New to FTA Satellite Reception/My Experiences

[spongella]

Hello Everyone,

A month ago I knew nothing about FTA, but after seeing a stationary FTA satellite demonstration at the annual Shorwave Listener's Festival (Kulpsville, PA) I was hooked. Fortunately I was referred to Sadoun Satellite and purchased the M2 Motorized package, and along with reading these forums, help from the great people at Sadoun, lots of head scratching, and some luck my system is up and running. It was a great learning experience.

My 90 cm dish is set up on a Radio Shack tripod on the deck. Took great care in shimming up the tripod so that it was level, then screwed it down securely, and checked it a few times over the week to make sure the boards didn't warp and throw it off. I have 50' of cable running into the house, and no in-line amp (yet).

The greatest challenge in all this was learning how to aim the dish. A trip to the local sports shop, and I had a good compass to work with. Next was hooking up the Satellite Locator (highly recommended) in line, getting magnetic south, and listening for a good signal. One thing I recommend is to have a TV set nearby if you can swing it. I took my TV set and set it up in the kitchen so I could see it from the deck.

I stuck to the Sadoun protocol that is on their site, this way if I had problems I could talk with their Tech/Customer services, who I must say are top-notch. Also, this forum was of huge help, and tapping other's experiences was ivery valuable.

Not ashamed to say it but it took me a couple of days to get the aiming right, so my advice is to hang in there. At one point I stayed up all night, outside, with the bats and denizens of the night aiming the dish. In retrospect it was fun, trying to aim at an object 22,300 miles away, and finding when you hit "Power Scan" that transponders are lining up on your screen!

Satellite TV is the ultimate ethnic TV experience. After seeing the decline of ethnic broadcasting by local independent OTA TV stations, FTA has renewed my interest in the global experience. Watching FTA b'casts from Galaxy 25, originating from exotic places as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and looking at the Pentagon Channel seeing a soldier getting married via the Internet has got to be the ultimate virtual travel experience.

My thanks to those of you who have posted threads, you have helped. And, special thanks to Steve and Judy, and the folks at Sadoun. Hopefully I will post in the future with hints and kinks to add to other's experience.

Now, time to sit back and surf the world.

Spongella

[rainman]

Congrats spongella on your success and welcome to the forums.

[Sadoun]

Welcome to the forums and to the FTA hobby.

We are glad you picked us for your FTA equipment. Thank you very much for your business and we hope you will enjoy it for many years to come.

[satnutwillb]

Congratulations spongella,hope you enjoy your new hobby.

[Jim-S]

Congratulations..........we all know the struggles of setting up a dish. I don't think you'll need an inline amp. 50' is a pretty short run.
Jim-S

[spongella]

Thanks for the replies. Well, I am not quite there (as I had thought) as I find I'm about 4 degrees off on the satellites. I checked the receiver and the one satellite that I chose to set my dish on was 4 degrees off in the system, so I have to reset my dish. Even being 4 degrees off, I still get lots of channels.

I have also devised a little gizmo that helps to adjust the elevation angle slowly and evenly, basically a micrometer type thingie made from a piece of PVC and screw. I have attached a picture, hope it came out. And also, a picture of my setup.

Spongella

[Jim-S]

I love the thingie, I wish I had the thingie when I was setting up mine. You may want to apply for a patent.
Jim-S

[spongella]

Well, maybe I will do that, and remember, your heard it first here on this forum.

I used it yesterday when I was locating Galaxy 19 at 97W and it makes life a lot easier, just like having a third hand. It keeps the dish steady, and you can adjust it slightly up or down, then do your sweeps.

[smitty]

I too wish I had a thingie. Looks a lot easier than holding a wrench in one hand and the dish in the other hoping it doesn't flop down on you! nice job!

[semco72057]

I finally got my dish setup after figuring out that I was adjusting the motor using the wrong mark, since there was no instructions about this available. I have 8 satellites setup so far and working fine, but not the channels I keep hearing other people get. This is my first experience with satellites and was about to give up until I found that most of the listed installers in the area didn't want to do it, I guess because they were contracted with Directv and Dish Network. After not being able to find someone to align the dish I looked over what I had done and figured it out and got everything working fine.

Everyone who came by thought that the dish wouldn't receive anything due to the height, but I stayed with the advised setting and it is receiving many satellites just fine. I would advise anyone who is setting up their first system to look at the motor and the marks on each side since this is where the setting should be. Neither the manual or videos I checked mentioned this and it will save them plenty of time adjusting the dish.

Sidney Mathious