Cant I get signal strengh over 90 for AMC4 and T5

sqljohn · #1 (**permalink**) 08-27-2005, 04:12 PM

Hi there
is anyone experience that signal strengh and quality go above 90 for AMC4 and T5?
My signal is fluctuating from 82 to 84 and quality is from 45 to 71. It does not matter how i move from left to right or up and down. I have pansat 5, fortec 36', and hh motor. It pains in the leg for climing up and down to fix this crap! :mozilla_frown:

bobkat · #2 (**permalink**) 08-27-2005, 07:49 PM

Sounds like good signal levels to me. The quality should be at least 40 for a 36" dish. Bear in mind that AMC4 is stronger than T5 depending on your location. I'd leave well enough alone if it was me.

kat

sqljohn · #3 (**permalink**) 09-03-2005, 03:41 PM

Hi there,
First i want thank you Bokat for the respond.
Second, I do have couple more question please guide if any of you know.

I knew these questions were asking many times but i can't find the specific answer.
1/ what is True south satelite location for Houston.
2/ what TP should I scan to check the signal strengh for this satelite.
3/ how do I know if I have pointed to that true south satelite.
4/ if I have found this true sound satelite, how can I assign this satelite to reference feature in HHMotor.
Thanks in advance for reading this message. Hope you all have good and safe holidays

bobkat · #4 (**permalink**) 09-04-2005, 10:53 PM

To be honest, in all fairness, motors are not my specialty; in fact, I hate the things... :mozilla_yell: . There are several members here that seem pretty good with motors; I can tell by reading their posts. vj9999 and pmb1010 seem very knowledgeable in the motor field. Perhaps they can help you out.

You can also read this here stuff --- > http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installati...stallation.htm

kat

pmb1010 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-04-2005, 11:57 PM

bobkat, thanks for the accolades... :mozilla_laughing:

Really, though the only thing is that I respond to the same question from new users, and it *looks* like I know what I'm talking about :mozilla_foot:

Many (on other forums) complain about users asking the same question over again, but it really doesn't matter. Each user that comes in thinks their situaiton is unique. And that's OK.

From here,
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installati...Calculator.htm
Houston TX is at 95.4 Longitude. Your "true south" satellite is therefore the one highest on the satellite "arc" (think of a rainbow in the sky).
At 95ish a good one to use is IA5, at 97 degrees.

With that, now go to www.lyngsat.com and look up IA5.
Look for the freqs over 10,000 (for 30 inch dish sats).
Anything with an "F" in the encryption column should be visable with an FTA receiver. You need to pick an active transponder to line up your dish when setting up your install. Anything with an "F" on this one will do.
Some sats have stronger transponders than others, on IA5 most of them are quite good so you should be OK on most of them...

You will know if you are pointed at IA5 only by getting some quality signal on a transponder, and actually tuning to the channel and verifying what your seeing is what you have selected. Look for station identification on the channel you have and match it up with the transponder you are linked with by pressing the "INFO" or "SAT" button.

I suggest using USALS for the receiver and motor. In doing so, you dont need to assign anything. All the satelites are refererenced off your longitude and latitude you type into the setting screen on your receiver. Thats whats so nice about it - the receiver calculates where it needs to go, and moves based on your coordinates.

Thats why you need to get all aligned in the initial settings - everything referencences off that initial setup. Line up to magnetically adjusted "zero", drive to your "most south" sat using USALS, peak dish.
All the rest should come in using USALS.

Hope this helps...

malk · #6 (**permalink**) 09-05-2005, 02:24 AM

The strongest transponder on Intelsat 5 is (at least from where I'm at) is:

TP5
Frequency: 11836 Vertical
Symbol Rate: 20765

There is another bird that is close to IA5, and is also much stronger in the signal strength. The differnece is only in a couple of degrees. IA5 is one of the weaker birds. You should check to make sure your aimed an the right sat, by looking at the quality reading. Hope everything works out.

Malk

bobkat · #7 (**permalink**) 09-05-2005, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malk

The strongest transponder on Intelsat 5 is (at least from where I'm at) is:

TP5
Frequency: 11836 Vertical
Symbol Rate: 20765

There is another bird that is close to IA5, and is also much stronger in the signal strength. The differnece is only in a couple of degrees. IA5 is one of the weaker birds. You should check to make sure your aimed an the right sat, by looking at the quality reading. Hope everything works out.

Malk

Good advice; thanks malk.

There are several stronger birds around IA5; Directv 101, Nimiq 91 and G3C. Its hard to pick out IA5 from the "flock"... :mozilla_wink:

kat

sqljohn · #8 (**permalink**) 09-05-2005, 02:37 PM

Hi there,

Thank you all very much for the info. these were the awsome inputs.

I want to clarify two more things before doing homework, please direct

Question:
I/ Is there any different between the "True south" and "True South Satelite":
What I have seen now is my true south will be 176 (Houston 180 - 4 = 176). But T5 bird is 97 south (I assume 183 on compass (187 - 4 earth's manigtude = 183). Therefore, if I have pointed to true south then I have pointed to, may be, "nothing".

Now let go to second Senereo:
II/ Let assume I am pointing to T5 instead of "True south":

1/ Assume that if i line up everything.
2/ Set motor and dish to 0 postion on the mark of motor.
3/ Move whole system (dish, motor) to "True south satelite, T5" (187 - 4 = 183 degree on compass).
4/ Elevate motor to 29.7 degree (Same as my latitude).
5/ Elevate dish to 41.54 (My motor is SMxxx, so it will be 46.5 - 4.96 = 41.54)
6/ Set reference longtitude and latitude on USAL

Let assume again that I luckily catch T5 bird

2/ Question: if i hit "go to reference" on USAL mode will my dish move back to the original "True South Satelite"? In the other word, will it moves back to the T5 bird where it was it up?

My case now is if I hit go to reference then it throws off everything. Then I have to craw on the roof to readjust and yield down to the ground to ask my wife "is it comming ...!!!". I want to give my neighbor a nice, quiet and peace holiday!

Thanks very much in advance for reading this post. Hope you all have a happy holiday

pmb1010 · #9 (**permalink**) 09-05-2005, 09:30 PM

"true south" is where you have the motor at zero, and alighn everything to 180 +/- magnetic correction. So that would be your 176 on a compass. This is an important setting so you really want to strive to get this part accurate (along with plumb mounting pole).

Then, you use USALS to drive the motor to your "most south" (highest on the arc) satellite. The motor should not move much.

From there you adjust dish elevation, and motor on pole for highest reading (using an active transponder) At that time, you should be on the arc and can test sat way over on the east and a sat way over to the west to see how well you did.

Go to reference should move motor to zero point. (176, and as you say, potentially "nothing". What that accomplishes is getting the motor and the receiver on the same page.

The easiest way to dial this stuff in is take a small TV up on the roof with some short cables. Trust me, I've tried the yell technique and the latency between wife understanding what's being seen and relaying to you in time, is a test in utter frustration.

sqljohn · #10 (**permalink**) 09-10-2005, 07:04 PM

hi there,

Thanks you all so much for suport. Here are the result from my homework
and some trick on motor that i also want to share.

Luckily, I am able to catch T5 and Amc4 with this trick. First, I did align the Sat to True south and after that i use USAL to drive my motor to T5 which is my highest Sat in arc. At first i was not able to locate the the signal but I did the trick on the motor by adding in 2 degrees in preset sat location in USAL option for T5 that is 99 instead of 97 degree and I was lucky to get this bird. And then, on AMC4, I added in 2 degree so it turned out to be 107 instead of 105.

So my conclution is just point to the south and then add/minus the some degree to get the highest result in signal quality. Then, with this quality, I fine tune one more time by adjust the elevation of the dish.

Well that is a lot of work for me so far. #-o My banana is shorten lately because it was terrified the height of the roof. Anyway I was glad it over and I hope I will rebuilt my gun soon. Thank again guys and have a nice weekend

bobkat · #11 (**permalink**) 09-10-2005, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sqljohn

My banana is shorten lately because it was terrified the height of the roof.

:mozilla_surprised: :mozilla_surprised: :mozilla_surprised: :mozilla_oops:

kat

pmb1010 · #12 (**permalink**) 09-10-2005, 09:58 PM

Well, if you need to add 2 degrees to each satellite's position, I'd suspect you're 2 degrees on some setting or another... but hey if you've got it working and a system to compensate - that's all that really matters.

Incidentially, I use the same trick as my dish moves out of alighnment due to wind. The whole pole turns a little, and I use a combination of changing my longitue setting in USALS, or the satellite postion to get some signal back.

Then when I get some spare time, and feel like fending off the darn yellow jackets - I take a small tv on the roof and put the dish back in alighnment...