Really Frustrated

[valiant]

Location: York, PA
39.95N 76.62W

Dish: Winegard 31"
LNB: Invacom Quad Polar QPH-031
Motor: DMSI SG2100
STD: Pansat 3500SD
Cable: Bulk Reel Rg6-QS
Connectors: Digicon Compression

Hi Guys,

I am trying to get a new install going (my first, I am a newbie). I have tried searching forums for various sites, google, etc. and I am getting a bit frustrated. I set the motor for 50 deg elevation and the Dish for 23.6, I have tried T5 and AMC 5 but to no avail. I cannot get any quality. I get a signal level usual 70% or so but have never received any quality above 0. I have a ground mounted mast that is plumb and a cable run of about 200'. The motor works fine but no quality. I have tried straight through without the motor and also straight through with a 13 dB inline amplifier still no quality. I have an unobstructed view south (thats why I have such a long cable run had to get to the back of the treeline and am looking out over a large farm field.

Any suggestions? A friend of mine who successfully gets T5 tried to help me and we tried changing the Freq settings to 10600 instead of 10750 but that did not help either. I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks

[brentb636]

I can sympathize. I've been where you are a couple months ago.

On the side of your motor , opposite the Elevation range, is the latitude range. It should be set to your latitude .

On your receiver, try the SBS6 bird at 74W.
Select or create a transponder
11741H
SR 06616

This is Ohio News Network, and has a strong signal.

Use your USALS mode to send the motor to its reference point ( zero ).
At this time, the motor/dish assembly should be pointed true south. If not, loosen the mounting bolts at the mast, and point it as well as you can.

Now send motor to SBS6 via the motor. It should move slightly. At this point, loosen the motor mounting nuts at the mast so you can move slightly east/west to optimize your signal strength. Tighten down at the best point. Now change your dish elevation slightly and optimize the signal. Hopefully, you're now looking at a nice quality signal and you can tighten up the connections.

10750 should be your lnb frequency, and let's hear about some success!

[valiant]

Thanks, Brent I will give SBS6 a try tomorrow night.

[elgemcdlf]

Just in case you do not know your lnbf is marked with 2 ports C and 2 ports L. You want to be attached to a L port. Also I am at 38.9 and believe my dish elevation is more like 40 degrees. So that would make your dish way to low. Your motor elevation has been covered in a previous post.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Also I am at 38.9 and believe my dish elevation is more like 40 degrees. So that would make your dish way to low. ...

That 40 deg must be on another motor, not the 2100. I think he's in the right ballpark with the 23.6 . The dish elevation isn't related to his latitude {other than that declination is related to latitude}, it's related to the angle on the motor and to his declination. If I remember right, with the 2100, it should be 30-declination, and his declination south, is something like 6.2, so 30-6.2 is around 23.8. Although I think he'd be better off starting with using a declination of 5.6, he can't do that unless he starts off with a motor elevation of 49.4 instead of 50. But anyway, I think his 23.6 is close enough as a starting point. But with the inaccuracy of these dish mount scales, he'll have to search quite a range around that. But not up to 40, more likely down to 20.
When I did this on my new dish, I used my little hand held meter, and never even tried to set this dish elevation accurately, but did try to set the motor elevation accurately. Then, I loosened the dish mount bolts, and moved that thing up and down, while aiming south, until the meter squealed. My meter actually worked pretty well with the small dish, it actually gave as much signal as with my big dish I think. I was surprised, as I was half expecting only to be able to find DBS sats, but it found linear sats easily. I'm back to liking the little meter. Of course, the first try, I found the wrong sat, but once I figured out what sat I found, it only took a few minutes to find the right sat.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by wejones

That 40 deg must be on another motor, not the 2100. I think he's in the right ballpark with the 23.6 . The dish elevation isn't related to his latitude {other than that declination is related to latitude}, it's related to the angle on the motor and to his declination. If I remember right, with the 2100, it should be 30-declination, and his declination south, is something like 6.2, so 30-6.2 is around 23.8. Although I think he'd be better off starting with using a declination of 5.6, he can't do that unless he starts off with a motor elevation of 49.4 instead of 50. But anyway, I think his 23.6 is close enough as a starting point. But with the inaccuracy of these dish mount scales, he'll have to search quite a range around that. But not up to 40, more likely down to 20.
When I did this on my new dish, I used my little hand held meter, and never even tried to set this dish elevation accurately, but did try to set the motor elevation accurately. Then, I loosened the dish mount bolts, and moved that thing up and down, while aiming south, until the meter squealed. My meter actually worked pretty well with the small dish, it actually gave as much signal as with my big dish I think. I was surprised, as I was half expecting only to be able to find DBS sats, but it found linear sats easily. I'm back to liking the little meter. Of course, the first try, I found the wrong sat, but once I figured out what sat I found, it only took a few minutes to find the right sat.

As I thought about it more it was the SM3D12 that had the 45 degree dish elevation. Was supposed to be in the 40 range.