You're going to laugh

[gittist]

As I stated on an earlier post, the company that I ordered my KU system from made a mistake and sent me the wrong dish and told me to keep while they ship the correct one. Being that it's free I don't have much room for complaining but it came missing the J-pole, foot bracket?, and misc nuts and bolts. I'm pretty sure at least a parts package is missing since the dish is attached to the bracket by four carriage bolts and nuts and I only received two bolts, and three nuts which are probably the ones to lock down the elevation. Nothing a trip to the hardware store can't take care of.

Now the part you're going to laugh. I figured, what the heck, I'll put enough of the dish together, hook it up to the box and tv to see what happens. I just plopped it into an Adirondack chair on the porch and the RS-1933 said 43% signal strength and 5% signal quality. I thought "Boy what luck! Just a little this away or that away and I'm in business!" After not being able to get any better numbers, I pointed it at the house (North) and then at my feet and nothing changed. I get the feeling those numbers don't mean squat. What are they, just residual signals that are all around us?

I'd appreciate a link to the Idiot's Guide to pointing to a given satellite if one exists .

Is there anything out there that you can input your location and it tells you that Galaxy 19 is at 127 degrees magnetic and 45 degrees elevation? How close do you need to get in the ball park?

Is there anything I can buy at the hardware store that would make pointing any easier?

Thanks

Tim

 

[pickone4me]

you can put your address in here at this website http://www.dishpointer.com/ Other then that I ain't very good at explaining things.

 

[KE4EST]

www.dishpointer.com will be your new friend.
Those numbers mean that you have a working LNBF attached.
Will post more later if you don't get more help, in the middle of something else right now.

 

[TheHamNerd]

No worries friend!!! I am new to FTA myself and this site! Everyone on here is very nice and helpful! I can echo the use of dishpointer.com! That site has gotten me in the ballpark for finding some of these birds. I am like you and I don't really know much about it, but it is fun and exciting to find something and check it out on TV. My advise is to stick with it and don't give up! Once you find something it is very rewarding, because you did it on your own and that makes it awesome! Don't give up friend!!

Good luck!

Ham Nerd

 

[KE4EST]

Use dishpointer to get you in the ball park. Don't forget about LNBF skew. Then if you can't see or hear your TV from where the dish is, take a table and an extension cord and move your TV and receiver out to the dish.
Then go into the satellite set-up menu and select G19 97W Ku. Put it on an active transponder. Then slowly and I mean slowly move your dish left and right of where you started from dishpointer. If you get nothing, change your elevation up or down 1 deg at a time till you hit it. If your pole is plumb and all, you should have it in a few minutes. Then you can tweak your dish for best reception and then lock it down.

 

[TheHamNerd]

Then if you can't see or hear your TV from where the dish is, take a table and an extension cord and move your TV and receiver out to the dish.

Man.....I am going to have to invest in a really small view monitor or TV, and a receiver for testing like this. I keep seeing that this is a good way to tweak a bird! My TV is wall mounted and I am not about to take it off the wall to do this, but I think this is a good approach if you don't have a good meter. Like I said earlier I am using a cheap $30 digital meter, and this does make sense to do it this way...I just need to find a spare TV and receiver...maybe I will check a pawn shop for a small TV, and save my coins for a spare receiver...

 

[TheTechGuru]

Generally it's better to think of signal strength as the strength of the signal from the LNB and quality strength as the strength of the satellite signal hitting the LNB.


Posted Via The FREE iOS SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[updatelee]

Dish pointer has a really nice android app too.

It's very helpful for sighting in a new location for your dish

UDL

 

[FaT Air]

Dial gauge angle finder. Make sure the pole is plumb. Or you can go 'all out' and get a digital level. https://www.google.com/search?

 

[navychop]

Apps for that for smart phones.

 

[gittist]

I got a $12.00 angle finder at the local hardware store and used a lensatic compass to get the bearing to Galaxy 19 (keep in mind it's still in a chair). When I did an auto scan with my Manhattan RS 1933 it found 7 channels, only one was in the clear, Azteca. The others were FAA, DOJ, and Air National Guard channels. I did something right but I think I'm a long ways from where I want to be.

Does autoscan check each transponder on a satellite or is that a manual operation?

 

[Jim S.]

If you have Azteca, you're on 93W instead of 97W. From Pennsylvania the difference in elevation is less than the beamwidth of your dish, so don't touch that yet, just try moving slightly to the west. First you should come to 95W with its Chinese channels -- it's quite a bit stronger than either 93W or 97W.

 

[gittist]

P.S. Does my receiver display the actual satellite it's receiving a signal from? If not, I may have picked up Galaxy 25?

 

[turbosat]

It probably won't tell you correctly, if you have a ku satellite set up in your receivers list, and run a scan, it'll pick up channels from whatever ku bird it happens to be seeing with your dish. It can't tell if you're actually on the right bird.