Signal strength woes--different TPs, same sat

[nhulst]

Equipment:

Fortec Star Mercury II with 1.53 software
Fortec Star 80 cm dish
Invacom SNH-031 LNBF
Satcontrol H-H motor

So, after living with a temporary installation of the new motor for a couple of weeks, a friend and I got it installed properly this past weekend. I didn't get to spend much time tweaking the alignment, so seeing low signal strengths wouldn't be completely unexpected, but what I can't understand is the variation between different transponders on the same satellite. I'm about halfway between Galaxy 11 and Galaxy 26 for true south, so I picked Galaxy 26. Here's what I'm seeing for signal quality for a few well-known TPs.... of course, these numbers are my best estimate of averages, considering signal quality bounces around quite a bit.

Azteca 12077 V 8688: 44
BJ Homesat 11997 V 7242: 58
Aghapy 11870 V 4168: 28
Macy's 12175 V 5147: 55 with spikes well up into the 60's!
CBS Newspath 11711 V 14312: 25 and falling apart
University Network 11865 V 3516: 25 and falling apart
Intelsat 12115 V 20625: 55

Note: For this version of the SW, 30 is the minimum for consistent viewing, and 25 is the minimum that gets you anything at all above zero.

Seems by these numbers that I need to do some more fine tuning, but then again, the strong signals are REALLY strong. The Macy's and CBSNP ones just baffle me... I had my dish pointed at G26 all last winter (prior to getting the motor) and it was the exact opposite... CBSNP was the strongest thing going.

BTW, the motor tracks the arc beautifully all the way out to 58 to the east. I'm blocked by trees to the west, so can't say for sure there. But I couldn't be happier with the motor, for what that's worth. Wish I could say the same for the Invacom... I'm not seeing much improvement, if any.

What am I missing? Is CBSNP really weaker and Macy's really stronger now? Which TP should I be dialed in to while tweaking?

[spyder]

It's probably a little of both: needing a little more fine tuning, and fluctuation in actual signal strength.

I've seen quite a few satellites bounce all over the place from one transponder to another. A lot of factors come in to play with this, such as actual transponder power, and also, and more commonly, many different factors having to do with the actual signal being sent from the uplink facility etc..

But that's fairly common . I've seen many signals on a certain transponder boom in at 99% strength, and other signals on the same satellite barely break the margin of being able to hold the signal.