Fortec and stab problems?? Whats up?

[jmbranden]

Greetings,

I have a new install that I'm having troubles with. It is a Fortec lifetime receiver with a 36 inch dish along with a stab motor. The lnb is a fortec fsku-V. The menu on the receiver never gives any type of a signal (always stuck at 20% even when LNB is disconected) however on AMC (101 deg) when I hit the signal button it does show up at a 68%-73% signal with 97% quality. but it never in the menu.... The main problem is: AMC at 101 degrees is the only sat I can get, noting else works, and then on top of it, when I tell the receiver to scan AMC, the motor keeps moving back and forth, and never finds anything, however, if I go in the menu and tell it to disable USALS, then it fines everything the way its suppose to. (because it can't move) ALSO, (and maybe its just something I'm doing) but I know for sure I have a good signal on AMC 101, however, when I hook the Birdog meter to it, it does NOT find anything at all (not any kind of signal) but when I swap out the LNB's and stick a Direct TV lnb in there and scan for Direct TV also at 101 degrees, it finds it right away, signal strong... Any help with ANY of these matters would GREATLY be appreciated!!

[dtsexpert]

Did you follow Sadoun's instrucation of how to set up H-H mount correctly?
Where do you live? How about the LO?
It seems like you have a universal type. Make sure the LO set up like this:
Low LO: 9750, High LO: 10600
When you fine tune your dish, you must use an active transponder.
No matter what function you use for moving the dish (Diseqc 1.2 or USALS 1.3), you have to get lock on your true south first.
If you use the USALS, make sure you key in your LAT and LONG correctly.
We need more info.
Michael

Originally Posted by jmbranden

Greetings,

I have a new install that I'm having troubles with. It is a Fortec lifetime receiver with a 36 inch dish along with a stab motor. The lnb is a fortec fsku-V. The menu on the receiver never gives any type of a signal (always stuck at 20% even when LNB is disconected) however on AMC (101 deg) when I hit the signal button it does show up at a 68%-73% signal with 97% quality. but it never in the menu.... The main problem is: AMC at 101 degrees is the only sat I can get, noting else works, and then on top of it, when I tell the receiver to scan AMC, the motor keeps moving back and forth, and never finds anything, however, if I go in the menu and tell it to disable USALS, then it fines everything the way its suppose to. (because it can't move) ALSO, (and maybe its just something I'm doing) but I know for sure I have a good signal on AMC 101, however, when I hook the Birdog meter to it, it does NOT find anything at all (not any kind of signal) but when I swap out the LNB's and stick a Direct TV lnb in there and scan for Direct TV also at 101 degrees, it finds it right away, signal strong... Any help with ANY of these matters would GREATLY be appreciated!!

[jmbranden]

Hi,

Yeah, the H-H is setup completely correct (when first powering up the receiver it found AMC 101deg right away with USALS, (I can see all sorts of Asian channels, the signals locked (when pressing the signal button on the remote, but in the setup menu its always stuck at 20% signal, and 0% quality (even though everything works fine, and it is in fact locked on with 97% quality) to me its like the USALS is not working right, because when it *should* be moving to another satellite, IE->anike2r @ 111.1deg it moves between 97 degrees and 103 degrees. I'm not sure if part of the receiver is damaged in some way... the LNB is a fortec FSKU-V (9.75 GHz 10.6 GHz) with an input range of 10.7 GHz to 12.75 GHz
The install site is located at a latitude of 45 and a longitude of 93.25 (p=38.2) and the azimuth is 175 (with the magnetic deviation). I guess what I don't like, is even though the receiver has stuff from AMC@ 101 deg programmed into it, is when I try and re-scan with USALS enabled, it keeps moving the dish back and forth, and because of that, it does not lock onto the satellite so it shows up as nothing found, but then when I exit the menu, it stops moving the dish, everything settles down, and then it comes up with the 73%signal and 98% quality. The biggest problem I'm having now is, I can't scan/load any satellites because the dish moves back and forth throughout the entire scan (and the signal is there, because I can watch the channels when I'm not scanning)

Correct me if I'm wrong (because I really don't know much about fortec) but it seems to me that if the antenna menu only see's 20% signal all of the time (even though its truly 72% with 97% quality) USALS would think that as a weak signal and try to nudge it to get something better, even though the signal really is higher (I can verify this with the other signal button on the remote) --So if it can't get anything higher than 20% it will just keep nudging and when its doing that while trying to scan, it can't possibly find anything because the dish is moving. That’s why I believe when I disable USALS, that’s why I can find the radio and TV channels... Maybe I'm wrong, but that seems like what’s happening and I don't know if that’s a software issue, or a hardware issue Thanks for your reply, and I will check everything again as far as adjustments, but I would say I'm 99.95 percent sure they are correct.

PS----> has anyone used the birdog DDSI meter with the fortec LNB's?? I would have thought it would work with it, but I can't get any type of reading... (I can with other LNB's)

Hopefully

[dtsexpert]

When you say the h-h mount is setup corretly, would you be more specific?
Did you aim your dish first at truesouth sat? Your LONG @ 93 so your truesouth sat is Telstar6. Let's assume you did that, did you get lock on your furthest EAST/WEST sats? If so, let us know which sats you picked for your furthest EAST and WEST.
There are no Asian channels on AMC1 at all, your dish hit another sat (perhaps Telstar5)
It seems to me that your dish is not set up correctly (excuse me if you feel offended, I am trying to help you here...:-) )
Let's no worry about the signal strength and quality for now until we get more info of how you set up your h-h mount...:-)
FYI, USALS will not help you at all if the dish is not setup correctly at first.

Michael

Originally Posted by jmbranden

Hi,

Yeah, the H-H is setup completely correct (when first powering up the receiver it found AMC 101deg right away with USALS, (I can see all sorts of Asian channels, the signals locked (when pressing the signal button on the remote, but in the setup menu its always stuck at 20% signal, and 0% quality (even though everything works fine, and it is in fact locked on with 97% quality) to me its like the USALS is not working right, because when it *should* be moving to another satellite, IE->anike2r @ 111.1deg it moves between 97 degrees and 103 degrees. I'm not sure if part of the receiver is damaged in some way... the LNB is a fortec FSKU-V (9.75 GHz 10.6 GHz) with an input range of 10.7 GHz to 12.75 GHz
The install site is located at a latitude of 45 and a longitude of 93.25 (p=38.2) and the azimuth is 175 (with the magnetic deviation). I guess what I don't like, is even though the receiver has stuff from AMC@ 101 deg programmed into it, is when I try and re-scan with USALS enabled, it keeps moving the dish back and forth, and because of that, it does not lock onto the satellite so it shows up as nothing found, but then when I exit the menu, it stops moving the dish, everything settles down, and then it comes up with the 73%signal and 98% quality. The biggest problem I'm having now is, I can't scan/load any satellites because the dish moves back and forth throughout the entire scan (and the signal is there, because I can watch the channels when I'm not scanning)

Correct me if I'm wrong (because I really don't know much about fortec) but it seems to me that if the antenna menu only see's 20% signal all of the time (even though its truly 72% with 97% quality) USALS would think that as a weak signal and try to nudge it to get something better, even though the signal really is higher (I can verify this with the other signal button on the remote) --So if it can't get anything higher than 20% it will just keep nudging and when its doing that while trying to scan, it can't possibly find anything because the dish is moving. That’s why I believe when I disable USALS, that’s why I can find the radio and TV channels... Maybe I'm wrong, but that seems like what’s happening and I don't know if that’s a software issue, or a hardware issue Thanks for your reply, and I will check everything again as far as adjustments, but I would say I'm 99.95 percent sure they are correct.

PS----> has anyone used the birdog DDSI meter with the fortec LNB's?? I would have thought it would work with it, but I can't get any type of reading... (I can with other LNB's)

Hopefully

[jmbranden]

Hi!

No, not offended at all.... The channels I was talking about was actually on AMC4 @ 101degrees Not AMC1... sorry about that, I should have just said AMC 4 instead of AMC@ 101deg..... Okay, this is what I got:

True south is at 93 degrees, which makes telstar6 the true south sat. The furthest East/West Sats are: nahuel 1 @71.8 and Galaxy 10R @ 123.0. The only one so far to date that was successfully loaded is AMC4. This is mostly because when you "nudge it" it don't nudge. Sometimes it works, but most the times it gives itself a 5-9 degree nudge. Which is impossible to get any ware near where I want? That’s where I sit right now... I'm not sure what else I can do... I can't get the dish to move where I want to completely verify Nahuel 1, or Galaxy 10r, however, for some reason when I moved it to AMC 4 It worked perfect, but that’s about the only thing that went right... Let me know what you think... and thanks again!

[dtsexpert]

Jason,
Verify the LAT and LONG in your receiver to make sure they are all correct. To be honest, I never use the Diseqc 1.3 (USALS) although my Fortect 786v3 is USALS compatible, so I really don't know how accurate it is. Have you tried to use the Diseqc 1.2? Well if the USALS does not work, the only option left is the Diseqc 1.2 to move the dish manually. Make sure you pick the active trasponder when moving the dish to find other sats.
Lyngsat.com is your friend here...:-)
Let us know how things going.
Michael

Originally Posted by jmbranden

Hi!

No, not offended at all.... The channels I was talking about was actually on AMC4 @ 101degrees Not AMC1... sorry about that, I should have just said AMC 4 instead of AMC@ 101deg..... Okay, this is what I got:

True south is at 93 degrees, which makes telstar6 the true south sat. The furthest East/West Sats are: nahuel 1 @71.8 and Galaxy 10R @ 123.0. The only one so far to date that was successfully loaded is AMC4. This is mostly because when you "nudge it" it don't nudge. Sometimes it works, but most the times it gives itself a 5-9 degree nudge. Which is impossible to get any ware near where I want? That’s where I sit right now... I'm not sure what else I can do... I can't get the dish to move where I want to completely verify Nahuel 1, or Galaxy 10r, however, for some reason when I moved it to AMC 4 It worked perfect, but that’s about the only thing that went right... Let me know what you think... and thanks again!

[jmbranden]

That still leaves me with the problem of "nudge" When you nudge the dish, it moves 5-9 degrees, in eather way, which is just way too far to get it just a little close.. (in diseqc 1.2) Do you know where I can get new software for the Fortec Lifetime receiver? I'm thinking the current software may be corrupt, or outdated in some way. If that don't work, I'm going to try and get a different receiver.......

[dtsexpert]

When you nedge the dish, press the button realy quick. If you hold the button 1 or 2 seconds, the dish will move 5-9 degs. Contact the seller for the new software.
When did you buy your receiver? Usually, the receiver has the last software if you buy it recently.
good luck

Originally Posted by jmbranden

That still leaves me with the problem of "nudge" When you nudge the dish, it moves 5-9 degrees, in eather way, which is just way too far to get it just a little close.. (in diseqc 1.2) Do you know where I can get new software for the Fortec Lifetime receiver? I'm thinking the current software may be corrupt, or outdated in some way. If that don't work, I'm going to try and get a different receiver.......

[Sadoun]

Jason

You can get the latest LifeTime f/w from www.fortecstar.com download section. Follow the instruction carefully and your new f/w will add the AC3 feature to your receiver and may improve any issues with the dish positioner commands.

As far as the BIRDOG, it does not work with UNIVERSAL LNBFs such as the FSKUv that you have. A new firmware will be loaded to the satellites websites to upgrade your BIRDOG to function with Universal and other LNBFS that require 22Khz tone.

[bobkat]

Originally Posted by Sadoun

As far as the BIRDOG, it does not work with UNIVERSAL LNBFs such as the FSKUv that you have. A new firmware will be loaded to the satellites websites to upgrade your BIRDOG to function with Universal and other LNBFS that require 22Khz tone.

Cool !!!

kat