Trying to pickup 97w with my new 90cm Fortec Star Dish

[kinguyen]

I was going to start a new thread but forgot how to. Anyways, I'm having problems picking up 97w satellite. A few weeks ago i started a thread, stating that i wasn't getting the program but now i'm using a 90cm dish and not getting any signal to the satellite.

I just received my 90 cm dish a week ago and decided to set it up today. I was up on the roof for bout 3 hours trying to get a signal until it rained. I had my 20" t.v, a signal finder up on the roof trying to get a signal but all i got was a solid beep from the signal finder. No matter where i aimed my satellite i was getting a constant beep, couldn't figure it out. I checked all my connections and all was good.

Someone please give my some input or suggestions. I'm in California and I'm aiming the satellite to 145 azimuth direction, after setting the azimuth i played around with the elevation moving the dish up and down with no luck. Like I said, all i'm getting is a constant beep.

One more thing, is the skew setting really important? On the STB what values do i enter. On the LNB facing the dish, does it matter how many degrees counter clock wise? Because when i setup on the old dish a couple weeks back i just switched out lnbs and everything was good. Had to get a new dish cause i was getting major pixelation and the audio was skipping bad

Yeah,yeah I know. I double post this, I just figured out how to start a new thread. My bad.

[Corey]

I'm still a newbie too, so take the following with a grain of salt:

If you are getting a constant beep with all elevations, your meter isn't adjusted right.

If you are using the SF-90 meter, most of the time, you want the needle in the middle, just starting to make a noise. Keep tweaking the knob to keep the needle centered, each time you adjust the dish slightly to peak the needle as best you can.

I'm going through this myself, so I know some of the trouble/frustration you might be having. You might also be pointed at the wrong satellite (off by a couple of degrees), or you might have the frequency/polarization/symbol rate off.

Your LNB should be within 5 degrees or so of the perfect skew... it's not nearly as critical as the dish aiming.

Another thing is that the 90cm dish has a narrower "main lobe" than the smaller dishes, which means you must point it more accurately. The upside is that you will get a stronger signal, and have more ability to reject nearby satellite signals.

Steps I use:

Okay you have signal on ANY closeby satellite up there presuming it is 97W could be / might not.

Next fine tune it to max quality. Like Corey mentioned.

Then using the 97W scroll throught the TP's and see what has signal / strong quality even if red / green.

Green = correct Tp setting but can be on ANY satellite as most have similar Tp's.

Compare to 97W . If there is a 3 or 4 then it might be the satellite next to 97W so check from 93W to 103W searching tp lists.
This will eliminate satellites that does not have the tp's you have.

If the recevier can do a search at this time choose a good quality Tp and scan = channels = again compare channels to 97W list or closeby satellites or search for the channel name that your recceiver gives you with something like google.com . If another Sat mark it for later use ?

If according to this you have 97W then next step = confirm any and all Tp's that you have has the CORRECT INFO.
Check both lyngsat.com and satcodx.com or use the 97W list if it has not been removed that I posted here last time.

If TP info is incorrect it will show Level = 0% to 84%+ and Quality anything from 0% to 83%+ in red so enter correct Tp's and they will be green on most / 90%+ of Tp's . Can be 12220 but 3 to either side might work as well , symbol rate is not so forgiving as well as H/L or V/R remeber RV if unsure.

Level is a very weak excuse for ?? but does sometimes increase once on right sat / tp ?? no idea. Quality = very important.

Once all this is confirmed = correct then do a scan and enjoy your channels. Might need more fine tunning Quality of 80%+ is very good for 1 to 10 times installed + equipment got max 83% quality on mine and need fancy equipment to improve might / might not improve.

Some tp's will work with any old FEC = Auto , 129W and whitesprings.tv has to have correct FEC think 1/2 on mine to work might be same for yours , 97W I have not seen issues like this.

97W should get you 175+ channels for video some encrypted some not.

Hope this helps.

[elgemcdlf]

Skew is very important. In fact it may have been what was causing your pixalation to begin with. Going to a larger dish will not compensate for alignment issues. I assume this is a fixed dish install. Start with the settings listed here at sadoun's site (Sadoun Satellite Sales ( 888-519-9595 ) FTA MPEG2 DVB Satellite Television System SatHawk,Dish Network,DirecWay,Fortec Star,XM Radio,Sirius, GPS, MP3 TV) and then slowly rotate the dish to the east and west until you find signal.. Peak this signal and do a scan. Compare what you find with the lists at LyngSat - Lyngemark Satellite to determine what sat you are on. Post this info and we will help you adjust from there. Skew is set by rotating the lnbf in it's mount. There is nothing in the receiver pertaining to it.

If you find you are west of your desired sat you will need to lower dish elevation and move to the east till you find signal again. Scan again and determine where you are. If you are east of the sat you are to low in the sky so raise the dish elevation and slowly move west until you find signal. Scan again to determine where you are. Keep doing this until you lock your desired sat. Now you can delete everything you previously found & do a complete clean scan.

[kinguyen]

The skew in the old dish had little markings showing on the bracket of the lnb. I tried to move that over to the new 90cm dish but wouldn't fit.

Thanx for advice. I'll try it this weekend when i have time.

[boroda1]

Just make sure you are setting skew to "negative value" for California, i.e. when you are standing in front of Dish, LNB points about 8 o'clock, when you are behind the dish, it points at 4 o'clock.
I noticed that there is no big difference if it's couple of degrees off, but signal completely disappears, if it's set in opposite direction.