Forgive a totally ignorant question from a newbie trying to set up his new system

[trublwithnorml]

OK, I bought the standard Sadoun bundle, Mercury II receiver, 90 cm dish, SG2100 motor. I mounted the dish, ran the coax, aimed the dish roughly south, hooked up the sat finder, moved the dish around a bit until I found a good signal, tighted everything up. Inside, I scanned and found one station, the Gospel Broadcasting network, which I guess tells me what I've found is AMC6. (I'm at roughly 72.5w, AMC6 is at 72, so not bad for beginner, I figured. Especially when I try hold the compass anywhere near the dish to help me aim it south, all it does is point at the dish!) Now, how do I get this thing to point at another satellite?! I've told the receiver the motor is DiSEqc 1.2, if you go into the Motorized dish set up menu, and tell it to move east or west, it does, then it will return to south when you say go to 0. But if I select a different satellite on the Antenna Setup menu, the screen says "Moving to Satellite Position" for a moment, but the dish doesn't actually move. it just sits there, pointed south.

Also, do I have to go into every pre setup satellite in there and tell it I have a positioner? It defaults to off on all of them. Why do you set that up per satellite, and not just once?

[rainman]

Originally Posted by trublwithnorml

OK, I bought the standard Sadoun bundle, Mercury II receiver, 90 cm dish, SG2100 motor. I mounted the dish, ran the coax, aimed the dish roughly south, hooked up the sat finder, moved the dish around a bit until I found a good signal, tighted everything up. Inside, I scanned and found one station, the Gospel Broadcasting network, which I guess tells me what I've found is AMC6. (I'm at roughly 72.5w, AMC6 is at 72, so not bad for beginner, I figured. Especially when I try hold the compass anywhere near the dish to help me aim it south, all it does is point at the dish!) Now, how do I get this thing to point at another satellite?! I've told the receiver the motor is DiSEqc 1.2, if you go into the Motorized dish set up menu, and tell it to move east or west, it does, then it will return to south when you say go to 0. But if I select a different satellite on the Antenna Setup menu, the screen says "Moving to Satellite Position" for a moment, but the dish doesn't actually move. it just sits there, pointed south.

Also, do I have to go into every pre setup satellite in there and tell it I have a positioner? It defaults to off on all of them. Why do you set that up per satellite, and not just once?

positioner has to be set up for each sat seperately recommend setting the positioner up for usuals. don't forget to input you lat and longitude.

[trublwithnorml]

Thanks. I gotta say, there's absolutely nothing in the instructions or the specs that came with the motor that suggests it supports USALS, it just says DiSEqC 1.2. I switched to USALS, and now the receiver moves the dish. I was able to find what I desperately wanted, the Super Bowl, on what Lyngsat calls Galaxy 17, and the receiver says is SBS 6 (at 74 deg west, anyhow).

I used to get Fox 25 from Boston on my terrestrial antenna just fine, until the FCC in their infinite wisdom issued ch 25 to use as the HD channel for ch 31 in Hartford, Vt, and now they interfere with each other. So until I got this dish, I was looking at the prospect of watching an extremely fuzzy SB.

I still don't understand why the dish doesn't move when you try to use DiSEqC, though. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated. I like the Step feature on the DiSEqC menu, I can optimize the signal once I hit a satellite by stepping a few ticks east and west. That little bit of extra signal does help.

[rainman]

you have to move the dish to find the sat in disqec 1.2 then store the position of the sat once you get it.get your alignment just right and usals will be lot better and easier in my opinion.

[ayelvington]

this is another example of the poor documentation shipped with FTA products. I honestly don't think FTA would survive without forums like this one.

trublwithnormal sounds like a perfect example of the motivated and capable consumer that only needs good directions. problem is, there are no good directions.

rainman saves the day again, but i suspect even heroes get tired after a while.

a

[rainman]

Originally Posted by ayelvington

this is another example of the poor documentation shipped with FTA products. I honestly don't think FTA would survive without forums like this one.

trublwithnormal sounds like a perfect example of the motivated and capable consumer that only needs good directions. problem is, there are no good directions.

rainman saves the day again, but i suspect even heroes get tired after a while.

a

It's not just in FTA Al it's in almost everything any more I work in the automotive field and you should see some of the instructions send with add on options most of them are pictures poorly drawn I might add for instructions I beleive they started doing this do to the multi cultras that companys sale to this way they do not have to put instructions for 10 different languages. they say a picture is worth a thousand words they just didn't say they were all going to be cuss words.LOL

[Vitruvius]

Trubl:
If you use USALS the receiver will do all the moving calculations on the motor for you. You should have your lat and long inputted correctly in the USALS setup screen.
To use diseque 1.2 with the Mercury, I use USALS to move the dish to the satellite, and if the signal is week, I switch that satellite finding method to diseque 1.2 and enter that setup, where you can 'nudge' the dish east or west to fine tune the reception. As soon as the reception is strongest, then go and 'store' your location of the dish on the arc by pushing the 'store' button.
This way your Mercury can be using USALS on some satellites and diseque 1.2 on others if you have to.

best of luck.