Trying to pick up IA5

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MrD

SatelliteGuys Family
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Jan 5, 2007
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I recently had a FTA dish equipment from Glorystar installed, but the installers are having a hard time getting the transponder for Miracle Channel and others. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
 
New to FTA, also trying to pick up IA5

I have a new dish and receiver I bough from Sadoun. I'm still having problems pointing the dish correctly. I'm sure having fun learning.

I have a question regarding where to place the dish. Can I have it on the ground or does it have to be up high?

I was trying to test it first before moving it to the roof.

Currently I have 2 DishNetwork dishes on top of the house, one pointing West and one point South. Can I use the position as an indication of the angle?

Thank you in advance
 
main thing on placement is LOS (line of sight)

after that location might be for wind resistance , for this the lower the better

another good thing on first install is not to get frustrated , you'll get it , if not just pop back in and ask .... no stupid questions here.....
 
You can have it ON the ground as long as you can see the satellites, its not like an over-the-air antenna for terrestrial signals where higher is better. As Gabshire said, mount it as low as you can. It will be easier to work on and won't have as many problems from wind.

You can use the Dishnet dishes for a general reference (Dish birds are at 110w and 119w to the west and 61.5w to the east).
 
I recently had a FTA dish equipment from Glorystar installed, but the installers are having a hard time getting the transponder for Miracle Channel and others. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!

This channel is able to watch free at Intelsat America 5 @97*W, frequency 11966 H and Fec 22000.
 
Azimuth Calculation and Compass to point Satellite Dish

What a way to loose way.....:)

I have a couple of dumb questions that I'm having difficulty figuring out.

1. According to Sadoun instructions I need to find the Azimuth then add (my case) the "magnetic declination". If my Azimuth is 215.9 for IA5 in Boston and my "magnetic declination" is +16 making my Azimuth 231.9, using the compass I should have the dish pointing to 231.9 degrees. Is this the correct way to calculate and point the dish?

2. If I'm pointing the disk correctly and I get not channels with a "blind scan", is that an indication of something defective with the receiver?

Thank you in advance
 
1) yes
2) no
but it could be setup
likely you have the wrong elevation, skew, or just aren't patient enough. :)
Oh, and pick a hot transponder as recommended by IceBerg.

Code:
                        Boston, MA 02215
           Latitude 42° 20.826'N Longitude 71° 6.162'W
                         Sat Name Sat Lng Az(t) Az(m)   El  Skew
----------------------------------------------------------------
              Intelsat Americas 5   97.0W 215.8 232.0 34.5  25.6
 
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sometimes it can be frustrating but you can get it

i usually found that direction is close so that would be 232 with compass
what i found that varies a little bit is the dish elevation so if it says 34.5 and check the instructions for the dish to find out if its marked a certain way ( some use the flat metal behind the bolt screw) adjust from 30 to 40 slowly (probably going to be closer to 38) adjust it slowly and make sure the skew is set to 25.6 (or close)

and after you find that live transponder you can tweak it for stronger signal

good luck
 
Success in getting AMC4 RTPI

I just wanted to express my gratitude for all the help and the extensive information at this site.

I spent all day setting up the dish. I was able to pickup IA5 (a lot of Asian channels) and them I adjusted the dish to get AMC4 for RTPi. I use the the signal meter from Sadoun and the compass, it helped getting the correct angles and direction.



The signal is coming in clear. I had a hard time getting AMC4, but a few adjustments of the dish and lots of patience.

In the Spring I will be moving the dish to the side of the house. That will be fun!

Will I be able to pickup other satellites, by having the dish pointing to AMC4?

Thank you
 
You can buy a motor that will move your dish to other satellites, but if it doesn't have a motor now, no you will get whatever sat you're aimed toward.
charles
 
Congrat's, you might be able to put a switch and a second LNBF on your dish and pickup IA5 at 97 degrees. SatelliteAV has a dual holder that works with their 90 cm dish and a small single LNBF. I have used this setup and it works well.
Bob
 
Lost RTPI signal

Since last Saturday all was working well. Yesterday we had rain and some frozen rain. Now I cannot pickup the RTPI. :confused:

The dish is clean and has no ice on it. I can still pickup the AMC4 satellite and I can pickup other channels.

I have been wondering if the length of the R6 cable matters. Is there signal amplifiers that will boot the signal?

I move the receiver to another room last Saturday and I was able to get RTPI, but I noticed that the signal has gone down. What have some of you down in situations like this?

Thanks
 
how much cable are we talking? I run 150 feet with no issues

an amplifier can actually hurt the signal. Maybe there is issues with the uplink. RTPI has had issues before
 
I would say ~120 feet. I have DishNetwork and it is getting the RTPI, different satellite.

May be I need to do some tweaking at the dish. I read on some forums, people mentioning tweaking to increase the signal. How do you go about doing that?
 
Since the rain and the cold weather my dish seems to be pointing to AMC1. I'm picking up he Pentagon Channel. How could the cold shift the dish that many degrees? I have it attached to a wooden fence, it seems that everything shrunk enough to trow off the direction.

Has anyone have a similar problem?

Thank you
 
We recommend that only steel posts be used for FTA dish installations. Wood grain will twist according to the moisture content. The soil around the fence post may also be heaving due to the frost and shifting the fence post.

A better mounting solution would be to set a 8' steel post in cement at least 2 - 3 ft below the frost line. Attach a muffler clamp or a bolt through the post within the cement to prevent the post from rotating in the cement.
 
Thanks Brian, that is probably what happened. I will adjust it this weekend and drill the hole in the Spring.

What type of steel posts are best, will fence posts work?
 
Recommend a thick walled pipe like a water pipe, but a standard galvanized fence post will support most dishes. Add a little more stiffness to the pipe by filling the post with cement as the base is poured.
 
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Really simple question????

Time to shop for FTA receivers on ebay?

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