what direction to point motorized dish

[young-pup]

Sorry hope this is the right place to post my question!
Hi all what a great site...sure wish I would have found this site before I bought all my equipment. Here is what I have
Sonicview 360 Premier Receiver
33" DISH with 40mm LNB clamp
Digiwave Universal Single LNBF DGL-668
DMT-SG2100A MOTOR
All still in there boxes.
Trying to get a little more information before I start trying to set every thing up!
My question is what direction do I need to point my dish. I live in TX, zip is 79103 I know I need an unobstructed view to the S or SW looks to be a clear shot in those direction but a few degrees SSE there is a tree in my yard a small tree I think it will have to come down not sure yet. I will be using a motorized dish witch satellite should I point my dish at..
Thanks for your time and any comments guys!

 

[pedrogarcia]

ACWX Radar has written the best instructions I have seen, I'm sure he will respond

 

[AcWxRadar]

Sorry hope this is the right place to post my question!
Hi all what a great site...sure wish I would have found this site before I bought all my equipment. Here is what I have
Sonicview 360 Premier Receiver
33" DISH with 40mm LNB clamp
Digiwave Universal Single LNBF DGL-668
DMT-SG2100A MOTOR
All still in there boxes.
Trying to get a little more information before I start trying to set every thing up!
My question is what direction do I need to point my dish. I live in TX, zip is 79103 I know I need an unobstructed view to the S or SW looks to be a clear shot in those direction but a few degrees SSE there is a tree in my yard a small tree I think it will have to come down not sure yet. I will be using a motorized dish witch satellite should I point my dish at..
Thanks for your time and any comments guys!

Young-pup,

Yes, you are in the right place.

First thing you need to do is determine your site longitude (and latitude). Right now the longitude is most important as that will determine your true due south satellite. Google Earth is a great tool to determine this with a high degree of accuracy.

Whatever satellite is closest to agree with your longitude is the sat you should start with. If you are off a degree or two, don't fret too much. You can compensate for this with a bit of elbow grease later. Just try to get as close as you can for now.

Next point... make certain that your mast or post is perfectly level in all directions. This is an absolute must, do not cut corners or skimp on this part of your set up, if you do, you will surely regret it later! No kidding on this part, this is extremely important!

Next, and you may not like this, but.... I have to tell you anyway. I have personal experience with the Sonic View 360. Just toss that piece of junk out the window! Don't bother to sell it as it isn't even worth the shipping charges. This box was manufactured with the sole intent to "hack" DN. If you try to apply it for true FTA satellites, it is just extremely lame.

Someone sent one of these boxes to me to evaluate. I tried it out and was more than disappointed. I did get it to work, but it was not an easy task. There were major problems with controlling a motor through USALS on this receiver.

I am not the only person who experienced this poor receiver. I know of many others. However, I eventually was able to make it work a little. You will have to decide for yourself, but I am forewarning you that you may be in for a great nightmare if you attempt to set up a motorized dish with this SV 360. I had a heck of a time setting this receiver up and I was starting with a motorized dish that was already aligned properly!

My personal advice would be to get a Fortec Star Dynamic or equivalent receiver or an early Coolsat model receiver (such as the 5000 Platinum).

You do not have to trust me on this, you can simply try it for yourself first. However, remember that I forewarned you.

I hate to give bad news to anyone, but when I know this first hand, I cannot allow anyone to walk into this blindly. I wish I could have informed you before you made the purchase.

RADAR

 

[pedrogarcia]

Wow! That was fast Radar!

When are they going to put your Motor set up instruction as a sticky?

 

[AcWxRadar]

ACWX Radar has written the best instructions I have seen, I'm sure he will respond

Pedro,

Thank you very much! That was a great compliment and I really do appreciate it! And you were right, I did respond. LOL

RADAR

PS: Thanks for allowing me to post my 1,000 mark! Hey that's cool! I just noticed it and you were the 1,000th person I spoke (wrote) to!

 

[Anole]

When you have a suitable receiver, here's the post I recommend for motor installation.
It's quite comprehensive.
...and saves typing.

AcWxRadar does an in-depth, and step-by-step motor setup:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/170861-motor-setup-questions.html#post1778160

 

[pedrogarcia]

You are welcome Radar. You did a 1 minute response time how good is that.

Hey Anole, good morning (I'm in Europe at the moment) that's the post I was referring to I must keep a note of that as I'm going motor when I get back.

Regards Guys

 

[AcWxRadar]

Young-pup,

I notice that you stated that your LNBF is a UNIVERSAL LNBF. Make sure that you select the UNIVERSAL LNBF type in your receiver menus and set the frequency (Local Oscillator or L.O.) to 9.750/10.600 GHz. The 9.750 setting is for the low Ku band and the 10.600 is for the high Ku band.

Most Ku sats in North America will use the high band Ku, but there are a few satellites, primarily those available to the Atlantic Coast, that offer the low side Ku band.

I generally use an Invacom QPH-031 LNBF. This LNBF allows me both linear and circular polarity reception. It would be deemed a "STANDARD" or "SINGLE" LNBF inthe menus and its L.O. frequency would be 10.750 for the linear side and 11.250 for the circular side.

There aren't too many FTA channels available on the Circular side, but there are enough to make it worth while.

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

Young-pup,

When you get to the point of assembling and aligning your dish and motor, make sure that you do not overtighten the hardware or mounting bolts. Just snug them up at first, When you have everything aligned properly and to your satisfaction you can snug 'em up a bit more to be safe, but never overtighten them. Especially the U-bolts for your motor clamp. You must be careful here as overtightening can deform the motor bracket and throw your motor alignment off. Straightening this bracket is a major affair and you don't want to go there. Save yourself the trip!

If you can find something, some sort of clamp that matches the O.D. (outside diameter) of the mast or pole that allows you to rest the motor clamp or bracket on when the bolts are loose enough to adjust the motor azimuth that will be highly beneficial. This will prevent the motor from sliding down the mast.

When you need to make fine adjustments, loosen the motor bracket U-bolts evenly and only just enough to allow you to turn the motor east and west on the mast. If you loosen the top U-bolt too much the motor will "droop" and that will affect your alignment process.

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

Young-pup,

When you go to set your dish and motor up, do not rely upon the TV within the house. Buy or borrow a small TV set and take it and your receiver out to the dish installation site.

You need to monitor the signal strength and quality with immediate feedback. There is no better way. Walrus and I have attempted to use the relay thing (Walrus inside watching the TV and me outside adjusting the dish) and even though we are both very much in tune with the project at hand, it doesn't work worth a hoot.

Do the alignment yourself with direct feedback from the nearby TV set. This is the only way to do it right.

RADAR

 

[Anole]

FTA PVR:

The Visionsat IV-200 FTA PVR is pretty well regarded by the members of the forum.
Not too expensive, and does a good job... well at least it works, and does switches, motors, and blind-scanning quite nicely.

 

[young-pup]

Thanks for a quick response and great info ...wow very fast
O-MAN my bubble has been busted for sure what sold me on the Sonicview 360 was that it had PVR ..hard drive (personal video recording) My wife is going to kill me lol
OK is the 33" DISH and Universal Single LNBF DGL-668 going to be ok to use!
I also bought one of those satellite finders will this help with the dish setup.
thanks again for the help...now I need to go to bed and cry a little!

 

[AcWxRadar]

Thanks for a quick response and great info ...wow very fast
O-MAN my bubble has been busted for sure what sold me on the Sonicview 360 was that it had PVR ..hard drive (personal video recording) My wife is going to kill me lol
OK is the 33" DISH and Universal Single LNBF DGL-668 going to be ok to use!
I also bought one of those satellite finders will this help with the dish setup.
thanks again for the help...now I need to go to bed and cry a little!

Pup,

You are certainly welcome! This is our hobby and fun time and none of us blink an eye at helping others in this regard. You can always count on someone being around to respond to your questions. Tonight you caught me at a very good moment. But, I have to work this weekend (FRI-SAT-SUN) so my time here will be very limited.

Regardless, you should have some very good material to work with. Make sure that you utilize the SEARCH feature for this site, you can find a lot of great information here and SEARCH will help you find it.

Very good luck to you and welcome to the forum! It is great to have new members! Thanks for coming along.

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

When you have a suitable receiver, here's the post I recommend for motor installation.
It's quite comprehensive.
...and saves typing.

AcWxRadar does an in-depth, and step-by-step motor setup:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/170861-motor-setup-questions.html#post1778160

Thanks Anole! Much appreciated, for certain!

RADAR

 

[young-pup]

Found a used Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra

Hello I took your advice an managed to get hold of a used Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra on eBay
no manual I hope I can find one some were. I know your advice was for the Fortec Star Dynamic or an early Coolsat model receiver what do you think about the Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra do you think this receiver will be ok to use and will it work with the Digiwave Universal Single LNBF DGL-668..sorry for all the questions!!

 

[pedrogarcia]

I've used that Receiver and it is fine and OK with your LNB.

Here is your manual (thanks to Iceberg)

http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-manuals/92538-fortec-lifetime-ultra.html

 

[AcWxRadar]

Hello I took your advice an managed to get hold of a used Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra on eBay
no manual I hope I can find one some were. I know your advice was for the Fortec Star Dynamic or an early Coolsat model receiver what do you think about the Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra do you think this receiver will be ok to use and will it work with the Digiwave Universal Single LNBF DGL-668..sorry for all the questions!!

Young-pup,

You will do very fine with that receiver. Get your dish and sats all aligned with it first. And do some experimenting along the way.

Then, when you know that your dish and motor are aligned very well, hook up the SV and try working with it. I would like to hear your comments and judgement after the fact on that.

Best wishes with the Ultra and the dish setup! You know where to find us if you have further questions.

RADAR

 

[B.J.]

Hello I took your advice an managed to get hold of a used Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra on eBay
no manual I hope I can find one some were. I know your advice was for the Fortec Star Dynamic or an early Coolsat model receiver what do you think about the Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra do you think this receiver will be ok to use and will it work with the Digiwave Universal Single LNBF DGL-668..sorry for all the questions!!

Personally, I think you are much better off with the Lifetime Ultra. Although the Mercury/Dynamic has better video due to the component output (assuming that your TV is compatable), there are many problems with the Mercury/Dynamic, such as AC3 SPDIF output that's not compatable with some decoders, frequency/SR values that are off considerably when you do blind search, lack of a fully functional channel editor, incomplete diseqC-1.2 functionality, serious bugs in diseqC-1.2 function, plus some other ones that may have been corrected. I stopped using my Mercury, and went back to the Ultra, although I went back to the Mercury when my Ultra started having problems.
The Ultra DOES have one SIGNIFICANT issue, however, and that is that it will go absolutely beserk if you exceed the maximum number of transponders, active transponders, channels, etc. And it is very likely that you will exceed this limit rather quickly unless you delete un-used satellites and transponders via the channel editor, then keep an eye on the number of transponders you have saved.

 

[young-pup]

Hello again ..just wanted to thank everyone for there great input and advice...this is be the best site on the net
I will let you guys know how things go on the setup...IF my dish will just hurry up and get here the US mail can be slow some days lol!

 

[young-pup]

Got the wrong LNBF

Well I got my dish in today yea!! But not to sure if this is problem are not ....when I order the dish It was suppose to come with a (Digiwave Universal Single LNBF DGL-668 -L Type) But in place of the DGL-668 They sent me a Digiwave DGL - 03U I Type .... Is this LNBF better or worse ..sorry for the dumb question I see some difference but just not sure if it matters are not thanks again guys!!
Technical Details

• 
  [*]Digiwave Universal Single LNBF DGL-668 -L Type
  [*]Input Frequency Range - Low band - 10.70-11.70 GHz, High band - 11.70-12.75 GHz
  [*]F-D Ratio - 0.5 - 0.7
  [*]Cross Pol. Isolation - 20dB

Digiwave DGL - 03U - Linear Universal Single LNBF 03db - I Type
KU Universal LNBF DIGITAL READY

Technical Details

• 
  [*]Linear universal single LNBF
  [*]Input Frequency Range - 10.7 - 12.75GHz
  [*]LO:9.750 - 10.600GHz
  [*]Conversion Gain - 60dB
  [*]Noise Figure: 0.5dB