What am I Receiving?

[cyberham]

Well the inverted dish will be pointing up at a greater angle. Deyond that my brain is not in dish mode. We are setting up for the kiddies tonight. Usual is about 80 -100. The forecast is 18c with mucho rain.

We're ready for the kids. In the last 3 years, we've had maybe 2 kids the first year only. Every year, I get to eat the chocolate bars after-the-fact. No reason to think this year will be different.

 

[jorgek]

Inverted Off-Set

Take off Angle = 90 – (prime focus + offset)

Where 90 = vertical plane of reflector
Prime focus = calculated elevation based off of lat and lon of earth station and station
Offset = manufactures off-set of the boom/feed assembly to reflector surface
===============
Therefore for AMC 21 @ 11 degrees elevation:
Take off Angle = 90 - (11 +22) = 57 degrees

0 degrees: horizontal; 90 degrees: vertical

Note: When you invert the dish, you do not need to change the skew. I know because I did and had to change it back!

Here's what it looks like:

Good job. Is it working as well as you expected?

 

[cyberham]

Same results: Claro is strong 70% as shown in photo. No PBS at all.

 

[toucan-man]

Same results: Claro is strong 70% as shown in photo. No PBS at all.

Yeah, but the dish looks bitchin' now.

 

[cyberham]

Exactly!

 

[jorgek]

Looking at Satbeams.com your QTH is well within the AMC21 footprint for N. America with an 80cm dish.

 

[cyberham]

I'm aware of that. This is why I tried hard this week to receive PBS tps. I am receiving AMC 21 very well: stable SQ 70% from Claro which uses DVB-S2 also. There is something different about the PBS tps. I will conclude that using only the actual signal power at a particular receive location is not enough to determine if you will or won't receive a tp. I have never seen tps that supposedly could be received with an 80 cm dish that were so difficult for me to receive. For example, 123W supposedly needs a 100 cm dish. I was able to find 123W quite easily and all tps blind scanned in with reasonable SQ.

Earlier, I thought I had an LOS problem. I don't think so. If LOS was an issue, I would never receive Claro at 70%. I might receive it, but SQ would be down or unstable. I could see as I panned my dish slowly east/west and up/down that I am dead centre on Claro. I then checked and I could tell by carefully watching how PBS affects the SL and SQ bobble head that I was also centred on the PBS tps.

Inverting the dish was a good idea since it allowed full freedom to pan the dish up and down to be sure I was centred elevation-wise. By the way, this autumn season seems to be the best time of year to search for new satellites. I think it's the dry air here when the weather is sunny that is delivering maximum SQ on all satellites.

 

[Titanium]

Have you tried a different LNBF? Occasionally a LNBF generates a harmonic or has other issues on a specific frequency that prevents receiving a transponder.

 

[cyberham]

Sure have! I tried 3 different LNBs including my best PLL LNB. All gave the same results. You'll be happy to know I left the standard SL2 LNB in place since my PLL model belongs on my motorized dish and the Multistar universal performs very well except scans in frequencies 3 MHz high.

I'm going to drop this thread and start a more general thread with some questions that have come to mind as a result of this week's work.

 

[jorgek]

One thing for sure, the various TPs are all at different power levels, there is no consistency. The Montana PBS I do not get at all, a ZERO Q.

 

[cyberham]

And that indicates to me that published footprints, at best, are vague generalizations that especially at contour boundaries probably can't be trusted. Follow this thread further here.

 

[Lak7]

Too bad you don't have a USB / PCI Sat tuner. That would show you what's going on.

 

[toucan-man]

One thing for sure, the various TPs are all at different power levels, there is no consistency. The Montana PBS I do not get at all, a ZERO Q.

Montana is easy to get here, but I lose SD06 on wet rainy mornings before I lose Montana with the way my 1M dish is tweaked. Would think the only solution is a bigger dish, the guy from Montana PBS insisting 1.8M is the minimum recommended size.

 

[cyberham]

Too bad you don't have a USB / PCI Sat tuner. That would show you what's going on.

I like that idea since I do feel I'm working blind. A USB sat tuner would be easy since you can see I use a laptop at the dish anyway when orienting. But...that means spending more $. Won't happen in the short term.

 

[cyberham]

Montana is easy to get here, but I lose SD06 on wet rainy mornings before I lose Montana with the way my 1M dish is tweaked. Would think the only solution is a bigger dish, the guy from Montana PBS insisting 1.8M is the minimum recommended size.

That's to be expected. On rainy days (like today!) even Claro has disappeared from SQ 70% to bobble head. I've been hit on the head so many times with the knowledge I should upgrade to a 1.2m dish. I tell anybody in these parts they should use a 1.2m from Day 1 and learn from my experience.

 

[cyberham]

Now have my Star Choice 40" x 44" in place just to see if this slightly larger dish will give different results. Now receiving 11944 V 1481, 12018 H 5000, 11833 H 2893 (SCOPUS-NET-TECH). Can anybody confirm if these are on 123W or 125W? I think they are 123W, but I'm receiving them while centred on the Claro tp on 125W.

 

[Trip]

Not sitting in front of my receiver, but I have definitely feel like I've seen "SCOPUS-NET-TECH" on 123 before.

- Trip

 

[Kraven]

Saw it on 123w this weekend when trying to help.... uh cyberham out.

Cheers, K

 

[Lak7]

but I'm receiving them while centred on the Claro tp on 125W.

Which TP?

12018 H 5000, 11833 H 2893

I have these on 123W

 

[cyberham]

Yeah those 3 tps are booming on 123W. This lil bigger dish is nicer, but still no PBS. Getting usual Claro well on 11980.