Setting up my new FTA system

[ftadude]

Hi,

I have a Fortec Star FC-90, STAB Rotor HH90, Coolsat 4000 Pro receiver. I have set the system up in the USALS mode. I live in Baltimore MD
21234. My Latitude is 39.3 N, Longitude is 76.6 W, dish elevation is supposed to be 38.8. I think that my true south satellite is AMC 5, 79.0 W.

After about four or five hours I was finally able to find AMC 5. But am unable to find any other satellites by scanning with the HH90 rotor. Is my true south satellite is AMC 5, 79.0 W? I had to lower the elavation on the dish about five degrees to tune in AMC 5. Do I have to adjust the latitude on the HH90 rotor to be able to find a signal on the other satellites in the arc?

Thank you.

[pmb1010]

No you don't adjust the motor's elevation bracket. It stays at your latitude number.

Did you:
1. put the motor at "0" (center).
2. Alighn the whole thing to your magnetically corrected south heading?
(this is very important step)
3. Pick the AMC5 sattelilte, and have the motor drive off center (a couple of degrees, not much) and at that point try to get AMC5?

The whole assembly on the pole (side to side, just a little) and dish elevation should be adjusted to lock on the AMC5 sat.
If you get it, at that time you should be on the arc.

Issues that arise: you must be on a plumb mast for this to all work out.

Here is a good writeup by one of the guys on this forum:

http://sadoun.net/viewtopic.php?t=5028

Good luck. Let us know how you make out getting it working.

[ftadude]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

No you don't adjust the motor's elevation bracket. It stays at your latitude number.

Did you:
1. put the motor at "0" (center).
2. Alighn the whole thing to your magnetically corrected south heading?
(this is very important step)
3. Pick the AMC5 sattelilte, and have the motor drive off center (a couple of degrees, not much) and at that point try to get AMC5?

The whole assembly on the pole (side to side, just a little) and dish elevation should be adjusted to lock on the AMC5 sat.
If you get it, at that time you should be on the arc.

Issues that arise: you must be on a plumb mast for this to all work out.

Here is a good writeup by one of the guys on this forum:

http://sadoun.net/viewtopic.php?t=5028

Good luck. Let us know how you make out getting it working.

Thank you for your reply pmb1010.

I had the motor pointed roughly at my true south area. My dish mounting pole is plumb. I had picked the AMC5 sattelilte, and had the motor drive off center and then manually adjusted the dish to get AMC5. I thought that in the USALS mode that you just had to be close to your true south and then you manually adjusted your dish to obtain a signal.

Can someone please tell me if AMC 5 is my true south satellite to Baltimore MD, 21234?

Thank you

[pmb1010]

Yes AMC5 is fine for alighment.
It has strong signals, and is close to the top of the arc in the sky for you (commonly referred to as "true south" satellite)

The key here is that USALS will cause everytihng to fall into place because the motor's adjustment is based on the lat & long you type into the setup screen. Because you line up at 0, and hit the arc with a sat close to the top, the sides should fall into view.

So anyone of them close to your long (76.6) 79 is only a couple degress off so it's a real good one.

Sounds as though you're close. I'd try going out to the dish with a small tv, get lined up on 79 again, and move over to AMC3 and see if you can get transponder 11719. Push the dish by hand a bit to the left, right, up & down (twist it a little bit) to see if any signal comes in.
You might just need some tweaking to get everyhting to fall into place.

[benny666]

ftadude ,
you can try the Westernmost satellite Galaxy 10R at 123.0°W.
If you can get these 2 satellites AMC5 79.0°W and Galaxy 10R at 123.0°W
hopefully your dish can be in the Clarkbelt arc ...) the rest of satellites can be tracked by USALS.

g00d lucks , man !!!

Benny,,,

[ftadude]

Thank you for your reply and help. It is dark here now. I will try tomorrow to get AMC 3. I am still set up to AMC 5, even if I loose AMC 5 I should be able to find it quickly now that I know where it is located.

I will post my results after working on it tomorrow.

[ftadude]

Hi,

I am happy to say that I ran a blind scan on the available satellites today and was able to receive a good signal from about a dozen satellites.

I did notice a choppy picture on 93w IA6 on the "abc news now" channel which is receiving a signal of 79%. Some of the other channes on 93w are receiving a lower signal than 79% and those channels have a good picture. I guess that the "abc news now" channel may have some type of signal problem?

Thanks

[pmb1010]

glad to hear you're making progress.

yes that one is like that for me too.
I don't know the reason.

[ftadude]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

glad to hear you're making progress.

yes that one is like that for me too.
I don't know the reason.

Thank you for everybody's help. I guess I did something right because everything is working great.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

glad to hear you're making progress.

yes that one is like that for me too.
I don't know the reason.

change pcr by one number higher stop the choppy picture for me. rainman =D>

[ftadude]

Originally Posted by rainman

change pcr by one number higher stop the choppy picture for me. rainman =D>

Hi Rainman,

What is pcr? How do I adjust the pcr?

Thanks

[rainman]

on my satworks 3816 it usually same number as video. in my channel edit screen i can change these numbers. hope this helps rainman

[ftadude]

Hi Rainman,

I found where the pcr settings are. By default the settings are all at "auto".
because there are no numbers to go by, I have no idea where to adjust the numbers to.

Thanks

[rainman]

Originally Posted by ftadude

Hi Rainman,

I found where the pcr settings are. By default the settings are all at "auto".
because there are no numbers to go by, I have no idea where to adjust the numbers to.

Thanks

do you have a channel edit page if so numbers should be there. if not check lyingsat for viedo pids pcr is the same. just add one number to the viedo pid for pcr. hopes this helps rainman. :mozilla_cool:

[ftadude]

Originally Posted by rainman

do you have a channel edit page if so numbers should be there. if not check lyingsat for viedo pids pcr is the same. just add one number to the viedo pid for pcr. hopes this helps rainman. :mozilla_cool:

Thank you for your reply. When I disable the "auto" settings and add numbers the settings default back to "auto". I will have to try to figure it out later, as I have to be get up early to go to work.

[ftadude]

Hi Rainman,

Thank you for your help. I found the channel edit page and changed the ppid. It did the trick. No more choppy picture. I would have never figured this out on my own.

Thanks again

[rainman]

Originally Posted by ftadude

Hi Rainman,

Thank you for your help. I found the channel edit page and changed the ppid. It did the trick. No more choppy picture. I would have never figured this out on my own.

Thanks again

glad to be of service found this trick by accident my self. rainman =D>