Totally Frustrated

[wxman1]

I have just spent 6 hours trying to get a quality signal with my Pansat 2500a with a Fortec Dish and Fortec Universal LNB. I am using a satfinder and can separate the various "birds" in the arc. I am trying to get T5 at 200 Degrees with an elevation of 40 Degrees. I have manually entered some transponder freqs from Lyngsat to try and get a quality signal. I have searched all around for quality signal...no luck even though I get 98 signal quality. The skew setting on the antenna setup page is -45. The LNB on the dish is vertical (12 o'clock to six o'clock. Do I need to turn it counterclockwise for my location (42.26N -82.95W)? Do I need to edit this number oln the antenna setup page?If so how many degrees counterclockwise? Is this what may be causing there to be no quality signal. I apologize for the posting as I know many others have had a similar problems trying to get quality signals. (I was using a tv to monitor the signal levels through the window.)It is 43 deg outside and I am half frozen and very frustrated. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[PSB]

Welcome to the forum!!!!!!!!

I use the below coordinates to find IA5 (T5) You should be fine with your LNBF at the 12/6 O'Clock position for now, after you hit the satellite then you can mess with the LNBF, for now leave it where it is, have it as far away from dish as it will go to start with until you get quality, then you can move it closer to the dish if it helps with the quality, remember also to set your LNBF L.O. to 09750 if you are SURE its a universal LNBF, hope this helps and keep your eye on the quality meter only, good luck and let us know your progress......

IA5

Channel IRIB

11836 Freq.
V Pol.
20765 S/R.

 

[PSB]

Forgot to add I read that some of the Fortec Dish have bad elevation markings, so try -2 and +2 deg. on the elevation, then another -2 and +2 you cant be far away, keep warm!

 

[Bulldog]

Forgot to add I read that some of the Fortec Dish have bad elevation markings, so try -2 and +2 deg. on the elevation, then another -2 and +2 you cant be far away, keep warm!

I have set up as many as 10 FTA installations on T5, try the following:

1. Is your dish an offset type?

If so, it is usually off by 20 to 25 degrees.

2. Take in consideration true north and magnetic north for your location and compensate.

3. Once you are line up with the sat., move the dish slowly up and down until you lock.

Let me know.

 

[PSB]

You have set up 10.............Cool! !

1. The off set value is already taken into acount on the elevation scale on the dish.

2. WXMAN1 has stated that he is aiming at 200 deg, as we all know south is 180 on a compass so looks like he has already taken into account the "magnetic deviation"

3.How will he know he is "line up with the sat." if he is going to be moving the dish up and down?

 

[Mark_AR]

I gotta go with on this one. Get all of your elevation and azimuth as close as you can. then tick it a degree or 2 at a time until you get Quality. Don't worry about Signal strength. You can hold your hand over the LNB and the signal will actually increase. So don't use that as an indicator.

Make sure your Transponder info is what said. The Pansat has a habit of reverting to a TP1 that is built in, and if I remember right, The 2500a TP1 setting doesn't work for IA5. YOu might have been right on and if the TP info was wrong, you don't get any QUALITY.

I've got one set up in my LR and one out in the garage for testing old dishes. I'll try to help as much as I can.

 

[wxman1]

Good morning gentlemen and thanks for the replies. We'll give it another try today. Here is what I am using (a) Fortec FSKU-V Universal LNB (b) 30" Fortec Star dish (c) 50 ft RG-6 feedline (d) brand new Pansat 2500 (e) satellite finder (f) compass
Questions: (1) in the antenna set up there are two settings for Universal LNB (1) 9700/10600 and (2) 9750/10750...I am using the latter. The 22 khz appears to be "dashed out" (-), DiscEqC is off, skew is -45 (my LNB is in the vertical position on the dish)
Peter, the frequencies you gave me are in the default software as transponder 6. Here are the steps I took just a few minutes ago...
(a) went to antenna set up page
(b) highlighted T5 and then went to the appropriate transponder as noted above
(c) went outside (I can see the monitor through the window)
(d) with the satellite finder I have found 7 satellites in the arc around where I know I should be pointing (using a compass as well)
(e) moving the dish VERY slowly east and west and compensating for the elevation changes as we go through the arc ...still unable to get a quality signal. (focussing in on 220 deg/40 deg elevation)...realizing there may be a discrepancy due to the Fortec dish but the satfinder will be more accurate in that regard.
I almost think I am doing something wrong. (a) should I be going to the SIG page? (b) what does the UNLOCK mean on that page?

I assume my LNB is OK as the satfinder is working just fine (used it many times before )

Gonna go outside again (brrr) and give it another shot. Appreciate any further suggestions or assistance anyone may have.

All the best to all reading this posting and thanks in advance for your patience and assistance. Once we pass this hurdle we want to set the dish to T6 for the newsfeeds. One step at a time!!

 

[wxman1]

Here's an afterthought....how does Smartscan work? (a) if I am on a known satellite signal (found with the satfinder) will Smartscan scan the various Ku frequencies on that satellite and download same to the receiver? Almost sounds too logical....I'll keep my fingers crossed however awaiting any comments.

 

[wxman1]

Getting there .... (I think). Just found IA6 on 12170 V 3003 S/R with 30% quality. Did a satellite scan and found two stations on the above transponder (a) MTV English1 (b) MTV English 2. No picture as screen says "scrambled or bad signal" Have posted a new thread looking for newsfeed info of IA6. We may be making progress....slow but sure.

 

[PSB]

See your new post, you are on the wrong bird, not far away : )

 

[SatelliteAV]

Your universal LO frequency setting should be set to 9750 / 10600

The 22 hz will be grayed out when you select the Universal LNBF as a universal LNBF uses the 22 hz tone to switch between high and lo frequency selection.

Unlock display indicates that the receiver is not locking onto a quality signal.

Remove the SatFinder from inline as it will decrease your signal quality.

Instead of trying to follow the arc as you pan the azimuth, set the elevation of the dish to the correct setting and slowly pan the azimuth. If the satellite is not found and a degree to the elevation and sweep again. Repeat if necessary raising or lowering the dish and securing before each sweep.

Not sure where you are getting your aiming coordinates, but try the coordinates that I have run with my link budget calculator. I have rounded the numbers ....

Your aiming coordinates for your location are approximately:
Magnetic azimuth 207
Elevation 39
Feedhorn Rotation +15 degrees (Counter clockwise)

Good luck with your install!

 

[SatelliteAV]

Don't use the scan feature until you are on the correct bird. Factory reset the unit if you have blind searched while on the wrong satellite. Otherwise you will have transponders and scanned channels assigned to the wrong satellites

 

[SatelliteAV]

If you are on T6 move 4 degrees west and raise the elevation 1 degree

 

[wxman1]

Thanks for all the great help folks. Well got brave and did a Smart Scan (blind search) where I was and saved it as a new satellite. Guess what (and you were right Peter) I was on IA5. Now...no wonder I was having so much problem...the downlink frequencies from Lyngsat (latest update) don't match what is showing up on the receiver. For example: Bridges TV shows up as 12201 on my receiver whereas it is 12053 on the Lyngsat page. All transponder frequencies differ from the listing and that is probably why I have had so much problem trying to find a live transponder....any suggetions?

 

[PSB]

Well done, about all you can do for now is write down how much it is off from Lyngsat and remember it! Knew you would get it : )

 

[Bulldog]

You have set up 10.............Cool! !

1. The off set value is already taken into acount on the elevation scale on the dish.

2. WXMAN1 has stated that he is aiming at 200 deg, as we all know south is 180 on a compass so looks like he has already taken into account the "magnetic deviation"

3.How will he know he is "line up with the sat." if he is going to be moving the dish up and down?

T5 with a 1 meter (30") is tricky. I have done some for my neighbors for both Chinese channel and Thai channels I prefer the 36".

As you know unlike DSS for "E" and "D" that have very strong signals, T5 's signal is weak. I have found that most of the dish alignment settings for FTA market get you just in the ballpark. A good compass with the proper deviations taken into consideration and If the dish is set to the correct settings then slowly panning the azimuth should at least set him up on the right arc. After your are sure you are at the correct azimuth location then very slowly raise and lower the elevation, this normally gets you there as you look at the displayed quality scale. I have install a few Fortec Star 786NA and that unit has to be setup correctly.

I replaced a FTA unit with an existing Dish that had been setup correctly and if you do not follow the steps correctly with the Fortec you will never get the quality signal. I'll ask WXMAN1 to double check his settings.

Cheers

 

[wxman1]

SUCCESS!!!! Thanks everyone for your patience and help. SatAV you "nailed it". As soon as I changed the LNB setup to 9750/10600 it brought the correct downlink frequencies in line. Now...will go look for IA6 outside...at least it is warmer than yesterday...now 45 degrees outside. Thanks again to all.