Signal Trouble

[dssman006]

Hi, I have been messing around with this for quite some time and just can't seem to get it right. My problem is I can't seem to get Ku satellites correctly. I can get a few transponders here and there on some satellites and the signal quality is only 60-68.

I have a Fortec Star 80cm dish with the HH90 Motor and a Invacom QPH-031 LNB. I live in Warwick, RI. I have checked, re-checked, double checked, and then triple checked my settings and I can't figure out what is wrong.

I can pickup 61.5, 82, 91, 110, & 119 with no trouble at all. Signal quality 95-100. I thought maybe the trees are in the way, but I then told the dish to move to Hispasat @ 30 where there is absolutely nothing in the way and I get the same results. Only a few transponders with signal quality 60-68.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[pmb1010]

Signal QUality of 60 to 68 should be enough to lock on FTA Ku band signals.

Do you have cables coming out the LNB's C and L ports to a DISEQC switch? Or only 1 cable to the LNBF?

[dssman006]

Yes I have 2 wires on a C & L port going into a diseqc switch. I have a BirDog meter which when I'm on the roof I have connected directly to the L port. To be honest I don't think meters work well with Ku. I was getting signal strength 90 and quality 66 on the receivers signal screen, but the meter didn't read anything.

[dssman006]

I should also mention that I did get a Signal Quality of 95+ on the AMC 6 @ 72, but when I moved it anywhere else it was 60-68. Tonight I'm going to try and get the 95+ again on that bird and then move to Hispasat and see what I can do to increase the signal there.

[csmith704]

DISH and BEV have stronger signals (hence 18" dish). When I went to Hispasat, I had to perform a blind scan to get channels....did you try blindscaning? I'm getting around 40-50 quality and they are coming in fine...

[dssman006]

Hi, yes I did try a blind scan. It finds a 1-2 transponders worth of channels and the quality is around 63-66. Some channels come in fine, others break up and are unwatchable.

[pmb1010]

I think this sat is spot beamed.

Which transponders work, which ones break up?

[dssman006]

I have been able to watch channels from TP 61 and I think TP 79. Some of the channels came in, but occasionally broke up and others were just flat out broken up.

[pmb1010]

Maybe someone else will pipe in that can actually get this sat (I cant).

[NOLO]

Hispasat is a nice sat, may be weak on some transponders, but certainly interesting programing. I have adquire around 45 channels from that satellite, Signal strength 60+ and signal quality from 37-59. I live in NJ and use a 90cm dish with a motor. Here is a pic of "supershow"

[dssman006]

Hmm, Quality 37-59 and it works for you. How come mine is around 60-68 and it doesn't work that great for me. Is every receiver different. Like some can tune/display video with less signal quality than others.

[Corey]

Ever since I started with FTA several months ago, I've wondered what the Quality number actually means.

My guess is that it means different things on different receivers / software, but numerically has to do with how many bit or symbol errors are detected per second.

Is there a industry standardized formula for this quality value?

[csmith704]

Originally Posted by NOLO

...I have adquire around 45 channels from that satellite...

Viewable channels? Man, I need to plumb up my chimney post this weekend!

[dssman006]

That might be my problem. The pole I'm using might not be plumb. I checked it last night and it seemed fine. I checked it again and it seemed a little off. I checked a third time and it looked way off. Maybe I just don't know how to work the level? lol

[csmith704]

Originally Posted by dssman006

That might be my problem. The pole I'm using might not be plumb. I checked it last night and it seemed fine. I checked it again and it seemed a little off. I checked a third time and it looked way off. Maybe I just don't know how to work the level? lol

Sounds like it's in quicksand . Mine is plumb on the side, but slightly off straight on (based on TS position). I'm checking right now and I'm getting 25 TV fta channels:

7 -> 11884/V/27500
1 -> 11933/V/2962
1 -> 12052/V/27500
10 -> 12132/H/27500
1 -> 12156/V/2222 (pixelating badly)
1 -> 12162/V/3030 (no pic, signal varying greatly)
4 -> 12172/H/2750

[dssman006]

What are you getting on Galaxy 25 @ 97w? That is another one I only get 1-2 transponders with 60-68 signal quality.

[csmith704]

I have 52 channels, which xxxx/HorV/xxxx are they coming on? I think your LNB for linear is a standard LNB, mine is a universal LNB, make sure you have it set right on the receiver...

[dssman006]

Well, I just played with the dish for a few more hours today. I got nowhere. I cannot get higher than 69 quality no matter what Ku bird I point to. I'm on 101w right now and I am getting 3ABN @ 85 level and 63 quality. Since the quality is 63 the channels are found, but are broken up and not viewable.

[NOLO]

Originally Posted by dssman006

Hmm, Quality 37-59 and it works for you. How come mine is around 60-68 and it doesn't work that great for me. Is every receiver different. Like some can tune/display video with less signal quality than others.

When I said 37-59 is to show that a weak tp will read 37 at times and a strong one will read 60+, My receiver is mercury II and if the quality meter goes below 40 will cause the image and sound to break a little. It was not easy to tune it. I had to altered the usals settings for that particular sat. Out of the 40+ channels from hisp 30w, 42 are viewable, Supershow and superland are among the weaker sats (but is over 40 in quality unless there is bad weather).

I will explain:

My dish is a fortec 90cm and is (IMHO) poorly designed, or may be not meant for motorized mounting. Sorry for the honesty about the fortec dish, I do not mean any offense.

-badly designed?- it only has one arm to hold the LNB (I will soon make two more arms for it to hold the lnb in the right place).
When installing a bigger lnb (QPH-031) you are overloading the arm, that combined with tilting the dish to a low sat (hispasat 30w) causes the lnb to be off a few degrees, yielding low transponders not exactly within range.

-Here is my work around- You can point the dish to hisp 30w by using the diseq option in the antenna menu, and move little by little to west or east until the meter gives you a better reading on the desired tp. This is provided you are properly alligned with the arc, otherwise it might not help at all.

To me the real solution is to add the two extra arms (having a total of three suporting arms for the lnb, that will hold it steady. Home Depot has the needed bolts/nuts and aluminum tubes. By the way, the dish has the holes in it, already from factory, but I asked Sadoun if they sell the arms and they said: NO.

My LNB is a QPH-031. I will continue on fine tuning as it always results in improvement. I will report the results of adding the extra arms to my dish, when completed.

[dssman006]

I don't know what I did, but I was like I'm going to the roof one more time and that is it (it's midnight and the flashlight is dying). I came down and now I'm getting 66-70 quality. So I just scanned Hispasat again with Auto Scan because it's quicker. I'm getting several transponders I wasn't getting before. Most are at 66-70 quality. After the scan I'm getting 49 TV and 47 Radio. I went through all the TV channels and every single one came in (except 1-2 scrambled irdeto channels) without them breaking up.

I also checked 93w and 97w. It's better, but not as good as Hispasat.