Tuning Ku w/ Geosat ck1 c/ku

[PANHANDLER]

I have been trying to get the Geosat Ck1 c/ku to work on ku band for some time now . all is working great on the c side .I am using my 8' unimesh with the Gbox positioner , Pansat 3500SD and on the lnb is a diseq 2x1 switch , port 1 for c-band and port 2 for ku I have the reciever ports setup accordingly.I am only able to get a lock on one sat ( i think it's AMC-9 KU 12182, h 4232 ) . The only way after several attempts of changing settings in attena setup is to change the lnb to single stack and i got a lock .To back up a few steps i wrote down active transponders from my Fortec star wich is dedicated to ku band using the fortec 31" and implimented them to the Pansat and still can't get a signal after scanning east and west over and over , as you can see i am getting frustarted , am i doing something wrong or is there a simple answer i have over looked ? thanx in advance .
Panhandler

 

[meinename]

When setting up my second BSC-621, I was very glad I had the original dish documentation.
Running the measurements through a calculator, I got a 45.5" focal length.
The Original documents said 46"

Guess which measurement gave me Ku signal quality on the BSC-621?
46"

I had to work slowly over a week to get my Ku side working.
Take your time.

 

[PANHANDLER]

Now that makes sense to me , when i was setting up the focal point to get the c side to peek i noticed i could move the lnb a good half inch and the sig would not very , i will try that . Now i'm thinking if the skew needs to be fine tuned also . My nieghbors realy ras me everytime i get the ladder out to fine tune , oh well let mm talk lol

 

[SatelliteAV]

What LNBF LO frequency are you setting for the KU output (DiSEqC switch #2?

Should be set to Standard type with LO 10750. I assume that it is correct from your post, but never hurts to confirm.

The Scaler setting, Focal Length and Skew are much more exacting with the KU band.

 

[PANHANDLER]

I have the lo frequency set to 10750 but on #2 (this port is connectef to the ku side ), i have # 1 set to 5150 for the c side

 

[PANHANDLER]

Looks to me i need to get back out there and fine tune my focal point and skew abit , . Thank you SatelliteAV and meinename for the input , i will keep ya all posted .

 

[Anole]

Linuxman and Stogie5150 have both written extensively on how to tune the Ck-1 on Ku.
They both (and others) have gotten quite good results.

Some of the critical adjustments were:
- centering the LNBF on the dish
- aiming the LNBF at the center of the dish
- adjusting focal length for Ku
- skew, as mentioned above

I don't know if the scalar really has any affect on Ku reception.
It's a C-band thing.
But, if you move the entire scalar+LNBF in/out to tune for focus on Ku, that could have a detrimental affect on C-band.
I'll leave the details of how they went about it, to those listed, or you can look up their threads for more info.

 

[brentb636]

My neighbor lady runs a barber shop/salon out of a room that overlooks my little dish garden. She tells me that some of them think I'm some sort of nut !
Watching me is cheap entertainment, I suppose.

 

[PANHANDLER]

My neighbor lady runs a barber shop/salon out of a room that overlooks my little dish garden. She tells me that some of them think I'm some sort of nut !
Watching me is cheap entertainment, I suppose.

LOL i get the same thing , they actually asked me what i'm doing with that big dish in my yard , i responded with , thats so i can here you talk about me better , they stopped asking ;]

 

[PANHANDLER]

Thank you Anloe i was always worried about the correct aim at the center of the dish sense i have no device to do that , all good points . People have told me before to just dedicate the 8 footer to c-band and leave the 31" for ku , but hey this is a hobby and i love testing it . So up goes the ladder .

 

[stogie5150]

I use the CK-1 on both of my BUD's, I love them.

A couple things:

Whenever you can, always set it up on your TS satellite. I don't know if you had Ku on this particular dish before, but Ku on a BUD is VERY touchy to tune, the dish MUST, I repeat, MUST be exactly on the arc to get Ku reliably with these LNB's, In my experience. If your C band is good on both polarities, I'd think you should get SOME ku, like you indicated.

Your focal length and centering MUST be correct, also, once you KNOW its centered and the focal length is correct, then and only then can you mess with non-standard LNB placement. On my Birdview, that meant moving JUST the lnb (not the scalar) CLOSER to the dish, that brought up my Ku up from acceptable to great across the arc. It has something to do with the probe placement in the LNB or something, I don't know or understand the mechanics, I just know what it took.

Now, second, once you get C and Ku reliably on your TS sat ( if possible, I see you mentioned amc 9, not much cband on that satellite, so move to amc 3 if you need to to tune it for both C and Ku) Then you can re-check the tracking of the dish. I'd be willing to bet that it will have to be readjusted to get Ku reliably across the arc, again, and I cannot repeat this enough, Ku takes VERY precise dish aiming to work across the arc. If you are getting cband good, and you Ku is lacking, move the LNB FIRST to see if it gets better. If it doesn't, then re-check your aiming. Set the declination with a DIGITAL level, not one of those dial 8 buck inclinometers , they just aren't accurate enough in my opinion to set a BUD for Ku. Once you set that declination for your location, and you are sure its right, do NOT touch it again. ONLY adjust your azimuth and elevation from there on out.

It took time, but I am very happy with my dishes perfromance with the CK-1.

I hope some of that rambling helped. :up LMK if you need more. :up

 

[PANHANDLER]

Stogie5150 , that is not rambling at all from all the input i just got i know exactly what to do , fine tune fine tune and fine tune , this is not a prob , by trade i am a machinest and i know all about being exact .I just did a search on the CK-1 from past post that i didn't notice before , i have my arrow on the lnb set to 90 degrees mmm should it be at 0 ?

 

[Anole]

stock answer:

Anole pix of skew for CK-1 and BSC-621 LNBf's
http://www.satelliteguys.us/1281374-post50.html

[09:19] <Anole> Fred - how do you orient the DMX741 at TS ?
[09:19] <Linuxman> you can put the 0 line at either north or south
[09:20] <Linuxman> it has a plus or minus 10 degrees off center if i remember correctly

Iceberg and skew of C2:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/186011-setup-geosat-pro-c2.html#post1939026

 

[meinename]

I believe the image attached will answer your question.

Anole will know who the credit goes to...

EDIT:The Geosatpro CK-1 is 9 o'clock, but the BSC-621 is 12 or 6 o'clock. Whichever is better

And Anole beat me

 

[stogie5150]

Stogie5150 , that is not rambling at all from all the input i just got i know exactly what to do , fine tune fine tune and fine tune , this is not a prob , by trade i am a machinest and i know all about being exact .I just did a search on the CK-1 from past post that i didn't notice before , i have my arrow on the lnb set to 90 degrees mmm should it be at 0 ?

Outstanding. Glad I could help.

One caveat on the arrow/orientation thing. On one of mine the probe doesn't exactly match where the arrow is, so to speak. So I took my machinists square and projected a line up the side where the probe actually is, it was off about .200 of an inch or so. I don't think it made THAT much of a difference, but I did it anyway. The arrow/your mark when looking at the dish from the front, and the dish at true south, should be fairly close to the 9:00 position. Again, you will have to fine tune it a bit for your application.....

Keep us updated.

 

[PANHANDLER]

The weekend looks a little gloomy weather wise but that never stopped me before . I am very anoxious to tackle this issue i will deffinatly keep ya all updated .

 

[PANHANDLER]

I got the chance to fine tune today and it looks like my declination was off 2 degrees ,i adjusted that and reset the elevation . The good thing is that i can get intelsat 55.5 to amc 139 with great signal stregnth. I did notice that the lnb is not pointed directly at the center of the dish , the single screw on the scaler ring will not allow me to aim it correctly so i had to shim it . Note i'm doing this by eye . Now that i'm getting even better signal quality on the c side i tried moving the lnb in and out just a bit at a time and still no luck locking onto any sat on the ku side. I'll try again later , Thank you all for the great input , i'm not giving up on this . ;}

 

[stogie5150]

I got the chance to fine tune today and it looks like my declination was off 2 degrees ,i adjusted that and reset the elevation . The good thing is that i can get intelsat 55.5 to amc 139 with great signal stregnth. I did notice that the lnb is not pointed directly at the center of the dish , the single screw on the scaler ring will not allow me to aim it correctly so i had to shim it . Note i'm doing this by eye . Now that i'm getting even better signal quality on the c side i tried moving the lnb in and out just a bit at a time and still no luck locking onto any sat on the ku side. I'll try again later , Thank you all for the great input , i'm not giving up on this . ;}

Once you have the C, you will probably have to tune for the Ku side, and let the C side fall where it will.

I did mine by eye too, it ain't no big thing...