overly frustrated, please help

[noobie]

i have everything installed, a compass and elevation is not helping me lock anything. im trying ot pick up echo 6,7 and amc4. My zip is 23669 and im using fortec everything; life time ultra, 33' dish' fortec lnbf and sg2100 motor. any help or settings advice would be greatly appreciated.

Some sats i can get 55-60% signal but no quality, even surfing thru the transponders i get nothing. again, please help.

[Phonic]

make sure you have the LO settings right in your receiver, AMC4 and the echo birds use a totally different LNB and LNB settings.

BTW - where in VA are you? (Hampton?) your zip code is as close to mine as you can get.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Phonic

make sure you have the LO settings right in your receiver, AMC4 and the echo birds use a totally different LNB and LNB settings.

A slight clarification to the above. The LO settings don't have anything to do with what satellite you are looking at. The LO setting is determined by the freqs used by your LNB, and are often found on the tag on the lnb. It is correct though that AMC4 and the echo satellites are different both in freq and polarization, and usually different lnbs are used to receive these sats, and the different lnbs use different LO freqs, but unless you have multiple lnbs, you don't want different settings for different sats.
The Fortec lnbf is not appropriate for the Echo sats, although it is possible to receive a couple channels. It is appropriate for the linear polarization satellites, such as AMC4. Set the freq and SR of a known transponder and then make adjustments to the aim of the dish.

[noobie]

besides the elevation and the compass is there anything else i can do to correctly grab a signal? #-o

It also seems that when i plug in the sat finder the thing just pegs and doesnt move, its like i getting a sat ever direction i point it. can someone give me a good example of settings that need to be used and how i can reference these with the birds im trying to find?

Should my setting for the lnb, be universal or single or standard? i am finding it overly difficult finding a satellite in that big azz sky

[wejones]

Originally Posted by noobie

besides the elevation and the compass is there anything else i can do to correctly grab a signal? #-o

It also seems that when i plug in the sat finder the thing just pegs and doesnt move, its like i getting a sat ever direction i point it. can someone give me a good example of settings that need to be used and how i can reference these with the birds im trying to find?

Should my setting for the lnb, be universal or single or standard? i am finding it overly difficult finding a satellite in that big azz sky

Hopefully someone with the same equipment can help better, as I use single freq lnbs myself, But I think that the Fortec lnbfs are generally universal, using 9.750 and 10.6 LO freqs, but it should be stamped on a tag on the lnbf.
I assume that the sat finder you are referring to is one of the little hand held things with a meter and a knob that changes the pitch of the squeal? I agree that these are difficult to use, but they can work. I've mainly used them with my big dish, and with little DBS dishes, but haven't used them on a 1 meter dish, so I'm not sure how useful they are with that size dish.
As you say, the problem is that it seems like they are always seeing something, even when pointed at the ground, and the difference in signal when aimed at the sat isn't always easily perceptable. What I do, is adjust the little knob so that it gives about a mid reading when not aimed at a sat, then when you are aimed at a sat, you will observe an increase in signal level and pitch. What you are looking for is change as you move the dish. In some cases, those little meters just won't work at all, like in cold weather or when the signal is weak. They work OK when you have a lot of signal, ie big dish or strong DBS satellite, but on regular sats with a marginal (size or quality) dish, it may be more difficult to get results with one of those meters.
If the small meter doesn't work for you, you may need to bring the receiver/TV to a location where you can see it while moving the dish. If you do this, you should set the receiver on the freq/SR values for a know 24/7 transponder. Get as close as possible to the aim, particularly with respect to the compass heading (making sure to consider magnetic deviation), then make slow adjustments to the elevation while watching for the quality reading to pop in. Just like with the handheld meters, you will see the "level" will seemingly show signal even when not aimed at a sat, however when you see quality, you know you are getting close.
Good luck.

[Phonic]

Originally Posted by wejones

The LO settings don't have anything to do with what satellite you are looking at.

It does if you're using the incorrect LNB.

[DruzeTito]

Originally Posted by noobie

i have everything installed, a compass and elevation is not helping me lock anything. im trying ot pick up echo 6,7 and amc4. My zip is 23669 and im using fortec everything; life time ultra, 33' dish' fortec lnbf and sg2100 motor. any help or settings advice would be greatly appreciated.

Some sats i can get 55-60% signal but no quality, even surfing thru the transponders i get nothing. again, please help.

Have you read Sadoun's instructions for motor install? Have you calculated dish elevation according to the SG2100?

Basically you need the pole to be straight and level, and then find your true south and adjust your dish/motor as close as you can to that. For tuning the signal you have to move the mast either left or right and or the dish elevation up or down. Do not move the motor scale.. this should be left to your latitude.

Read around these forums.. youll find plenty of motor install tips.

[noobie]

Why should i look tru south when im looking for atlantic satellites? i have my sat facing tru east, but have been able to turn the motor true south if i have too. i read around this morning and found that the angle on my motor was too great, i've done the math and the angle should be 24.1 instead of 40 like i had it. im know im going to run into some issue but i have all weekend to tinker with it, stay tuned.

Oh yeah, the sats im trying to get are hotbird, pas3r & amc4.

Anyone know if hotbird is visible from the east coast?

[vj9999]

AMC4 is not really atlantic sat. Pas3 you can get, Hotbird no.

When setting up your motor, seting it up for your true sout s crucial. Once you have that and your east and westmost sats you will track the arc and be able to get whatever sats are in your visible arc (that have beams pointed to US).

[wejones]

Originally Posted by noobie

Why should i look tru south when im looking for atlantic satellites? i have my sat facing tru east, but have been able to turn the motor true south if i have too. i read around this morning and found that the angle on my motor was too great, i've done the math and the angle should be 24.1 instead of 40 like i had it. im know im going to run into some issue but i have all weekend to tinker with it, stay tuned.

Oh yeah, the sats im trying to get are hotbird, pas3r & amc4.

Anyone know if hotbird is visible from the east coast?

Re hotbird. No.

I think you're confusing Az/El mount with a polar mount. With a motorized dish on a polar mount of some kind, what you are trying to accomplish is to get the rotation axis of the motor shaft to be approximately parallel to the earth's rotation axis (I say approximately, because it should be tilted roughly 0.7 degrees to the north rather than exactly parallel). This means that the angle of the motor shaft relative to the ground should be roughly equal to your latitude, and the angle relative to the vertical pole should be roughly 90-latitude. In addition, this angle should be tilted along a north-south direction since the earth's axis is a north-south line.
To properly align your mount, you need to find the satellite closest to due south of you, and you need to do this with the motor in it's due south position, or if you don't have a due south satellite, you might run the motor to the closest sat to due south. By starting with a sat to your south, you can be setting both your declination (if you've started with your latitude adjustment set as is typical on the small motorized dishes) or set your latitude adjustment (if you've started with a set declination as is done on big dishes), and you can come close to getting the north/south alignment of the mount set all in one step (although it is typical to tweak your north/south alignment {mount on pole} on a easterly or westerly sat later). Once aligned properly, you can move the motor to find any satellite without changing any other angles, however it is extremely difficult to align a mount without first finding your due south satellite first.
Your mount should have two angle adjustments, one of which changes the angle of the motor, and one which only affects the dish relative to the motor. The former should be set for your latitude, and the later is a declination adjustment which can be peaked if you've set the latitude angle correctly. I'm not sure what angles you are referring to with respect to the 24.1 deg angle, but I'm guessing that you looked up an elevation for an AZ/EL mount, which is completely different from aligning a polar mount.

[Admin]

noobie

You have to start with true SOUTH. Otherwise, the motor will not track anything.

If you have the Fortec Star 0.4db LNBF (FSKUv), it is a UNIVERSAL lnbf. So make sure you select UNIVERSAL1

Follow these instructions http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installati...stallation.htm

There are no FTA channels on Echo satellites, except for a couple chanels (GOLTV and NASA), plus some music radio channels. The LNBF you have will not get these channels because they require a circular type LNBF.

[DruzeTito]

Heh.. I wish we could reach hotbird!!!

But noobie.. regardless of which satellites you are trying to get you must first set your motor to position 0 and point your dish south or else you will not be able to track anything. I suggest you read heavily about motor install and satellites before totally giving up.

[noobie]

what sats can i see from the east coast? with the setup i have

[DruzeTito]

have you tried looking at www.lyngsat.com ? This is probably the best site. Anyway, there are not many ku FTA DVB channels from the atlantic except maybe Hispasat 1C with authentic channels from Spain.

[kp4gb]

noobie, go the HH Motors forum under System Installation and check the postings under "Help with SG2100A". Lots of information there. It looks like you can find the solution to your problem there.

Please let us know if it worked for you.

Good luck and don't give up.