FTA for Christmas

[rainman]

did you get the FTA equipment you wanted for Christmas. I received a motec vbox II. my motec td 24" acuator arm didn't make it yet but should be in any day now.also got a bsc 621-2 LNBF.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

did you get the FTA equipment you wanted for Christmas. I received a motec vbox II. my motec td 24" acuator arm didn't make it yet but should be in any day now.also got a bsc 621-2 LNBF.

I got something to watch the REAL FTA satellites. A new telescope.

[Iceberg]

straight cash homey....some of which is going to a Sadoun order

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Iceberg

straight cash homey....some of which is going to a Sadoun order

I don't think Sadoun will take cash "money", let alone cash "homey". They almost ruined a Christmas gift a few years ago, when they woulnd't take credit, check or cash, but insisted on a money order, in order to ship to an alternative address. But after a run to the PO, it worked out OK. Turns out there was no rush though, because 3 or 4 years later, my son still hasn't put the dish up. I bought it for him, so he could receive PBS KIDS for my grandson. The kid's old enough for Create now. :-)
{ Actually, he had too many trees to see AMC3, which is the real reason it didn't go up. }

[rainman]

Originally Posted by wejones

I got something to watch the REAL FTA satellites. A new telescope.

how stong of a telescope did you get Bill got a small one for the wife a few years ago.it hasn't been used much.

[Darkman]

Originally Posted by Iceberg

straight cash homey....some of which is going to a Sadoun order

cash is always good

You can do whatever with it - buy whatever you want for example, invest it, etc

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

how stong of a telescope did you get Bill got a small one for the wife a few years ago.it hasn't been used much.

Well, if by "strong", you mean magnification, it will go up to 480, but I only have eyepieces for around 133x, or maybe a bit more, however we seldom use even that much magnification. I used to have a telescope before, and we mainly used it to look at nebulae, and for that the main thing is light gathering, ie bigger mirror, not magnification. I don't have room in the house for a big telescope, so for us an 8" is ideal, big enough to view nebulae and planets, etc, but small enough to be portable. We had an 8" Newtonian on a polar mount where we used to live, and it was nice, but there was too much haze/light polution, so we sold it, and got a small 100mm spotting scope instead. It is nice for birds and things, but it isn't good enough for astronomy. Here, we're out away from towns, and the sky is clear, so my wife got me another 8" scope. This one is a Dobsonian, which is a cheaper mount, Az/El instead of polar, but it should be nice for casual viewing. I've spent the whole day though, trying to figure out how to connect a camera. I have all sorts of adapters that I used to connect a camera to my other scopes, but I'm having problems getting them to work with this new one.

[Iceberg]

Originally Posted by wejones

I don't think Sadoun will take cash "money", let alone cash "homey".

The "Straight cash homey" is a line that Oakland Raider (and fromer MN Viking) Randy Moss said to the media when he had to pay a fine.

The exchange, on the subject of his $10,000 fine by the NFL, courtesy of KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul, captured outside the Vikings' practice facility, unalloyed in its brilliant contempt.


Reporter: "Write the check yet, Randy?"


Moss: "When you're rich, you don't write checks."


Reporter: "If you don't write checks, how do you pay these guys?"


Moss: "Straight cash, homey."

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Iceberg

The "Straight cash homey" is a line that Oakland Raider (and fromer MN Viking) Randy Moss said to the media when he had to pay a fine.

Neat. I never heard that one. I thought it was just a typo.

Of course I'm a Steeler fan (kind of painful this year), so I don't read much about what Moss has to say. But I'll have to remember that one.

[teched]

On the cash front, I did a cash and carry order last week, but it was only for a $6 serial cable.

Originally Posted by wejones

I bought it for him, so he could receive PBS KIDS for my grandson. The kid's old enough for Create now. :-)
{ Actually, he had too many trees to see AMC3, which is the real reason it didn't go up. }

Is there a something special to getting those - I couldn't get the DVB listed PBS stations on AMC3 (TP 24) to come up with a Mercury II, QPH-031 and 90cm dish, only the stuff on TP 1, 2 and Montana PBS. The system is my Christmas gift to my parents - hoping get them to send less money to DirecTV every month.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by teched

Is there a something special to getting those - I couldn't get the DVB listed PBS stations on AMC3 (TP 24) to come up with a Mercury II, QPH-031 and 90cm dish, only the stuff on TP 1, 2 and Montana PBS. The system is my Christmas gift to my parents - hoping get them to send less money to DirecTV every month.

You shouldn't have any problem with that transponder, other than the complication that the audio is AC3 (ie you'd need a way to decode the audio). Are you doing a power scan of the satellite {if so, does Montanna come up with correct frequency?) or are you doing a TP Scan? There are a couple potential reasons for not picking up that transponder, particularly if you have a standard LNBF, and you have the receiver set up as a universal. If that is the case, it would probably find the things you found, but find them at the wrong frequencies, and it might possibly skip over the top transponder when trying to switch from one LO freq to another LO freq (still not sure at what freq these receivers switch in universal mode). I'm betting that you're set up as universal 9750/10600 when you have standard. I'd check your LO setting, then manually enter the freq/sr data for that transponder, and do a TP scan. Sometimes the Fortec power scans will miss transponders, particularly if you are in the mode that does both narrow and wide in the same scan.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by wejones

You shouldn't have any problem with that transponder, other than the complication that the audio is AC3 (ie you'd need a way to decode the audio). Are you doing a power scan of the satellite {if so, does Montanna come up with correct frequency?) or are you doing a TP Scan? There are a couple potential reasons for not picking up that transponder, particularly if you have a standard LNBF, and you have the receiver set up as a universal. If that is the case, it would probably find the things you found, but find them at the wrong frequencies, and it might possibly skip over the top transponder when trying to switch from one LO freq to another LO freq (still not sure at what freq these receivers switch in universal mode). I'm betting that you're set up as universal 9750/10600 when you have standard. I'd check your LO setting, then manually enter the freq/sr data for that transponder, and do a TP scan. Sometimes the Fortec power scans will miss transponders, particularly if you are in the mode that does both narrow and wide in the same scan.

the transponder is weaker for the pbs stations so you must have good dish alignment to receive them.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

the transponder is weaker for the pbs stations so you must have good dish alignment to receive them.

I used to think this too, but I don't anymore. Those 2 transponders are really about the same strength, and if anything I'd think that the 12180 transponder should be easier to lock since it has less nearby interferrence. However I agree, that at times I do have a bit more difficulty with the 12180. I don't think the problem is due to signal strength, but I don't have another explanation.

Anyway, I just did a scan of H and V, and highlighted the Montanna and PBS signals (note this was done with my Fortec 90cm with the Sadoun lnbf that is 2-3 MHz low in freq), so the frequencies are a bit low in the scan, so the 12180 shows up at 12176.?, and the 12145 shows up at 12141.7 , ie both about 3 MHz low.




You can see that on my 90cm, the 12180 is actually a bit stronger than the 12145 Montanna peak.
I also just did a similar comparison with my 10' dish. On that, the Montanna peak is slightly stronger, but I think that is because my polarity is a bit off on the vertical side of that sat. But in both cases, the 12180 signal is a nice strong signal, and there should be no problems with it.... however I sometimes do, and I'm just not sure why.

[CROSSBOLT]

I got a Fortec Merc II rcvr with the Sadoun ( howdya pronounce that?) M1 system. Rcvr book sux! Got the true south and even got a couple of satellites and xpndrs. Have no idea which ones. Must be the same one since all the xponders and channels are the same. Read darn near all the posts and notice a trend in everyone being baffled at really what to do. My question is will the receiver know where to go after the first sat is set? How do you know when you have the first sat correctly? Sadoun tech assist says when the sig quality bar turns green. Book says nothing of this. Hey, I actually got farther with this than the rest of you guys because my wife actually found the first sat! Nyah, nyah! Help us ver this hump and we will be on the way. Thanks in advance.

Karl

[teched]

Originally Posted by wejones

Are you doing a power scan of the satellite {if so, does Montanna come up with correct frequency?) or are you doing a TP Scan?

Yes, a Power Scan and low by 1MHz on Montana