Ok, now for the questions and problems:
*When i do a scan, should I always do a scan all or just FTA? Does it matter?
[I always scan "All"]
*Is there a way to find out when a certain TP is on or off without needing to rescan?
[No]
*When I do get a lock on certain TP's, why don't I get very many viewable channels?
[Not that many are FTA; if you know the channel is free then your dish is a bit out of alignment]
*I was so excited when I finally locked on to a TP on Intelsat 5 @ 97, but it didn't show the TP I wanted which is 11966H, is my dish still not pointed right?
[Yes, it needs tweaking]
*Does the dish need to point just right to get all the TP's on a certain bird?
[Yes, its very exact]
*My dish elevation should be 43 but on my dish indicator, it reads about 53. Is this normal?
[Normal - no; acceptable - yes; it usually means your post is not 100% plumb in all directions]
*They say that an offset dish look up about 22 degree past what the calculated dish angle should be, does this mean that i should go down 22 below my 43 set point?
[No - set the dish elevation to the elevations stated for your area; ignore the whole "offset" issue - its irrelevant and drives people nuts]
*I tried to use my
birdog last night, and it doesn't pickup anything, even though my receiver locks in on TP's. Is my birdog faulty? I've try attaching it to the receiver and using it alone, but nothing. When I hook it up to the receiver, my signal indicator on the receiver stops moving; almost like its frozen.
[Connect the Birdog directly to your LNB; also, the Birdog normally uses standard LNB files - you may have a universal - if so, you must download the "U" files and configure the Birdog with these files]
*Does the birdog work like my PanSat? As in, does it do blind scans? What is it actually looking for in a salellite to get a lock? Maybe i'm not using it right.
[No, it doesn't do blind scans per se but rather it looks for the identifier beacon of a particular satellite; so if effect it finds all transponders at once]
Sorry for the long post and all the questions. I hope that someone will be kind enough to offer me some advice.