Confused about antennas

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I have an Orasat v5.0 receiver and a new Disque switch and all kinds of antennas but I have no idea what lnb I need to receive JCTV or anything else. I'll just list them:

Round Primestar dish & lnb (never used)
StarChoice eliptical Ku with quad lnb
An old eliptical 3 position Direct TV
Dish 500 two position (119 & 110) with quad lnb

I mainly want to receive Galaxy 25 and was intending to use the Primestar dish for that. Anything extra is just icing on the cake.

I recently learned that my lifetime Dominion Sky Angel service is about to die.

This is what I'm hoping to receive: TBN, Church Channel, JCTV, Enlace and Smile of a Child are now available with NO MONTHLY FEES to all viewers on direct-to-home (DTH) satellite; Intelsat Americas 5 . Intelsat Americas 5 covers all of United States of America, Canada, Mexico and most of the Caribbean. Most areas require a small 30-inch dish (36-inch dish is preferred), an inexpensive free-to-air (FTA) direct-to-home (DTH) receiver and Ku offset dish antenna that's capable of receiving the signal from the Intelsat Americas 5 satellite.

Some have said the Primestar antenna should work, some the *Choice, some say I'd have to modify the length of the arm to the lnb and get a different lnb. I'm so confused!

What do I need? Thanks!

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Scroll

I have an Orasat v5.0 receiver and a new Disque switch and all kinds of antennas but I have no idea what lnb I need to receive JCTV or anything else. I'll just list them:

Round Primestar dish & lnb (never used)
StarChoice eliptical Ku with quad lnb
An old eliptical 3 position Direct TV
Dish 500 two position (119 & 110) with quad lnb

I mainly want to receive Galaxy 25 and was intending to use the Primestar dish for that. Anything extra is just icing on the cake.

I recently learned that my lifetime Dominion Sky Angel service is about to die.

This is what I'm hoping to receive: TBN, Church Channel, JCTV, Enlace and Smile of a Child are now available with NO MONTHLY FEES to all viewers on direct-to-home (DTH) satellite; Intelsat Americas 5 . Intelsat Americas 5 covers all of United States of America, Canada, Mexico and most of the Caribbean. Most areas require a small 30-inch dish (36-inch dish is preferred), an inexpensive free-to-air (FTA) direct-to-home (DTH) receiver and Ku offset dish antenna that's capable of receiving the signal from the Intelsat Americas 5 satellite.

Some have said the Primestar antenna should work, some the *Choice, some say I'd have to modify the length of the arm to the lnb and get a different lnb. I'm so confused!

What do I need? Thanks!

I would think that either the Primestar or StarCHoice would work. The DTV/Dishnet antennas would not. I see no reason why you should have to modify the lnbf arm, or change lnbfs.

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Great! So what kind of lnb do I need?

I was told to look for "a LNB that is KU band (11.7 - 12.2 GHz), linear polarization."

So does that just bolt on to my existing arm? Or what?

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Scroll

Great! So what kind of lnb do I need?

I was told to look for "a LNB that is KU band (11.7 - 12.2 GHz), linear polarization."

So does that just bolt on to my existing arm? Or what?

I think that's what you have with the primestar dish.

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You mean the lnb? That's what I thought when I got it years ago. I got it to improve my *Choice reception but before I could install it my broker skipped away and I just put the thing in the shed, shipping box & all where it's sat all this time.

That said, in another forum I was told neither the Primestar or the *Choice will work without modifying the arm length and different lnbs, and then I got an email from a parts dealer who said "We would love to sell you some products, but you already have the correct LNBF on both the Primestar and *Choice dishes."

I have the *Choice dish pointed at their 2 birds, and have no problem getting the unscrambled channels with their Motorola receiver. But when I hook up the Orasat to the very same coax I get no signal.

[wejones]

Yeah, both the Primestar and Starchoice LNBFs (not lnbs) should be standard 11700-12200 (10750 LO) LNBFs, and should work. I'm not familiar with the starchoice hardware, but I've had a couple Primestar dishes, and the LNBFs I had, were not the type that switched polarity via voltage, but instead had 2 coax connections, one for H and one for V, but since you're only looking for one transponder, that shouldn't be a problem, and if you ever want another transponder on the other polarity, you could add a DiseqC or 22khz switch. Then again, there may be other versions of the Primestar lnbf that are more modern than the ones I had. The Primestar lnbf I had wasn't the most sensitive, however. You might be better off just getting a cheap lnbf to replace the original primestar. I have one of the cheap standard lnbfs that Sadoun sells on my Primestar dish, and it fits fine in the lnbf holder.

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Any ideas on why I can't at least get a signal from the *Choice birds with the Orasat when I do on the Motorola? Or at on least F1. Not positive about F2.

I got a new DiseqC with the receiver so that's covered.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by Scroll

Any ideas on why I can't at least get a signal from the *Choice birds with the Orasat when I do on the Motorola? Or at on least F1. Not positive about F2.

I got a new DiseqC with the receiver so that's covered.

My guess would be receiver setup. I am not familiar with your receiver so I can not offer any input on how to set it up but my guess is that the receiver is not configured correctly.

Ok went out and did a search. Seems as though that receiver is a favorite among hackers. If you bought the receiver new and have factory installed software I would guess your settings are incorrect providing you have signal on other sats with this receiver. If the software has been altered the receiver may be nothing more than junk at this point. According to everything I find the v5.0 is hack software. I think you have a junk receiver at this point.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Scroll

Any ideas on why I can't at least get a signal from the *Choice birds with the Orasat when I do on the Motorola? Or at on least F1. Not positive about F2.

I got a new DiseqC with the receiver so that's covered.

Star Choice is digicipher (DCII). Can't be received with an FTA receiver. The Motorola (not sure which model you have) is most likely DCII, and can't pick up DVB FTA signals.
I think there are a couple DVB transponders on F1, but according to Lyngsat, they are 4.2.2, and most (I'm not familiar with your Orasat) DVB receivers can't do 4.2.2, only 4.2.0 .

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So if I point the dish elsewhere I "should" be able to get a signal? Just want to be sure because it's on the roof and I don't want to mess with it for no reason.

I'll probably mount the Primestar on ground level to make things easier.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Scroll

So if I point the dish elsewhere I "should" be able to get a signal? Just want to be sure because it's on the roof and I don't want to mess with it for no reason.

I'll probably mount the Primestar on ground level to make things easier.

Well, you can see if the Orsat thing will lock a signal by tuning to one of the CBC feeds on F1, assuming that is where the dish is aimed. I see about 5 transponders listed in Lyngsat, ie 11902, 11912, 11933, 11941, 11949, plus I've seen thing come up at 11910 and 11919. I just checked and there are signals there on at least 4 of those channels right now, however they may come and go, so try them all. All of them have an SR of 5859 .
These are al 4.2.2, so you won't be able to scan in a channel that will give you video, but you should at least get a lock on the transponder, ie signal AND quality. With some receivers, it will actually scan in a channel, but the video will be all gibberish. But if you can lock those channels, then the dish should work for FTA on G25.

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Just for the record there was nothing in the ad to even suggest hacking was involved. The seller was supposed to be an authorized distributor and the box appeared unopened to me.

Chances are good here that it is more likely my complete inexperience with this type of setup & receiver. And as such I'm just guessing on what settings to use. Kinda the main reason I just want to make sure I can get "a" signal from a known good position before moving the antenna out of position.

I guess I might be pointed at Anik F1/C (which start at 03,760) but just going by the numbers given for F1 they don't even show up. In TP Frequency (skipping the lower ones) it goes from 11,989, 11,928, and then 11,959. So if that's the right place it doesn't have those settings.

I noticed the software is supposed to be from 2005.

Also, should Polarization be set to "H" or "V" or does it matter? I'm guessing it means horizontal & vertical?

Also what is the Symbol Rate and do I need to be concerned with that for now?

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Scroll

.......
I guess I might be pointed at Anik F1/C (which start at 03,760)

I'm confused re why now you say that you "might" be pointed at Anik F1? Up above, previously you asked "Any ideas on why I can't at least get a signal from the *Choice birds with the Orasat when I do on the Motorola? Or at on least F1." which made me assume that you were already receiving Anik F1 ( I assume on the Ku side, not C band.)
Is your StarChoice dish motorized or fixed? I guess I was assuming it was fixed, but I'm not familiar with StarChoice hardware, other than knowing that they are DCII requiring a standard lnbf.
So... if you now don't know if you're aimed at F1, does that mean that the dish has moved via a motor? Or is it a 2 lnbf setup or something?

Originally Posted by Scroll

but just going by the numbers given for F1 they don't even show up. In TP Frequency (skipping the lower ones) it goes from 11,989, 11,928, and then 11,959. So if that's the right place it doesn't have those settings.

I think you're looking at the factory transponder list, which for most receivers are obsolete. I'm not familiar with your receiver, but most receiver have a menu item where you can "edit transponders" or something like that, and usually one option is to add or delete transponders. What you'll need to do is add any transponders that aren't in the list, including the polarization and the SR value.
Actually we are being a bit loose in terminology by calling these things transponders, because, for example, the list of 6 or so "transponders" I listed are all actually the same transponder, they are just different signals sent over the same transponder. Uplinkers can uplink at different frequencies over the same transponder, so the receiver manufacturer cannot know what frequencies are actually in use. Therefore, the receivers must be capable of adding new transponder frequencies.

Originally Posted by Scroll

I noticed the software is supposed to be from 2005.

Also, should Polarization be set to "H" or "V" or does it matter? I'm guessing it means horizontal & vertical?

Also what is the Symbol Rate and do I need to be concerned with that for now?

In general, if you're trying to add a transponder, you have to look up the signal in Lyngsat ( North & South America - LyngSat ) , choose the satellite, and find the transponder, and it will tell you the frequency, the SR value, and whether it is horizontal or vertical. The CBC feed examples above are all horizontal.

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I'm confused re why now you say that you "might" be pointed at Anik F1?

My confusion stems from not being up to date with the difference between F1 & F1/C. When I was a subscriber there was only the one F1 so I missed out on the progression.

All I know for sure is it's one of those and that the Motorola is locked on with good signal strength.

Perhaps the issue is with my lnbf? It is integrated for 2 position (F1 & F2) plus 4 outputs. I'm tempted to see if maybe the Primestar arm can just bolt to that dish and see what happens with the Primestar lnbf but I get the feeling it isn't that simple.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Scroll

I'm confused re why now you say that you "might" be pointed at Anik F1?

My confusion stems from not being up to date with the difference between F1 & F1/C. When I was a subscriber there was only the one F1 so I missed out on the progression.

All I know for sure is it's one of those and that the Motorola is locked on with good signal strength.

Perhaps the issue is with my lnbf? It is integrated for 2 position (F1 & F2) plus 4 outputs. I'm tempted to see if maybe the Primestar arm can just bolt to that dish and see what happens with the Primestar lnbf but I get the feeling it isn't that simple.

I'm not sure what you're referring to re "F1 & F1/C" Ie there is an Anik F1, and an Anik F1r, which replaces F1, and would be invisible to the viewers. I'm curious where you saw the F1/C ? I'm guessing that your Orasat receiver may have referred to that??? If so, it is probably just referring to the C-band side of this sat, not that it's a different sat.
Another possibility is that the "C" refers to circular. Some of the new sats, like Anik F3 can be either linear or circular. I don't know whether F1r has circular capability or not. I didn't think so, but I guess it's possible.


But on to the other issues, re aiming. If your dish is a dual sat dish, then I have no idea of how it's configured. Ie with dual sat dishnet or DTV dishes, they usually use things like 22khz to switch between the two sats, but I don't think Motorola has 22khz capability, although I may be wrong. But I'd assume that you are aimed at both F1r and F2 , and there is some way that the motorola is switching between the two. If your motorola has two coaxes going into it, it may be feeding one sat into the C-band side and the other into the Ku side, even though both are Ku. (Again, I'm not sure what model Motorola you have, but some of this type receivers have 2 switched inputs.) If that's the case, ie 2 coaxes, then you'd get one sat from one coax, and the other from the other coax, but I'm just guessing.

Hopefully there is someone here experienced with StarChoice hardware. I am not.

I'm not sure why you would want to put a Primestar arm on the StarChoice dish. That cannot work, because the focal lengths are probably different, and I don't know why you'd want to do that anyway, since your StarChoice dish is obviously already working. Why change something that's working??? Just play with the Primestar dish on the ground. I have my Primestar dish attached to the side of a big log, so I can move it around.

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Long story short I finally had a chance to give a quick try to setting up the Primestar dish but could never get any signals from my signal meter. It was a temporary setup that I probably should abandon really quick because I screwed it into some rotten wood, which made aiming like finding a needle in a haystack, as a last resort because my drill died.

Anyway, let me start all over because some info I've gotten here & there seems to be getting me confused. I had been just trying to get a signal - ANY signal - just to see if my new receiver is a dud and had the misunderstanding that a *Choice antenna (integrated quad LNBF) or a DBS antenna would let me do that even if I couldn't get an actual picture. I think the receiver only had a 3 day return anyway and it will be at least another week before I can make a permeant install.


From the top...Orasat v5.0 receiver reset to factory settings 2005.

I have a 4x1 DISEqC switch 950-2400MHz that came with the receiver.

Antenna is now known to be General Intrrument Model 410MDW2 .75M Dish with a single beer can looking LNBF with 2 leads, one V and one H.

Antenna came with a Channel Master Model 6102IFD multiswitch 950-1750 MHz. Says it isn't weatherproof.

Initially I just want to get GloryStar. Later, I may want to add a 2nd similar antenna, probably for AMC4 (I think it is).

Just for reference purposes: I was guessing the most likely spot to hit something I'm interested in is just off from where my Direct TV antenna is aimed, no?