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FTA Dish Installation Help....

29K views 71 replies 19 participants last post by  mc570 
#1 ·
This week I received and put together the 1m dish. Going to install it during the week.

Regarding the install, I plan to install it on the shed roof (back end of the shed to eleminate the neighbours from seeing it and complaining about it).
Should I install it using the J-mount and support legs the dish came with, or use a pole driven into the ground?

My concern about the ground pole is all wires in this suburb are underground and the last thing I need is to cut phone, cable and/or power to the block.

Thoughts?

Cheers, K
 
#3 ·
Yep try and make sure the braces get lagged in to sumthin solid as well. That'll ensure it remains steady. And most importantly for alignment purposes. Before ya get too far, always make sure the mount is perfectly plumb in all directions before plopping the dish on. Save urself some grief an use a fence post level to verify it. Down the road if ya run in to marginal signal, etc last thing ya wanna do is keep wondering, well what that ain't level?
 
#5 ·
No success.

Installed the dish, motor and ran the cables to the receiver (viewsat ultra).
Signal is 60% and 0% quality. Played w/ the IRD's motor controls a bit and no go.

From a prev post (circa 2007), I aimed it ay 72degrees (due south).
Am pretty sure the issue is related with the elevation... i noticed both the dish and motor have elevation markers...

Any suggestions?

Cheers, K
 
#7 ·
declination angle is related specifically to Polar Mounts which are used with prime focus antennas, like the 7.5' Perfect 10 BUD in my yard. It's the amount you effectively have to tilt the dish forward at your true south satellite in order to track the arc properly from one extreme to the other.

Do you have any documentation, or links to documentation on your antenna?
There is a fulltime NBC Mux on AMC6 72W Ku Band. Fulltime meaning there's always signal,
may or may not be video programs on every Program all the time though.

It's DVB-S, QPSK so shouldn't be too difficult to lock onto once there.
12053 V 6890

I would shoot for that one first.
Also keep in mind, due to variations in LO stability of various LNBFs, sometimes you may need
to tune up or down, +/- a couple MHz relative to what ya see posted for a particular transponder.
 
#8 ·
On an offset motorized dish setup, the elevation scale on the dish now becomes your declination angle adjustment as the elevation is now set on the motor itself.

If you are using 72W as your true south satellite, use 12055 V 6890 to aim your dish. The signal is fairly strong on that transponder so you should have no problem getting a lock once you hit the satellite.


Regards,

Dr. Sat
 
#9 ·
Odd thing. Signal was 72% and Quality was 0%. Auto/channel scan resulted in nothing. I then hit Blindscan and stepped out (am BBQ'ing at the moment).
I guess am somehow locked to Echo119 'cus the VS locked in to several encrypted channels.

Atleast now I know the gear is works.

Cheers, K
 
#10 ·
119W is a long way from ur true south AMC6 72W though. or did ya move it?

Could ya be hitting Horizons 2 at 74W? It used to have some encrypted content on it (HDNET). Echostar 1 & 8 is at 77W, but I think it's mostly Turbo 8PSK. If ur rcvr does Turbo 8PSk could be that one too?
If so, just a few degrees east, and a little bit higher in elevation should get ya 72W.
 
#11 ·
Yes I did move it... I've been "button mashing" since I have no clue what am doing. So far, by luck, I managed to get Echo 119 and 110 (the preview channel 101 came in).

The LNB has 4 outputs (2 labeled "L" and 2 more "C") so am guessing this is Linear and Circular... which one should I be using?

Am an in southern suburb of Montreal, and set the motor to 45degrees and the dish to 23degress... is there any way to confirm this?

Cheers, K
 
#13 ·
Good to know. After acquiring both E119 and E110, I switched ports on the dish and left it along for the night due to the rain. Going to try again when I get home.

For the LNB, so I set it to standard or universal? its an INVACOM QPH031 QUAD DUAL POLARITY LNB

It was a sight to be seen: was on the roof of the shed, wearing shorts and flip-flops, only to come down occasionally to flip the chicken on the grill..

Cheers, K
 
#14 ·
googled ur lnbf and found this...so Standard 10750 for linear:)

If you've got a motorized dish this is the ONLY LNB you need!

4 fully switched outputs: Circular, Linear, Circular, Linear
Reception of both LINEAR/FTA (10750) and CIRCULAR/DBS (11250) polarization
Linear: 30°, 43°, 87°, 95°, 97°, 101°, 121°, 123°W, etc
Circular: 61.5°, 72.7°, 77°, 82°, 91°, 110°, 119°, 129°, 148°W, etc
 
#15 ·
Am calling it quits for tonight. After tuning the LNB freq. I can't get better than 59% signal w/ no quality. All blindscans are unsuccessful.

I updated the IRD to its original firmware, could this be the problem? IE- the SAT info is outdated?

Cheers, K
 
#17 ·
assuming u've got the alignment down enough to track the arc, a good candidate for testing both C and Ku Band might be AMC1 103 W.
Because on C-Band it has the ION Mux's which are DVB-S QPSK, so ya may be able to lock those with the small dish and conical scalar.
103W
ION SD Mux
DVB-S QPSK
3840 H 26681

ION HD Mux
DVB-S QPSK
4040 H 26681

On Ku band that Sat has the NBC Mux. Ya should be able to get that one.
But keep in mind the Ku band antenna on this satellite has a screwy Polarization. e.g. - it's not exactly Horizontal It's skewed by around -26 degrees from Horizontal I think. So on the ground u have to adjust for it relative to the Cband Horiz Pol.
103 W
NBC Mux
11878 H 30000 DVB-S2 8PSK

Galaxy 17 91 W also has some strong CBand Transponders on it that ya may be able to get with the conical scalar setup. Not sure cause I don't use that,
but if ya ever need some comparisons from this 7.5' to see how ur doing, let me know the exact Satellite and transponder u wanna compare.
BTW, since sat name can change relative to their Location, should probably always include the Name and the longitude location when referring to satellites, so
a.) there's no confusion up front
b.) some future user perousing the threads a year or two from now will always know what u were talking about...
 
#20 ·
@ DrSAT: I can't recall Telemundo. One Sat I picked up had about 170 channels but were mostly religious or foreign. Some channels I picked up were: Pentagon, BTV, MSNBC, CNBC, CCTV etc. Biography, History and Foxnews had a blackscreen with sound.

My issue is the VS Ultra as the blind scan takes about 15 minutes per bird. I spent 4 hours doing this last night, scanning while not knowing which Sat am on. Once I know for sure the dish is perfectly aligned, then Im upgrading to a better receiver (openbox or azbox)

@ Installer: Am pretty sure the motor is not at zero, which is the cause of my problem. Its hard to aim it when am all alone (GF has zero patience plus I slipped one by the goalie which only makes her even more impatient nowadays.

@ MT: Thanks and we'll probably compare over the weekend. My GF forbids me from touching the thing for the rest of the week.

Cheers, k
 
#22 ·
I noticed the Openbox S10 is priced lower than the S9 (usually it should be the opposite). Does the S10 have more bugs/glitches than its predecessor ?

I though am interested in getting an AZBOX, but a few Google searches revealed the ME and mini-ME won't be available in the near future (I rather wait for the newer models instead of getting the ultra now)

Cheers, K
 
#24 ·
Both Openbox S9 and S10 are the same except these differences:

- Openbox S9 has Component and SCART and Digital audio outputs while the Openbox S10 doesn't.
- Openbox S10 is smaller than Openbox S9 due to a reduced number of outputs (only HDMI and Composite outputs).
- Openbox S10 comes with a North American plug by default while the Openbox S9 uses an euro plug adaptor for North America.
 
#25 ·
Aiming Question.

When initially setting up the alignment and motor...*must* I aim to my true south satellite or will any satellite do? Last night, I got a decent signal for AMC9 (despite it not being on my receiver sat list), therefore would rather use this as a reference rather than searching for AMC6 (72).

Cheers, K
 
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