-Band dish is not motorized.

 

[jorgek]

I might have to reset the motor while I am up there too. Either that, I will have to wait until I get a fancy handheld expensive signal finder. That finally explains why I'm not getting anything correctly. I may have to address the crushed metal pole sooner than I planned.

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What crushed metal pole are you referring to?

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

I crushed in the pole mount on my motorized dish when I first put it together. I wrenched everything down tight, but just recently the wind or something must have moved the whole dish assembly a few degrees around the oval shaped part of the pole mount. I will have to take the whole dish assembly off, reshape the pole mount correctly, bolt on a galvanized piece of pipe over the original pole mount, and realign the dish assembly on the stronger pole. That way I can line it up, bolt it down good on the galvanized pipe, and not have to worry about it turning itself around a few degrees later.

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[jorgek]

Yup I crushed a pole once ever so slightly. That was enough so that I was way off at both extremes of east and west travel. Took me a while to figure it out. I replaced the pole with a thicker walled pole and cured the problem.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

It took me awhile too to finally figure out why nothing was matching up correctly on the channels today. I was hoping I was completely done with the dish project and have to keep going up on the roof so much. My wife is getting tired of me not being done.

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[Titanium]

A 1.2m dish would probably not provide enough gain to support an offset C-band LNBF unless the signal is a total scorcher.

Remember that the reflected satellite signal is mirror opposite. If the desired satellite is to the East, the LNBF is mounted on the West side. If the elevation is higher, the LNBF is mounted lower.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

Finally have NHK World and RT tuned back in. I fixed the slightly crushed pole by squeezing it back into a round shape, and inserting a steel pipe into the pole mount for added strength. Everything still checked out perfect level, I put the dish back on and realigned it to Ku 85W. I spent the good part of the day to finally realize the 4 port switch went bad, which was the root of all my problems to begin with a few weeks ago. The switch would work for awhile, then go back out for awhile. When the dish tries to look at a new satellite when the switch goes out, everything got thrown out of whack and nothing matched up correctly. So it never was an alignment problem to begin with. At least a new 4 port Diseqc won't cost much. Just have to reload all the channels from the right satellite.

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[Christopher Cromwell]

The inner steel pole is not crushed or caved as far as I can tell, I have everything bolted down tight.

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[Titanium]

Good troubleshooting!

DiSEqC switches are usually very fragile.

A few DiSEqC pointer for others reading this thread: Remember to unplug or turn off the master power switch (if applicable) of the the STB when connecting and disconnecting coax cables to the ports. Don't run motors on a DiSEqC port. Dab a little silicon sealant over any unused port to prevent moisture or water from entering.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@Titanium, I agree. My Diseqc switch is located after the motor. The coax runs from the receiver to the motor, then from the motor to the switch and LNB's, I knew to set it up that way from the get go. It was a long pain to finally figure out the switch was bad, not sure why it died. Maybe the heat and humidity got to it, it was in a plastic enclosure the whole time, so I still don't know; I wouldn't think lightning could have done it. Anyway, do you sell a good 4 port Diseqc switch on your site that won't die of heat stroke after a few months of use? I kept wondering why I kept losing continuity after changing one good coax cable for other ones. At least now I know what to look for next time.

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[jorgek]

Don't go cheap on the switch. I have for many years used the heavy duty Chieta WSD-2041. I have actually run my Stab 90 motor thru it (not recommended) for about a year with no issues.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@jorgek, I am on the internet now looking at replacement switches. I thought Amiko would be the one to get, as I don't want to go Chinese Cheap again. What site did you go to, to buy the one you mentioned. I would like to buy it next week after I get paid. Could you please let me know?

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[Christopher Cromwell]

@jorgek, nevermind. I found the site that sells them, I guess they are no longer produced and hard to find; but a 1.5db loss is even harder to find. Would be nice if there was a weatherproof cover for it though. The Amiko switch I was looking at already has a weatherproof case built in.

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