fortec+mesh 8ft antenna driven by an Echostar710

[tuli]

I just purchased the Fortec Lifetime Ultra receiver alone and I am trying to use it with a switch and an 8 ft mesh dish driven by an analog receiver (Echostar710 - C/Ku). The location of all satellites is preset 'from the old times'.

I do not find ANY of the channels listed in Sadoun's website except for the PAX channels.

I am mostly interested in A1F (C-band channels). I tried Power scan and all I was able to find were 4 channels (2 channels that repeat themseves) one of which is a logo with YELLOWSTONE logo (a test channel?) and the other also a test channel or feed.

I plugged in: 3780 V, tp 2B, IF=1370 hoping to see the TELEQUEBEC, ASN or the Green Channel, without any success.
I turned the dish back in forth around the original location of A2 (107deg vs 107.3), rotate the polarization but again, I got nothing watchable.

I went to T5, power search and found nothing watchable. I already have a Ku receiver from Globecast and in the past I hooked the mesh dish (Ku cable) located at T5 and I got everything.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks

Tuli

[wejones]

Originally Posted by tuli

I just purchased the Fortec Lifetime Ultra receiver alone and I am trying to use it with a switch and an 8 ft mesh dish driven by an analog receiver (Echostar710 - C/Ku). The location of all satellites is preset 'from the old times'.

..........
I went to T5, power search and found nothing watchable. I already have a Ku receiver from Globecast and in the past I hooked the mesh dish (Ku cable) located at T5 and I got everything.

Am I missing something here?
.......

Could you be more clear about how you are connecting the Lifetime receiver? Ie are "slaving" it with a splitter prior to a DISEQ switch, or is the switch you refer to an A/B switch controlled externally to the receivers, or what?
Most people who use an MPEG receiver with an existing C-band or C/Ku system use splitters on the LNB cables, with DC blocked to the MPEG side, and allowing the analog receiver to power the LNBs, AND control the polarity. Typically, a Diseq switch is used to switch between the C-band coax and the KU band coax, since the lifetime has only one input. Polarity is probably one of your problems though, in that the Lifetime does not have the capability of changing the polarity on a regular C/Ku system.
Anyway, how is your system currently rigged, with respect to what is powering the lnbs, and do you have DC-blocks, and where is the "switch", and what type of switch is it?????

[tuli]

wejones, thanks for your reply.
here are more details

the 8 ft dish has 2 coaxial cables coming down (C band and Ku band).
Sadoun sells the SD41 4to1 diseqc switch which supposedly switches between up to 4 different Dishes(LNBs)
I hook up the C-band and Lu-band coaxial cables to 2 input ports of the SD41. The output port is connected through another piece of coaxial cable to the input IF port of the receiver.

As you mentioned, i control the polarization through the analog receiver (Echostar710).

While I power scan I obviously cannot change the polarization, however sometimes I do the power scan twice (one for Vpol and once for Hpol). Surprisingly, the chanels found are usually the same (regarless of pol).

I checked if the polarization is good by going back to the analong channels and by changing pol on a working channel I saw the degradation of the signal. To me that says that the polarizator works.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by tuli

wejones, thanks for your reply.
here are more details

the 8 ft dish has 2 coaxial cables coming down (C band and Ku band).
Sadoun sells the SD41 4to1 diseqc switch which supposedly switches between up to 4 different Dishes(LNBs)
I hook up the C-band and Lu-band coaxial cables to 2 input ports of the SD41. The output port is connected through another piece of coaxial cable to the input IF port of the receiver.

Thanks for clarification. I'm still a little confused, in that you only mention connection to one receiver, which I assume to be the Fortec. Does this mean that you don't have the LNBs connected at all to the analog receiver? Ie are you disconnecting the COAX to the 710 when doing this?If not, do you have a DC block to avoid both receivers trying to send power up the line?

Originally Posted by tuli

As you mentioned, i control the polarization through the analog receiver (Echostar710).

While I power scan I obviously cannot change the polarization, however sometimes I do the power scan twice (one for Vpol and once for Hpol). Surprisingly, the chanels found are usually the same (regarless of pol).

You did the right thing in scanning twice. However the fact that things are showing up in both scans indicates to me that you probably have your polarity set wrong on the 710. I'd advise tuning up your polarites to make sure that they are dead on. This should improve your reception on weak channels and eliminate the dual reception on others.

Originally Posted by tuli

I checked if the polarization is good by going back to the analong channels and by changing pol on a working channel I saw the degradation of the signal. To me that says that the polarizator works.

True, but with analog signals, you can be pretty far off without being able to notice the effects, although if the channel goes completely away, then that is good evidence (ie tuning for nul is more accurate than tuning for maximums), but if it just "degrades" but doesn't go completely away, then you could still be off quite a bit.
Good luck

[tuli]

I'm still a little confused, in that you only mention connection to one receiver, which I assume to be the Fortec. Does this mean that you don't have the LNBs connected at all to the analog receiver? Ie are you disconnecting the COAX to the 710 when doing this?If not, do you have a DC block to avoid both receivers trying to send power up the line?

I DO have the analog LNB connected.
I disconnected the 2 cables from the analog receiver and connected them to the switch. the output of the switch is connected to the input IF port at the back of the DIGITAL receiver

[tuli]

wesjones

can u tell me what are the parametrs to transponder 3B in A1F?


this is what I see on the Lyngsat site:

3780 V tp 2B

telequebec 2360 2320 F

The Green Channel 2660 2620 E

ASN - Atlantic Satellite Network 2760

These numbers do not seem to be similar to what I see on the transponder channels in the factory default values

I guess I would need some help to identify the values I have to input to the NEW (?) tp that I have to input (?)
IF=?
Bitrate=?
LNA=?

What is
SR - FEC
SID - VPID
NID - TID
Audio

Are there parameters that I have to worry about and some that I dont?

I appreciate yout help

Tuli

[wejones]

Originally Posted by tuli

.....
I DO have the analog LNB connected.
I disconnected the 2 cables from the analog receiver and connected them to the switch. the output of the switch is connected to the input IF port at the back of the DIGITAL receiver

I'm confused. Sounds like you are saying that it IS connected then you say you disconnected it? I have to assume that your LNBs are NOT connected in any way to the analog receiver, but that the polarotor and actuator wires are still being used. That is OK. I was just afraid that you somehow had both analog and digital connected to the LNBs without a DC block, which could cause problems.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by tuli

wesjones

can u tell me what are the parametrs to transponder 3B in A1F?


this is what I see on the Lyngsat site:

3780 V tp 2B

telequebec 2360 2320 F

The Green Channel 2660 2620 E

ASN - Atlantic Satellite Network 2760

These numbers do not seem to be similar to what I see on the transponder channels in the factory default values

I guess I would need some help to identify the values I have to input to the NEW (?) tp that I have to input (?)
IF=?
Bitrate=?
LNA=?

What is
SR - FEC
SID - VPID
NID - TID
Audio

Are there parameters that I have to worry about and some that I dont?

I appreciate yout help

Tuli

The default parameters are often obsolete, however on my regular Lifetime, the transponder you refer to is the first one listed. The important information is the freq ( ie 3780 ) and the SR (ie 28346 ). If that isn't listed, then you may have to edit that transponder and add that one.
Since you are looking for a C-band signal, I'd advise going to the Antenna Setup menu, and make sure that it is set up for a standard LNB with 5150 LO. Also in the Antenna setup menu, make sure you have it set up for the port on the diseq switch that you have the C-band cable connected to, ie A,B,C, or D. Also make sure that you have LNB power ON.
Once the antenna section is set up, if you go to the transponder scan, you should be able to highlight the 3780 transponder. At this point, your receiver should give you an indication in the "Quality" meter. If not, try changing the polarity on your analog receiver. If you still don't get a reading, you may have to try to peak the sat a bit with the actuator motor (this may require switching back to the analog receiver, and hope that you can find an analog feed to tune on). Once you find a quality level indication, hit OK. It should then find the channels you are looking for. Of course, since you have the ULTRA, you could do a power scan, but if there are only looking for specific channels it is less cluttered to use the TP scan, since otherwise you get dozens of channels you'll never watch. Also, it isn't a good idea to do a power scan unless you have first found some known signals on the sat, to make sure you are peaked on the sat.