signal but no signal

[Jim-S]

I have tried to get a signal from AMC2, my due south sat. I lowered my dish (fc90cm) 5-deg as suggested. Motor (sg-240) set at 43-lat. I moved dish ever so slightly to east/west, up/down nothing...now I put inline my sat. meter and got a signal, I moved the dish east/west for peak signal and then up/down for peak signal. I found my dish to be between 10 and 11 deg. elevation just about right for 5 deg lower than suggested from manual. I now have a good signal on my meter but still nothing on the receivers signal level or quality. Was not able to get any signal to show on the receiver. Could the receiver be defective? Other suggestions. I also put my hand in front of LNB and the signal is blocked on the sat. meter.
I have a Mercury II receiver, SG-240 motor, UNLI.

[rainman]

make sure you are using a active Transponder on the receiver.another thing try a blind scan and see what you come up with.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Jim-S

I have tried to get a signal from AMC2, my due south sat. I lowered my dish (fc90cm) 5-deg as suggested. Motor (sg-240) set at 43-lat. I moved dish ever so slightly to east/west, up/down nothing...now I put inline my sat. meter and got a signal, I moved the dish east/west for peak signal and then up/down for peak signal. I found my dish to be between 10 and 11 deg. elevation just about right for 5 deg lower than suggested from manual. I now have a good signal on my meter but still nothing on the receivers signal level or quality. Was not able to get any signal to show on the receiver. Could the receiver be defective? Other suggestions. I also put my hand in front of LNB and the signal is blocked on the sat. meter.
I have a Mercury II receiver, SG-240 motor, UNLI.

First of all, it's about 500:1 odds against the receiver being defective, and about 500:1 in favor of just not being aimed right or receiver set up right.
But I'm confused by several things. I'm not familiar with an SG-240 motor. I know of an SG-2100 and a DG-240, but haven't heard of SG-240. I'll guess that what you have is the DG-240. However, whatever motor you have, I don't know of ANY motor where your dish elevation should be 10-11 degrees, even WITH a 5 degree error. With a DG-240, I think you should be up around 29 degrees, and with an SG-2100 you'd be around 24 degrees, so I'm sure you've made some calculation error here.
Also, if you have either of these two motors, make sure you don't try putting your latitude on the "Elevation" scale. Put 43.6 on your Latitude scale, or 46.4 on the Elevation scale.
Finally, as Rainman said, you need to be on an active transponder, and that isn't easy with AMC-2 as most of the transponders are news feed types that come on and go off, so you can't count on them being there. However there is a 12196H with 3979 SR which should be there 24/7 .

[bill190]

What LNB are you using?

What is the LNB set to in the receiver for this satellite?

Are you using a diseqc switch?

Also be aware that C-band frequencies are 4 digit, Ku-band are 5 digit.

Also possible you are pointed at a different satellite than you think. If you have the correct LNB set, a blind scan will probably get something.

[Jim-S]

You are right I did a typo it is a SG-240 motor. What I have learned from this forum that if you have an (FC 90 Dish) it has an offset of 24.62 degrees and ACM2 is at 40.4 from my latitude and I read that you subtract the offset from the elevation which is 15.78 degrees and on my dish scale it is 28.4. But the dish is at 15.78. Also I read that this dish is off by 5 degress so I was told to lower it 5 degrees and that is where I found a signal on the sat. meter, but not on the receiver. I am going to try what you suggested.. Thanks for the reply.

Originally Posted by wejones

First of all, it's about 500:1 odds against the receiver being defective, and about 500:1 in favor of just not being aimed right or receiver set up right.
But I'm confused by several things. I'm not familiar with an SG-240 motor. I know of an SG-2100 and a DG-240, but haven't heard of SG-240. I'll guess that what you have is the DG-240. However, whatever motor you have, I don't know of ANY motor where your dish elevation should be 10-11 degrees, even WITH a 5 degree error. With a DG-240, I think you should be up around 29 degrees, and with an SG-2100 you'd be around 24 degrees, so I'm sure you've made some calculation error here.
Also, if you have either of these two motors, make sure you don't try putting your latitude on the "Elevation" scale. Put 43.6 on your Latitude scale, or 46.4 on the Elevation scale.
Finally, as Rainman said, you need to be on an active transponder, and that isn't easy with AMC-2 as most of the transponders are news feed types that come on and go off, so you can't count on them being there. However there is a 12196H with 3979 SR which should be there 24/7 .

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Jim-S

You are right I did a typo it is a SG-240 motor.

?? Is this another typo? Did you mean DG-240?

Originally Posted by Jim-S

What I have learned from this forum that if you have an (FC 90 Dish) it has an offset of 24.62 degrees and ACM2 is at 40.4 from my latitude and I read that you subtract the offset from the elevation which is 15.78 degrees and on my dish scale it is 28.4. But the dish is at 15.78. Also I read that this dish is off by 5 degress so I was told to lower it 5 degrees and that is where I found a signal on the sat. meter, but not on the receiver. I am going to try what you suggested.. Thanks for the reply.

No. THe above is all wrong. First of all, you're mixing up fixed dish elevation with motorized dish elevations. They aren't the same.

You don't have to consider the offset angle of the dish if the scale on the dish is correct, and on my FC90 it was correct, although people with the U-bolt mount have found it off. Basically, you don't need to bother with the offset angle. I'm assuming that you got the 40.4 from the Az/El chart for fixed dish. That tells you what direction the dish should be aiming, but that aim is the combination of your motor's elevation and your declination, and the declination is the combination of your motor's axis offset angle and your dish elevation.
Basically, you should set the "Latitude" scale on your dish to 43.7 . This will result in the "Elevation" scale being set at 46.3. For your latitude, you should use a declination of 5.9 deg, which means that the dish will be aiming 5.9 deg lower than the 46.4, ie 46.3-5.9=40.4 , ie the number you saw in the fixed dish calculator.
Now, however, to get this 5.9 deg declination, you have to use the dish elevation. For the DG-240, the shaft has a 35 deg bend in it, meaning it looks 35 deg low, so to get a 5.9 deg declination, you have to raise the dish by 29.1 deg. Ie 35-29.1=5.9 .
If you have the pole mount bracket, ie the -p version, I wouldn't do any subtracting 5 deg. If you have the u-bolt, version -u, then I would still try it according to the recommended settings first, but make sure that you search for the signal all the way down to 5 deg below the recommended values.

[Jim-S]

Thanks to your advice, I went back out to my dish with receiver and TV and within an half-hour I was able to get a signal......I am now trying to learn how to use the receiver..........Thank-you

Originally Posted by rainman

make sure you are using a active Transponder on the receiver.another thing try a blind scan and see what you come up with.

[Jim-S]

Thank-you for this is a ton of info which is greatly appreciated. I will use this as a reference.......after I read your first reply and rainman's I set up my equipment at the dish, in a little while I got a signal...I don't know if I have it exact yet but I am receiving channels on AMC2, AMC3, AMC4 and AMC9....thats all I Power Scanned...I am now learning how to use the receiver....this all new to me. Again thanks ever so much.

Originally Posted by wejones

?? Is this another typo? Did you mean DG-240?


No. THe above is all wrong. First of all, you're mixing up fixed dish elevation with motorized dish elevations. They aren't the same.

You don't have to consider the offset angle of the dish if the scale on the dish is correct, and on my FC90 it was correct, although people with the U-bolt mount have found it off. Basically, you don't need to bother with the offset angle. I'm assuming that you got the 40.4 from the Az/El chart for fixed dish. That tells you what direction the dish should be aiming, but that aim is the combination of your motor's elevation and your declination, and the declination is the combination of your motor's axis offset angle and your dish elevation.
Basically, you should set the "Latitude" scale on your dish to 43.7 . This will result in the "Elevation" scale being set at 46.3. For your latitude, you should use a declination of 5.9 deg, which means that the dish will be aiming 5.9 deg lower than the 46.4, ie 46.3-5.9=40.4 , ie the number you saw in the fixed dish calculator.
Now, however, to get this 5.9 deg declination, you have to use the dish elevation. For the DG-240, the shaft has a 35 deg bend in it, meaning it looks 35 deg low, so to get a 5.9 deg declination, you have to raise the dish by 29.1 deg. Ie 35-29.1=5.9 .
If you have the pole mount bracket, ie the -p version, I wouldn't do any subtracting 5 deg. If you have the u-bolt, version -u, then I would still try it according to the recommended settings first, but make sure that you search for the signal all the way down to 5 deg below the recommended values.

[rainman]

glad to here you are getting it up and running Jim.