SD Now Signal Help!!!!

[krathsac]

This is what I have:
Fortec Star Lifetime Classic NA FTA Digital satellite receiver
Digipower SG-2100 DISEqc Motor
Fortec 31" FS8P Dish
Universal mount
Fortec universal 0.4db Single KU LNBF
My Zip code: Harrisburg, SD 57032
Location: 43.39N -96.67W (Elev. 1397 ft)
Here are my setting:
I set my motor to 43 on the Latitude scale and 47 on the elevation scale per the manual that came with the motor.
Then I set my dish elevation to 23 degrees;
Truth South 180 - 5 = 175 for SD area?
I try to get the IA5 sat. (Freq:
IntelsatAmerica5 (IA5) call for
Satellite West Longtitude: 97; Lattitude: 38.9; Longitude: 77
However, I can not get the any signal to pass 6% Why? What did I miss?

[be236]

I'm not sure if a motorized system is different than a stationary one, but when I just started with FTA and stationary mount, I had the 80cm dish and for as long as ever, I couldnt find 97w at my expected elevation of 30 deg... Long story short, I found out the 80cm dish is 5 degress "off," so I raised my dish to 35 deg and bang... found my 97w...

So, maybe try to raise your dish up 5 degree and see if that helps.

[rainman]

set you lnb to 0 degrees when yo are at true south the motor will adjust it as you move the dish.

[elgemcdlf]

Not sure what you mean by move the lnbf to 22 degrees. Once you have your motor and dish assembly mounted on a plumb pole you make your entries in the receiver for lat and long (your location) and tell the receiver to go to 97. That is your nearest sat to true south. Providing you calculated your azimuth correctly this would be where on the compas you would point the whole assembly for a true south location. At this point you slowly move the assembly on the mast eats to west to locate the strongest signal you can find. Now raise and lower dish elevation to peak signal. As posted previously some fo the Fortec dishes are off on the scale by 5 degrees. Slowly is a key to success

[be236]

Yes, slowly moving the dish east and west is the key!

However, I've seen many people saying to nudge it west or east and wait 5 seconds for the signal to register in your receiver screen...

I did not find that to the be case in my Fortec Classic.. All I had to do was slowly move east and west and didnt have to stop at all, and I would see my signal level go up and down gently... but again, the key is really to move slowly (nudging it basically)... that usually does the trick...

Like I said, when I first started this, I read up as much as I could and I believe I did everything correct, from plumb mast, to correct LNB settings, tuning to the correct TP/freq, etc.. couldnt get anything .. no signal.... turned out I was off 5 deg due to the Fortec dish (basically I had set my elev to 30 deg on my dish setting hoping to find 97w but instead hit 87w (TIP channel) by accident... and looking that sat up, I showed I should be set at 25 deg.. hence I knew the gauge indicator on the back of the dish was off by 5 deg, and the rest is history..hehe)...

[krathsac]

I opted for the signal meter that came with the M-1 System package and moved the disk elevation to 30 degrees and got a signal but did not connect to the reciever. but will try and see if this is the satellite

[elgemcdlf]

Regardless of what sat it is if you have a strong enough lock to scan do a blind scan and post the tp's you get. It will help identify what you are looking at.

[krathsac]

Moved dish elevation to 32 degrees instead of 23 and was able to find sat

Tried moving to the other satellites but did not get signals...may have arc issues but will try to resolve when it gets warmer...

Thank u for all your helps

[rainman]

Originally Posted by krathsac

Moved dish elevation to 32 degrees instead of 23 and was able to find sat

Tried moving to the other satellites but did not get signals...may have arc issues but will try to resolve when it gets warmer...

Thank u for all your helps

good to here you are watching TV.

[wejones]

Combining a couple posts:

Originally Posted by krathsac

Location: 43.39N -96.67W (Elev. 1397 ft)
Here are my setting:
I set my motor to 43 on the Latitude scale and 47 on the elevation scale per the manual that came with the motor.
Then I set my dish elevation to 23 degrees;

This won't make a whole lot of difference, but it is better to set your motor on 44.1 latitude, 45.9 elevation. Also, your dish elevation "starting poing" should be 24 rather than 23, however from your comment below there is a problem with this.

Originally Posted by krathsac

IntelsatAmerica5 (IA5) call for
Satellite West Longtitude: 97; Lattitude: 38.9; Longitude: 77

I am not sure what you are trying to say here..... this looks confused. Ie the 97 is what you should be entering into antenna setup section on your receiver, assuming you are using USALS, but I'm not sure where you got the 38.9 and 77 ?????? If this refers to the USALS settings, then this should be your own lat lon, ie your 43.4 and 96.7 . If this doesn't refer to the USALS setting, then what are you talking about here???
If you have entered these numbers into your USALS and sent the dish to the sat, then this could explain everything, Ie it would be sending your dish some 20 degrees off longitude, and you'd have to raise the dish quite a bit to find the sat, and then no other sats would be in the right place.
But if that didn't come from the USALS section, and/or was a typo or something, then continue on below:

Originally Posted by krathsac

Moved dish elevation to 32 degrees instead of 23 and was able to find sat

Tried moving to the other satellites but did not get signals...may have arc issues but will try to resolve when it gets warmer.

Before commenting further, the following only is assuming that you didn't have your USALS longitude set at 77 instead of 97.

I know that there were some comments above about the dish elevations being off on these dishes, but not by that much, unless something is bent, or not put together right. I thought that perhaps you weren't setting the angle properly on your motor, however if it is reading 90-lat on the elevation side, you're probably doing it right. However, look at
cPanel®, at least the initial SG2100 part.
But, assuming that you have set your motor elevation correctly, your dish elevation should be at approximately 24 degrees. If you are at 32 deg, that is way off, and I'm pretty sure it is off in the direction opposite what most people have experienced, although I'm not positive about that. If it is off that much, something is wrong. A number of possibilities come to mind:
(1) Your LNBF arm is bent.
(2) You don't have the dish mount connected properly to either the dish, or to the motor.
(3) Your dish is warped.
(4) You have the wrong lnbf arm for your dish.
(5) some combination of the above.

Basically, you shouldn't be that far off. The dish itself is not going to be off by 8 or 9 degrees, and we've seen that perhaps the dish bracket "might" be off by up to 5 degrees (mine was pretty much right on), but 8 or 9 degrees means that something is wrong.
One person in this forum found that his lnbf arm was bent really badly, which changes the angle of where the dish aims. I think that if you stand square in front of your dish, and look at the lnbf, it should appear to be just a bit above the bottom edge of the dish. Ie if you held a straight edge across the dish from top to bottom, then put a carpenter's square on that straight edge, it should hit the lnbf a couple inches above the bottom edge of the dish. I found that my lnbf seems to be slightly bent myself, but it wasn't bad enough for me to bother bending it back in shape. The other person in the forum bent his back, and it then worked. But make sure you are positive before trying to bend anything. You might post a picture from the side of your dish showing the angle that the lnbf arm makes relative to the dish.
Along a similar vein, I think one person was sent the wrong LNBF arm with his dish. This would have similar affects.
Similarly, if you don't have the bracked attached right to the back of your dish, it could put your lnbf arm at the wrong place. Even if you have it connected right, but don't have the bolts tightened properly, it could make you off a bit. So be careful that you haven't reversed some part of the mount on the back of the dish. In my case, the construction was a bit confusing because they sent me the sheet for the wrong dish, so I had to guess a bit.
Also, the way you connect your dish to the motor could be an issue. Are you using the holes in the motor shaft? Perhaps you could post a closeup digital photo of how the dish is connected to the motor shaft.
Some people have mounted the dish bracket upside down, which obviously causes all sorts of alignment problems. Also, if you don't use the holes in the shaft properly, it could allow your dish to cock somewhat. Also, if you have the U-bolt mount option, these things can be off, cocked, etc, depending on how you have it connected. Again a digital picture might help.
Bottom line is that if you are off that much, there must be something mechanically wrong with your setup or the way you put it together.