I have developed a method of finding each satellite and adjusting my dish just right to receive the best signal. The
Mercury II "blind search" feature makes this easy!
First of course I align my dish perfectly with a satellite signal meter. I move the dish to a south satellite, adjust the signal meter to the middle range (5 on mine), then with my hand slightly press on the dish upwards or downwards. If the reading on my signal meter goes down when the dish is pressed up or down, then that means I have the dish adjusted just right for the south satellite.
Then I do the same for a satellite in the east, and a satellite in the west. If these are OK, then that means I have my arc adjusted just right. (It took me a week and a ton of patience to adjust my dish the first time I did this.)
After dish adjusted, I leave the dish pointing to a satellite due south or thereabouts. Then I take a rock and see where the dish is pointing. I place a rock about 25 ft in front of the dish where it is pointing. Then I take my handheld GPS, switch it to "heading" (real heading, not magnetic), stand in front of my dish, then walk toward the rock. I see what heading I was walking (also the heading of my dish).
Then I go to my computer and use a dish pointing program. I enter my latitude/longitude, etc. and click on different satellites. I find the satellite which has the heading I found with my GPS (for my location). This is the satellite my dish is pointing to!
Then I go to lyngsat.com and look up that satellite and write down a frequency/H-V/SR for that satellite which is free-to-air (has "F") in listing.
Then I go to Antenna Setup in the Mercuty II. After selecting the satellite, correct LNB, etc., I click on Transponder. Then I select the frequency/H-V/SR I found on lyngsat.com. If that frequency is not on the list, I exit out of the list, then click on Edit TP and add the frequency to the list.
Then with Transponder set to use this frequency (hopefully an active frequency), I click on Positioner. Then see if I have a good signal reading and quality reading. If I do, then I was lucky and found the satellite my dish was pointing at.
If I don't, then I will try other frequencies in the list. If one of those is active and I get a good signal/quality reading, then I move the dish back and forth one click at a time to get the best reading. Then I save that position.
Now this is the neat part....
If I can't get any good signal reading, then I will go back to Antenna Setup and run a quick Power Scan. This finds a few frequencies. These may not be listed on the receiver list and they may not be listed on lyngsat.com.
Then I use one of these newly found frequencies to get my dish positioned just right. I go back to the positioner menu and adjust the dish east/west to get the best quality reading. I write down the positioner number from the
Vbox.
So now on this satellite, I have adjusted the dish up/down perfectly when installing the dish, and just now I have positioned the dish the best for east/west and I have the best signal/quality reading possible.
Then I run a Detailed power scan.
After the scan I look at the channels I got and compare this with the list on lyngsat for that satellite. If they are basically the same, then I know I got that satellite!
After finding the first satellite, it is easy to find the next. I add the next satellite to the east (or west).
I don't need to move the dish very far to find the next satellite. Writing down the positioner numbers on the Vbox and comparing this with the positions of the satellites as listed on lyngsat.com, I can sort of guess where a nearby satellite will be (what positioner number) after finding a few satellites.
Linear Mode
