Which satellite am I aimed at?

[Arabi]

Hi, I am new here.

• I am located in Pasadena Maryland 39.11 Lat, 76.55 Longitude
• Fortec Classic Lifetime Receiver (couldn't find a model number)
• 90cm Dish
• Universal (FSKU-V)
• Manual positioning, I only want to watch Arabic programing, so I believe IA-5 is best. (SF-10 Satellite Finder for manual positioning)
• I have new Phillips brand RG-6 with Quad Shield Coax cable (50 Foot length)

I have been able to aim at 2 satellites, found 5 NBC stations (including 1 camera feed) on one of the satellites, 1 station - KNBC4 camera feed on the other satellite. By the way, Camera feeds are incredibly dull to watch. People wondering if the camera is actually on, reporters adjusting their clothing awaiting the "magic" moment when they get to be on air.

The Signal bar (on the TV screen) for both satellites reads only mid 20s at best and varies between 6, 13, and 19 most of the time before doing the scan, then it will show a lock after it finds the stations.

Questions:

1. Is there a quick and easy way to know which satellite I am pointing at - preferably without buying another tool? My compass is affected by some other magnetic field in the area of my dish, so it is difficult to know if I am pointing directly at the correct satellite. I have the SF-10 Satellite finder (which is just a signal meter with variable dB and a light and varying tone) I can aim at the signal to the point that moving 1 mm in any direction reduces the needle reading - so I think I am aimed directly at it.
2. The identification challenge is complicated by the fact that the Lyngsat site says that most Arabic programming on IA-5 is on TP 25 at 12146, while the receiver indicates that 12.146 is TP-14 on IA-5. Would reprogramming the receiver fix this aspect of my problem?

[elgemcdlf]

Check the tp info of the channels you have found and search www.lyngsat.com for that tp. The sats are listed by longitude so if you think you are close to 97 then start with nearby sats.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Arabi

Hi, I am new here.

• I am located in Pasadena Maryland 39.11 Lat, 76.55 Longitude
• Fortec Classic Lifetime Receiver (couldn't find a model number)
• 90cm Dish
• Universal (FSKU-V)
• Manual positioning, I only want to watch Arabic programing, so I believe IA-5 is best. (SF-10 Satellite Finder for manual positioning)
• I have new Phillips brand RG-6 with Quad Shield Coax cable (50 Foot length)

I have been able to aim at 2 satellites, found 5 NBC stations (including 1 camera feed) on one of the satellites, 1 station - KNBC4 camera feed on the other satellite. By the way, Camera feeds are incredibly dull to watch. People wondering if the camera is actually on, reporters adjusting their clothing awaiting the "magic" moment when they get to be on air.

The Signal bar (on the TV screen) for both satellites reads only mid 20s at best and varies between 6, 13, and 19 most of the time before doing the scan, then it will show a lock after it finds the stations.

Questions:

1. Is there a quick and easy way to know which satellite I am pointing at - preferably without buying another tool? My compass is affected by some other magnetic field in the area of my dish, so it is difficult to know if I am pointing directly at the correct satellite. I have the SF-10 Satellite finder (which is just a signal meter with variable dB and a light and varying tone) I can aim at the signal to the point that moving 1 mm in any direction reduces the needle reading - so I think I am aimed directly at it.
2. The identification challenge is complicated by the fact that the Lyngsat site says that most Arabic programming on IA-5 is on TP 25 at 12146, while the receiver indicates that 12.146 is TP-14 on IA-5. Would reprogramming the receiver fix this aspect of my problem?

The transponder numbers indicated on your receiver seldom correspond to the REAL transponder. In fact typically you'll get several different signals coming from the same REAL transponder. Transponders on a sat are at least 40 MHz wide, and often twice that, and they have room for MANY signals at different frequency coming down off the same transponder. Ie what we call transponders on our receivers are really just signals. What we see as transponder numbers on Lyngsat, however are usually the real transponder numbers on the satellite. Also, the transponder lists (signal lists) on the receivers, are typically obsolete. Basically, the transponder "number" listed by your receiver is meaningless, but you can usually tell which sat you are on from the freq/sr values of that signal.

Anyway, once you find a satellite, since your receiver is a blind search receiver, just do a blind search, power scan, and see what transponder freqs pop up, then go to Lyngsat, and compare these to what you see on the sats near where you think you're aimed. I have created a "generic KU" sat on my receivers, so that if I'm not sure what sat I'm on, I don't clog up the transponder/channel lists with incorrect data, then after doing the scan, I can delete everything off the generic sat. But usually, if you have a couple freq/sr values, you can figure out what sat you are on.

[Arabi]

When my dish was pointed at a satellite, the compass would be affected by the signal. From my location, my Azimuth was supposed to be 210 to hook IA-5. I am new to this part of the country, so my sense of direction is lacking. Every time I used the compass, I hooked satellites that were difficult to identify on lyngsat.com . It turns out they were all East of my target. I got the sense that there was a problem when I realized that for one of these aims I was pointed at a tree top in my yard, for another I was pointed at a different tree in my neighbor's yard. IA-5 wound up being in line with the peak of my neighbor's roof, about 45 degrees away from my initial aim.

How my problem was solved:
I got out the site map of my house (from among my home purchase documents) which had a compass indicator for North. I lined up the line representing the South wall of my house in the drawing with the physical south wall of the house and checked the compass. Doing this inside my house, it seemed apparent that the compass was nearly correct with the drawing, but 210 was pointing somewhere along my neighbor's roofline. When I went to the roof, I discovered that the closer I got to the dish, the compass would turn counter clockwise. I held the compass up at my neck height and estimated where it pointed relative to my neighbor's roofline and aimed the dish. I then tilted it up and down until I got a signal. Satellite HOOKED! But, after doing the scan on the receiver, I found stations that are only on AMC 3 (14 degrees EAST of where IA-5 is supposed to be!) Up on the roof again, I held the compass at neck level, and added 14 degrees. Noticed that the peak of my neighbor's roof was almost exactly in line with this Azimuth. Lined up the dish, tilted it up and down to find the signal, fine tuned it with the SF-10, and FINALLY HOOKED IA-5! Did the scan, and found 118 stations - OVER 20 in ARABIC!

Thanks to all who posted to this thread, it was helpful to know that looking at the TPs on the lyngsat.com website and comparing it with those found on Blind Scan was the right strategy to identify which satellite I was hooking. This process was time consuming, but eventually worked. In the hopes that I can help someone else deal with a similar issue, I will copy my solution to a new thread entitled Compass Problem SOLVED! I am not an expert, so please feel free to post any other information you deem valuable - and moderators please correct any mistakes I make. I don't want to mislead anyone.

THANKS
Arabi

[elgemcdlf]

Just good to hear you found what you were looking for. As long as you have adjusted your dish for peak signal and the lnbf there really is nothing else to do other than enjoy the free TV