Can't find G10R no matter what

[pmb1010]

I am new to sat reception.
Receiver is Fortec Ultra, and Fortec 80cm dish & Fortec Universal LNB.
Last night I moved the old directv dish a little to the right, and got Echo sat and played, scanned, got 1 channel.

Today, I took down the DTV dish and put up my new 30" in its place.
Since the mounting pole is on the side of my house, I have limited view only to 220 + or so degrees. I have a motor on order, and a better mouting location, but I wanted to see if I could lock on a fixed sat with this setup.
I took a small TV and the box outside, and hooked it all together. My location is Buffalo, NY so it works out to 245 degrees (magnetically corrected) and 24 on the elevation. 245 was easy enough to do, I'm not sure on the elevation. Looking at the bracket on the dish, it appears there is small line "dent" in the middle of the vertical bracket, I assumed the degree scale is lined up with that. I set it just before the 25 degree line.
I get 77% on the "level" indicator, but no matter what I do, nothing on the quality scale. (What is the "level" indicator, anyway? With the lnb unplugged from the box, it still shows 77%????)
I'm on the antenna setup screen, LNB is Universal 1, LNB power "on", and TP I'm setting to 11799 V 26.660. But I get zilch quality amount.
I do have some trees in the distance (about 200 feet away) that do "get in the way" so I don't have absolutley clear sky to look at, could that cause nothing to get thru???

[pmb1010]

Some further information:

I taped the DTV LNB to the sideof the FTA LNB, and connected the cable to it. I can sucessfully get Echo 7.

If I put the coax back on the FTA LNB, and switch to it "universal 1" so the LO is correct for it, should I not get Echo 7 show up signal wise? or not? (I did move the dish a bit side to side too).
Nada response on the FTA LNB...

[dtsexpert]

Did you set the skew correctly?
Michael

Originally Posted by pmb1010

Some further information:

I taped the DTV LNB to the sideof the FTA LNB, and connected the cable to it. I can sucessfully get Echo 7.

If I put the coax back on the FTA LNB, and switch to it "universal 1" so the LO is correct for it, should I not get Echo 7 show up signal wise? or not? (I did move the dish a bit side to side too).
Nada response on the FTA LNB...

[pmb1010]

Originally Posted by dtsexpert

Did you set the skew correctly?
Michael

I have it at approx 5 o'clock looking at the dish. This would be with the Echo experiment.
With the G10R experiment, it was about 4 o'clock (35ish degrees)

[DruzeTito]

Ok .. please set aside the DTV circular lnbs and just work on G10R with your linear FTA LNB.

A good transponder for G10R to aim for is 11920 V 28066 3/4

Make sure pole is level!!

For buffalo, NY ... the lat is 42.89 and long is 78.86

so aim your dish like this:

Elevation : 24 (you must remember that elevation scales on dishes are not always what they show. That is why its important to slowly adjust the elevation up or down for the maximum signal you can get.)

Azimuth: 234 without mag var, 244 with. So aim your compass at about 245. Remember, slowly left or right to find the best signal possible in the vicinity of 240-50 compass heading. Even if the signal makes a small difference.

LNB: looking at the dish, rotate lnb LEFT to about 40.

What you are looking for is QUALITY.. so many times signal is not significant. Remember patience is required.. and small movements. Please tell us how it goes.

[pmb1010]

Originally Posted by DruzeTito

Ok .. please set aside the DTV circular lnbs and just work on G10R with your linear FTA LNB.

A good transponder for G10R to aim for is 11920 V 28066 3/4

Make sure pole is level!!

For buffalo, NY ... the lat is 42.89 and long is 78.86

so aim your dish like this:

Elevation : 24 (you must remember that elevation scales on dishes are not always what they show. That is why its important to slowly adjust the elevation up or down for the maximum signal you can get.)

Azimuth: 234 without mag var, 244 with. So aim your compass at about 245. Remember, slowly left or right to find the best signal possible in the vicinity of 240-50 compass heading. Even if the signal makes a small difference.

LNB: looking at the dish, rotate lnb LEFT to about 40.

What you are looking for is QUALITY.. so many times signal is not significant. Remember patience is required.. and small movements. Please tell us how it goes.

1. Ok, dtv stuff set aside.
2. pole is level. Verified with bubble level.
3. Used your TP recommendation.
4. Your numbers agree with my numbers.

Tried just now with portable TV. Set to 24. I moved the dish side to side from 240-250 in 1/4 in (at the LNB) increments, and waited about 10 secs for indication. Nothing.
I moved the dish up a bit, repeat process (till it was at about 30 deg), and down a little a little at a time (till it was at down "limit" of the pole mount I have). Nothing.

I'm not sure what to do now.

[DruzeTito]

ok .. make sure that everything on the dish is mounted right (ie, something may be upside down, or look at the lnb bracket and make sure its mounted correctly.)

Also , are you confident on how you read the compass? It should be away from any magnetic interference, and should be read steady and level on the hand.

In addition, MAKE SURE YOUR LNB LO SETTINGS ARE CORRECT. Do you have a universal LNB or STANDARD?

here is some more steps:

-Put the lnb at about 40, then leave it.
-Put the elevation at where its supposed to be theoretically.
-Now move the dish left and right very slowly (about a milimeter in each movement and wait 2 seconds) in the area it is supposed to be, find the BEST signal (level) you can and LEAVE it there.

-Now do the same exact thing with the elevation and move it very slowly up or down with about a 2 second delay to read the signal. At this point you SHOULD it it right on the mark to get quality. If not, again find the highest signal., leave it, and then you can and go back to the azimuth and slowly move left, right in the search for quality. If the lnb skew is in the vicinity it should be, you only leave out two variables to get the signal; elevation and azimuth. Thats why its important to set the skew.

[pmb1010]

DruzeTito:
I really appreciate the help. Well, I've done all that. I'm attaching some pics I took. If I walk into neighbors yard hold the compass (it's a good one) and look at the dish, it reads 245. I put some ink on the scale of the elevation, it's set at 24. And closeup of the LNB (its a Fortec Universal, its says 9.75 and 10.6 on the box) so I'm selecting "Universal 1" from the fortec setup. It shows 975/10600 on the selection screen, I'm confident that's the right LNB. I did some reading, and one guys says "a pine needle will block Ku FTA reception. Last pic is what the dish is looking through...

[pmb1010]

Couldn't get 4 on one post... here's the "look":

[DruzeTito]

Well the way it looks like it, quite possibly could be the trees. You should try other sats in the clear area to see if it really is trees. Or try mounting on roof or the side of the house its much better. But this is when all else fails.

If you can, would you be able to take a picture of the lnb bracket closeup looking at the sky?

[pmb1010]

I do have a motor on the way. I am going to either mount the motor to this pole above the roof line or on something new. Either way, whatever it will be it will be able to swing left to the east (the wall you see in previous pic where the pole is faces west). Unfortunately I cannot turn the dish much more to east other than to Echo7 otherwise it hits the house. And it's a bit sloppy with cold&snow to go on roof to play around.
Can you answer this - should I or should I not get a big signal on the FTA LNB from the Echo7 Sat as I move by it while I'm moving this dish around? I put the camera on the face of the dish and snapped this pic. YOu can see the LNB at the bottom...

[DruzeTito]

- If you cannot find a sat in the fixed position it will be MUCH harder to set up the motor. Especially if you cannot aim your dish to true south. But it is possible.

-A FTA LNB is not good for the ECHO 7 sat, that sat needs what is called a CIRCULAR LNB (the ones that come off a Directv or Dishnet dish) Now, if you are aiming to a echo 7 transponder, most likely the FTA LNB will pick up some signals from echo 7 but they will be weak. And if you do get a signal, it doesnt mean its on echo 7 (119w) but it could mean your on echo 6-8 (110w).

-The picture you sent is not what I wanted, sorry about that. If you can take a shot just a bit lower so I can see the LNB Bracket on the arm, that would be good.

-One thing i forgot to mention is make sure the lnb is farthest away from the dish on the bracket. In other words, pull the lnb away from the dish as much as possible. This puts it where the focal point should be.

-Make sure on the recevier you have it selected to G10R/ku and TP 11920 V 28066. And make sure nothing else is on like disecq and such.

- A good way to aim the dish left/right is to extremely and very slowly move it constantly about a degree a second.. you might catch a good signal.

-You must play around with the elevation, even if its off.. dont look at the markings, just look at the signal level. Adjust elevation after you have achieved the max level from left and right adjustment.

-Make sure you have your stuff connect right.. and the lnb cable is in the IF input.

-Make sure the cable you are using is RG-6.

[Sadoun]

Good advice from DruzeTito

If the picture above is how the dish is aligned to get a signal from Galaxy10R, then I am afraid the signal may be weak or not available at all. The tree is in the way and will block the signal now and when the tree starts to have leaves on it. Find another spot on your property to mount the dish at.

[pmb1010]

Originally Posted by DruzeTito

--A FTA LNB is not good for the ECHO 7 sat, that sat needs what is called a CIRCULAR LNB (the ones that come off a Directv or Dishnet dish) Now, if you are aiming to a echo 7 transponder, most likely the FTA LNB will pick up some signals from echo 7 but they will be weak. And if you do get a signal, it doesnt mean its on echo 7 (119w) but it could mean your on echo 6-8 (110w).

- A good way to aim the dish left/right is to extremely and very slowly move it constantly about a degree a second.. you might catch a good signal.

-You must play around with the elevation, even if its off.. dont look at the markings, just look at the signal level. Adjust elevation after you have achieved the max level from left and right adjustment.
-Make sure you have your stuff connect right.. and the lnb cable is in the IF input.
-Make sure the cable you are using is RG-6.

I did ALL of the above. I got NO signal at all on Echo7 with the FTA-LNB. NONE. And I was peaked on the sat using circular lnb taped to the fta lnb.
All TP settings correct on receiver when I'm attempting to hit G10R. Right port. Everything. As I said, echo7 with circular LNB blows the signal level off the Fortec receiver... and yest it's good RG6. When I'm trying to dial this in, its with a 3 foot piece of RG6 to the box on portable TV set on a chair outside next to dish. Cabling shouldn't be a factor.
As it stands, since I get NO signal with FTA lnb anywhere, I'm suspecting DOA lnb... all at this point is want to verify if it's dead or not. That's why I bring up the question of seeing a signal from DishNet sats...

[DruzeTito]

Just one thing. If you have a circular lnb taped and you are getting Echo 7 with it, the FTA LNB will NOT get a signal because it is off by the amount of degrees where the lnb is taped! But you should not experiment with circulars sats on the linear but linear with linear sats.

-Thank you for the picture, sorry for the hassle. The lnb looks good and the bracket does as well.

-Right now i can conclude that it is probably the trees that are in your way. You can get Echo 7 signals with circular lnb because the echostar satellites are realllly strong sats compared to T5 and G10r. And the echo 7 signal might be peaking through the branches where as the g10r signal is totally blocked by the tree stump. You should try SATmex 5 with your fortec lnb and aim for tp 12080 H 25635 3/4 to see if the g10r signal is really blocked by trees and to see if your lnb is working right. Because the satmex 5 signal might be peeking through the branches and not totally blocked by stump.

[pmb1010]

Originally Posted by DruzeTito

Just one thing. If you have a circular lnb taped and you are getting Echo 7 with it, the FTA LNB will NOT get a signal because it is off by the amount of degrees where the lnb is taped! But you should not experiment with circulars sats on the linear but linear with linear sats.

You should try SATmex 5 with your fortec lnb and aim for tp 12080 H 25635 3/4

Yeah, I realize that it'd be off a bit because of the offcenter LNB being taped together... I compensated at the time by moving a bit to the direction it'd make it "right" but again i got nada from the FTA lnb...

And, you'd think I'd get some indication of Satmex5 while I was futzing around trying to get galaxy10r though.
Will do this with Satmex5 tomorrow as a concerted effort and report back.
Ugh...

[pmb1010]