Realistically, how far East and West do I need? - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

Stevemo · 2012-05-19, 08:29 PM

Hi guys,
I just picked up a Coolsat 6000 and bought a remote, 90 CM dish, a STAB90 motor, and one of those Invacom double linear/circular knock off LNBs for it. This gear will be set up in Deep River, Ontario.

Now I'm working on a site survey to see where to mount it. I'm blessed with trees so it is going to be tricky. Evening putting the dish 6 feet above my 2nd floor won't work so I'm looking at attaching to the shed in the back yard which has a shot down the alley. So, getting to the topic, how far East and West will I want to be able to turn the motor? I'm mainly interested in English channels and I sort of understand French and Spanish so they would be useful too. I can do some tree trimming if necessary.

To put it into perspective, there is a BUD 2 houses away from me and he's got it mounted on a tower 15' off the ground so he can shoot up over his house (SW). The longer term goal is for me to gain control of the BUD, I don't think it's in use anymore and I could dig some cabling over to it bud I'd need a bunch of scaffolding to work on it...

Cheers, Steve

majortom · 2012-05-19, 09:22 PM

I think 125W is the lowest westernmost Ku Sat with anything useful on it.

The C/Ku Bud here can see from 139W to 55W,
though in the summer with the neighbor's tree, it's only useful
from 127W thru 55W, so I can't comment much on anything below 55W.
My pole is about 10 feet above ground, and 5 feet underground.
Woulda been better if I went a little higher, say 15 feet above ground.
But I didn't want it getting near the height of telco / cable lines, assuming the worst might happen some day and it fell.

My advice is to use dishpointer.com to aid in the survey. It will will tell you how high an obstruction can be a given distance away from any prospective dish location for any satellite. Helps to know for sure how high the obstructions are. Play around with it you'll see.
When ur getting close like your saying, ya don't wanna guess.
Basically it's doing the arc tangent for you.

Stevemo · 2012-05-19, 10:25 PM

Thank you for the help, it looks like I'm good from about 72W to 127W. Do I understand correctly that going past 125+ isn't worth my time anyway? 139 seems to be the limit of finding anything to the West but I'll be missing just about everything to the East unless I get a 2nd dish and motor.

It's also interesting to find out what the angle is referring to as dishpointer shows it nicely. 0 turns out to be true East and 180 true West.

Steve

cyberham · 2012-05-20, 07:08 AM

From my area, 15W is the furthest east I've seen anything. 15W has a full-time MSNBC station, and Angola / Equatorial Guinea / Brazil stations, if you like that. There aren't many footprints that hit North America east of that. The range you get now will keep you busy. Eventually, you will probably want to see what you can get to the east.

Stevemo · 2012-06-27, 09:21 PM

It's been a while as I had to move and put up the dish but I'm happy to say I got a channel tonight but I messed up the channel labeling in the Coolsat so I don't know what or where it's coming from

Who's got a "Free" channel that's showing GMA on the top left, LeafsTV top right, Spark bottom left, and Disney XHD bottom right? I got some dead radio channels too.

The dish thinks it is pointing at 90W but it's turned and skewed to the West so I don't know what's going on.

Cheers, Steve

Stevemo · 2012-07-02, 08:34 PM

Okay, turns out it was the wonderful Bell satellite...

I used that to set things up and I'm able to get it at 97% from 91W when pointed at 91W.

I've been able to get channels on 95W, 97W, 101W, 116.8W, and 93.1W but basically everything I'm getting is on 97W with some China/English channels on 95W and the Pentagon channel on 101W. QPSK channels seem to work. I'm getting nothing outside of that range.

Would getting something other than the Coolsat 6000 Premium let me get the 8PSK and DBS/DBS-2 channels?

The 6000 works good except it's a fight to show channels after changing dishes, it gets stuck in a bad configuration and shows 6% instead of 70+%. A bit of fooling around and the channels will pop up.

Steve

Danster · 2012-07-03, 09:19 AM

An AZbox would get you a bit more than your coolsat. You would be able to pick up the 4:2:2 CBC feeds for example.

Stevemo · 2012-07-17, 06:31 PM

Things are starting to make sense now. I was wondering why I'd see a channel listed but not be able to get it. It's partly a signal level problem and partly to do with my box. Luckily some cheap DVB-S2 options are just getting onto the market.
Use http://www.dishpointer.com to see if you can get a shot at a satellite (need 15 to 35 degree window above face of dish)
Then use http://www.satbeams.com/footprints to see how big a dish you need for the satellite you are interested in.

I am getting 90+% for what I can get but I see some locks on 20% signals which I can't get so the 36" isn't big enough up here.

I just wish I could get my true south satellite but it's blocked from my view. This is likely another issue with signal quality when going more than 10 degrees from 90.

Steve

2012-05-19, 08:29 PM	#1
Stevemo Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 56	Realistically, how far East and West do I need? Hi guys, I just picked up a Coolsat 6000 and bought a remote, 90 CM dish, a STAB90 motor, and one of those Invacom double linear/circular knock off LNBs for it. This gear will be set up in Deep River, Ontario. Now I'm working on a site survey to see where to mount it. I'm blessed with trees so it is going to be tricky. Evening putting the dish 6 feet above my 2nd floor won't work so I'm looking at attaching to the shed in the back yard which has a shot down the alley. So, getting to the topic, how far East and West will I want to be able to turn the motor? I'm mainly interested in English channels and I sort of understand French and Spanish so they would be useful too. I can do some tree trimming if necessary. To put it into perspective, there is a BUD 2 houses away from me and he's got it mounted on a tower 15' off the ground so he can shoot up over his house (SW). The longer term goal is for me to gain control of the BUD, I don't think it's in use anymore and I could dig some cabling over to it bud I'd need a bunch of scaffolding to work on it... Cheers, Steve

2012-05-19, 09:22 PM	#2
majortom Veteran Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 2,558	I think 125W is the lowest westernmost Ku Sat with anything useful on it. The C/Ku Bud here can see from 139W to 55W, though in the summer with the neighbor's tree, it's only useful from 127W thru 55W, so I can't comment much on anything below 55W. My pole is about 10 feet above ground, and 5 feet underground. Woulda been better if I went a little higher, say 15 feet above ground. But I didn't want it getting near the height of telco / cable lines, assuming the worst might happen some day and it fell. My advice is to use dishpointer.com to aid in the survey. It will will tell you how high an obstruction can be a given distance away from any prospective dish location for any satellite. Helps to know for sure how high the obstructions are. Play around with it you'll see. When ur getting close like your saying, ya don't wanna guess. Basically it's doing the arc tangent for you. __________________ uhf/vhf combo rotor chimney mount homebrew vhf hi hpf ap-8700 preamp 4way split lg lcd dtt901 pctuner mythtv

2012-07-03, 09:19 AM	#7
Danster Moderator Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Lincoln.NB Pop 465,123 Posts: 5,301	An AZbox would get you a bit more than your coolsat. You would be able to pick up the 4:2:2 CBC feeds for example. __________________ Home Theatre: Yamaha HTR-6190, Klipsch Speakers, SANYO PLV-Z4, TOSHIBA HDDVD, LG BD555C, Cerwin Vega HTS12 Sub, VIP2300, XBox 360, HTPC.

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2012-05-19, 10:25 PM	#3
Stevemo Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 56	Thank you for the help, it looks like I'm good from about 72W to 127W. Do I understand correctly that going past 125+ isn't worth my time anyway? 139 seems to be the limit of finding anything to the West but I'll be missing just about everything to the East unless I get a 2nd dish and motor. It's also interesting to find out what the angle is referring to as dishpointer shows it nicely. 0 turns out to be true East and 180 true West. Steve

2012-05-20, 07:08 AM	#4
cyberham Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 422	From my area, 15W is the furthest east I've seen anything. 15W has a full-time MSNBC station, and Angola / Equatorial Guinea / Brazil stations, if you like that. There aren't many footprints that hit North America east of that. The range you get now will keep you busy. Eventually, you will probably want to see what you can get to the east.

2012-06-27, 09:21 PM	#5
Stevemo Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 56	It's been a while as I had to move and put up the dish but I'm happy to say I got a channel tonight but I messed up the channel labeling in the Coolsat so I don't know what or where it's coming from Who's got a "Free" channel that's showing GMA on the top left, LeafsTV top right, Spark bottom left, and Disney XHD bottom right? I got some dead radio channels too. The dish thinks it is pointing at 90W but it's turned and skewed to the West so I don't know what's going on. Cheers, Steve

2012-07-02, 08:34 PM	#6
Stevemo Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 56	Okay, turns out it was the wonderful Bell satellite... I used that to set things up and I'm able to get it at 97% from 91W when pointed at 91W. I've been able to get channels on 95W, 97W, 101W, 116.8W, and 93.1W but basically everything I'm getting is on 97W with some China/English channels on 95W and the Pentagon channel on 101W. QPSK channels seem to work. I'm getting nothing outside of that range. Would getting something other than the Coolsat 6000 Premium let me get the 8PSK and DBS/DBS-2 channels? The 6000 works good except it's a fight to show channels after changing dishes, it gets stuck in a bad configuration and shows 6% instead of 70+%. A bit of fooling around and the channels will pop up. Steve

2012-07-17, 06:31 PM	#8
Stevemo Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 56	Things are starting to make sense now. I was wondering why I'd see a channel listed but not be able to get it. It's partly a signal level problem and partly to do with my box. Luckily some cheap DVB-S2 options are just getting onto the market. Use http://www.dishpointer.com to see if you can get a shot at a satellite (need 15 to 35 degree window above face of dish) Then use http://www.satbeams.com/footprints to see how big a dish you need for the satellite you are interested in. I am getting 90+% for what I can get but I see some locks on 20% signals which I can't get so the 36" isn't big enough up here. I just wish I could get my true south satellite but it's blocked from my view. This is likely another issue with signal quality when going more than 10 degrees from 90. Steve