Sure could use some help :)

[RiceRocket]

OK, here we go, i'm quite new to this FTA stuff but i've done alot of reading in the forums to further my understanding on how things work. There is alot of info in these forums to digest and some topics, i just don't understand, so please bare with me if i'm not speaking the right lingo. To start things out let me tell you how i'm equipped and what my location is:

80cm Fortec Star Dish
Invacom SNH-031 Universal Single LNB
PanSat 3500DS
Birdog Finder
Stab HH120 Motor (Not installed yet, just received it yesterday)

Location: Zip 25550
38.8440 N, 82.1370W
Dish Elevation - 43 ( I use Satcalc)
Distance from my dish is around 110 ft

Ok, now with the details, the main reason why I started with FTA is because my wife is vietnamese and I wanted to get some vietnamese channels for her to watch. The two Birds that I know of (correct me if I'm wrong) Intelsat 5 @ 97W and AMC 4 @ 101W have these type of channels.

The Channels I would like are:

(AMC 4) TP 12120V - VPTV
(Intelsat 5) TP 11966H - VTV

I just started with learning how to adjust the dish on Mon. and now I realize that mm movements mean alot. The whole time spent on top my garage has been with my PanSat and a small TV and was able to hit some TP's on galaxy 3C @ 95, Intelsat 6 @ 93, Intelsat 5 @ 97. The only way I could hit these TP's was with a blind scan. I've spent some really long hours on the roof so I decided to get a Birdog finder to help me cut my time down (I heard it was really good). As you can see, I've spent alot of money.

Ok, now for the questions and problems:

*When i do a scan, should I always do a scan all or just FTA? Does it matter?
*Is there a way to find out when a certain TP is on or off without needing to rescan?
*When I do get a lock on certain TP's, why don't I get very many viewable channels?
*I was so excited when I finally locked on to a TP on Intelsat 5 @ 97, but it didn't show the TP I wanted which is 11966H, is my dish still not pointed right?
*Does the dish need to point just right to get all the TP's on a certain bird?
*My dish elevation should be 43 but on my dish indicator, it reads about 53. Is this normal?
*They say that an offset dish look up about 22 degree past what the calculated dish angle should be, does this mean that i should go down 22 below my 43 set point?
*I tried to use my birdog last night, and it doesn't pickup anything, even though my receiver locks in on TP's. Is my birdog faulty? I've try attaching it to the receiver and using it alone, but nothing. When I hook it up to the receiver, my signal indicator on the receiver stops moving; almost like its frozen.
*Does the birdog work like my PanSat? As in, does it do blind scans? What is it actually looking for in a salellite to get a lock? Maybe i'm not using it right.

Sorry for the long post and all the questions. I hope that someone will be kind enough to offer me some advice.

[brentb636]

My advice is hook up your motor !!

I spent a week or two manually pointing my dish, and mostly being able to hit the powerful echostar birds, but not the smaller ones. Once you have your motor set up, the extra hands-on time you get with your receiver will answer many of your questions .

Scanning a bird :
If you simply do an FTA scan of a satellite, your receiver only looks for the transponders listed in it's lookup table. If you do a blind scan ( or a power scan ) the receiver uses a systematic approach ( sometimes configurable by you ) to find all the active transponders. Your receiver cannot tell whether or not a transponder is active without "concentrating" ( my human word ) on the frequency of that transponder .

Yes, the "aim" must be right to get all the transponders. Even then, it's possible that some transponders are so weak that only a larger dish with a more sensitive receiver can lock on them ( transponders like that are probably not in use, because they are in fact pretty useless ).

That's about all the flummery I have at the moment, except that I don't like all that cable out there. I improved my signal strength considerably by getting down to about 80 feet from 125 feet originally.

You'll get more feedback, this is a great place for FTA support.

[bobkat]

Originally Posted by RiceRocket

Ok, now for the questions and problems:

*When i do a scan, should I always do a scan all or just FTA? Does it matter?
[I always scan "All"]

*Is there a way to find out when a certain TP is on or off without needing to rescan?
[No]

*When I do get a lock on certain TP's, why don't I get very many viewable channels?
[Not that many are FTA; if you know the channel is free then your dish is a bit out of alignment]

*I was so excited when I finally locked on to a TP on Intelsat 5 @ 97, but it didn't show the TP I wanted which is 11966H, is my dish still not pointed right?
[Yes, it needs tweaking]

*Does the dish need to point just right to get all the TP's on a certain bird?
[Yes, its very exact]

*My dish elevation should be 43 but on my dish indicator, it reads about 53. Is this normal?
[Normal - no; acceptable - yes; it usually means your post is not 100% plumb in all directions]

*They say that an offset dish look up about 22 degree past what the calculated dish angle should be, does this mean that i should go down 22 below my 43 set point?
[No - set the dish elevation to the elevations stated for your area; ignore the whole "offset" issue - its irrelevant and drives people nuts]

*I tried to use my birdog last night, and it doesn't pickup anything, even though my receiver locks in on TP's. Is my birdog faulty? I've try attaching it to the receiver and using it alone, but nothing. When I hook it up to the receiver, my signal indicator on the receiver stops moving; almost like its frozen.
[Connect the Birdog directly to your LNB; also, the Birdog normally uses standard LNB files - you may have a universal - if so, you must download the "U" files and configure the Birdog with these files]

*Does the birdog work like my PanSat? As in, does it do blind scans? What is it actually looking for in a salellite to get a lock? Maybe i'm not using it right.
[No, it doesn't do blind scans per se but rather it looks for the identifier beacon of a particular satellite; so if effect it finds all transponders at once]


Sorry for the long post and all the questions. I hope that someone will be kind enough to offer me some advice.

Well, that's a start, what I offered. You should do some reading, especially in the Asia forum; there's lots of threads about VTV4 and VPTV -- I know -- I started most of them... HeHeHe. Like you, my wife is Vietnamese and most of the satellite business we do is for Asian customers. Sort of my specialty.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

BTW - try finding T5 by itself first and familiarize yourself with the transponders and signal levels - then tackle the motor - its a lot more challenging.

kat


kat