AFN Satellite Setup in Afghanistan

[jahpwah]

I saw the other threads of the guys getting set up in Iraq. I want to start this thread for Afghanistan. Today is the 31st of Aug and it looks like Hotbird Europe is now discontinued. I have tried to get Eurobird9A on the new settings and obviously no success. I am not an expert in Satelittes, I am the Doc for the COP so on my spare time. If someone is willing to walk me through a set up, that would be awesome. We have various types and sizes of satellites on the COP, some were used for internet and some for AFN.

Tell me what you need, I will send pictures and data. Then I can make sense of all this stuff.

Thanks in advance

 

[Analoguesat]

AFN is moving from 13E to 9E Fortunately 9E should be putting a reasonable signal into your area.

The first thing to do is to mark all the bolts and swivel points on the AFN dish with indelible marker so if you get hopelessly lost you can reset back to your starting point easily

Loosen the bolts off a little, then facing the dish swing the dish left about the width of the lnb (thats the bit at the dish focal point). And move it up a fraction - a couple of mm will be plenty to start with.

That should put you in the right general area, although exactly how easy to find 9E will be depends a lot on how big the dish is. If its a monster then you will have problems - they really need to be set up by folk with meters and who have experience with big dishes.

If / when you find it then you can peak up the signal with tiny movements of the dish.

In a situation like this there are a couple of golden rules - give yourself plenty of time and dont try to do it half an hour before the lads sit down to watch the big ball game!!

 

[adonis1]

May this site can give you an idea . where your dish must be facing , just choose sat and set your area .

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/dishpointer.php

 

[rolfw]

If the OP is moving a dish currently pointed at Hotbird, dishpointer probably won't be of too much help, he only need to move the dish four degrees Westward and down a little.

 

[ralphmagno]

hello,
before you move the dish are you picking up afn on hot bird?
if yes then set of the following new set up.
go to the main menu
2 select then 3
receiver ste up

it should say down link,if it does not say that overshadow l band and press the select until it says down link.
frequency 12342.00
symble rate 27.500( not 28.000 it changed)
pol vert( not horz it changed)
net i.d now 10,( not 6)
lnb power not 14 v( not 18)
lo 1 9.750
lo 2 10.600( load this in)
cross over 11.7(load this as well)
oc 1 should be oc 2
exit and save the changes
now go to dish alignment
now you are ready to move the dish.
standing behind the dish loosen the bolts and move the dish to the right about 1/8 of an inch at a time.
have someone watch the desplay and your signal will come up and you will get a signal lock and a quality.
quality 4 or better is ok.
this bird is a little weeker than hot bird.
depending on dish size i get 6 to 9 quality.
please write back and let us know if you did this.
do not raise or lower the dish.
from hot bird it is not needed
ralph

 

[jahpwah]

Thanks for the tips, this is what I have so far:
After bringing the TV and decoder(9835) to the dish put in the new Eurobird9A settings, I was only able to max the Sig Strength to 59, Siq Quality to 2, locked.
I brought the Decoder back to the TV area and Sig Strength dropped to 40, Sig Quality 0, but still have signal lock.

Then we tried to hook up different decoder (9234) with same settings and No Lock, and no channels

In the end I am trying to connect 4 decoders to the same satellite dish (like we did with Hotbird)


Here are the pics of the Sat Dish before we got it connected to the new settings.

 

[ralphmagno]

hello ,
looking at the pics i see the following
your dish is up side down
lnb is twisted out of phase.
and if it is working i am supprised.
what diamater is the dish?
how long is the line?
the lines on top of the lnb should be center it looks like it is 20 degrees off.
look at the dishes in the back groung yours should look like that.
now if you have a lock and signal you want to twist the lnb a tad untill the quality goes up to 4 or greater.
once you do that all 4 afn decoders will have the same frequency and settings .
all 3 will have lnb power off one will have lnb power on.
13 volts.
the actice decoder will power the system never unplug this or no tv on all 4 decoders.
also 4 decoders on will all generate 22 khz to the lnb on the dish and cause problems.
unless you have a 4 output lnb 4 lines running to each decoder then thats different.
will check pictures again and send a ps.
ralph

 

[ralphmagno]

hello ps,
look at the other dishes.
they are sitting right.
even upside down it could work.
lnb looks old and the dish looks like a 1.6 meter.
twist your lnb clockwise a little then counter clock and see if the sig and quality gets better.
the skew looks off.
once you do that try flexing the dish up down right and left and see if the signal goes up to 64 or better.
this way you will know if it is 100% aligned.
i check this 2 times a day and want to help.
i have been aligning most of naples here and seen every problem in the book.
ralph
retired USAF

 

[jahpwah]

Sir,

1. look at the other dishes.- This is the only working AFN dish. The other dish was also inverted, but not functional.
2. they are sitting right as far as I know
3. even upside down it could work.- The dish was upside down since we got here in Jan2011, I was told it must be inverted to receive a strong signal. I did try to rotate it rightside up, but the sig strength was much lower and no Lock.

4. lnb looks old and the dish looks like a 1.6 meter.- I do not know how old the LNB is, the sticker is worn off, Dish is 70in H x 60in W

5. twist your lnb clockwise a little then counter clock and see if the sig and quality gets better. I have tried twisting and no luck.
6. the skew looks off.- Not sure what that is.

I can get a signal, strength, and lock with the D9835 but the D9234 decoder does not work.

Thanks in advance
JP

 

[ralphmagno]

hello,
ok here is what is going on.
the arm on the dish should be on the bottom and not on the top.
the are is and can cause some shadow on the dish and signal will be lower.
dish is 70 inches so it is 170 cm in diamater this is ok.
that means that all the other dishes in your camp should be pointed in the same direction to receive afn.
lnb is brobaly old or bad.
i replaced an lnb that was gining a 2 quality and signal was low.
a transistor amp had a stage shorted causing low level.
changed to a new lnb and quality went to 8
long length of cable or old cable with brakes in line.
water can enter causing low level.
you have the right direction because it works.
the angle is right but the arm that holds the lnb on the front should be on the bottom.
cable should be thicker, the thin pre made you buy in the exchange is too thin and will eat up signal.
so sig or 60 close to the dish will be 40 on the other end.
cable should be one piece and not 4 pieces spliced togeather.
the lnb skew is geting the phase correct to the satellite possion.
the lnb will twist in the holder clockwise or counter clock and if this is twisted too much your level and quality will be low.
the back part of the dish the angle is set up correct but your dish is upside down because the arm should be on the bottom.
try to change the lnb with a newer one.
tell your friends in the camp with the other dishes to rotate in the same direction as yours and theirs is mounted right side up just pointing in the wrong direction.
see how much cable length and change lnb .
i will check again today this thread
the other dishes are not upside down they are right side because the lnb( converter are is on the bottom)
they just to be pointing the sane direction
ralph

 

[jahpwah]

Additional info:

So we took the D9324 decoder to the dish and was able to reach a sig strength of 74-76, sig quality of 6. When the decoder is brought back to the TV room (75ft away) it drops to Sig Strength of 53, Sig Quality of 4, Lock, +sig. We are using R59 cable, and that is all we have.D

I am starting to think the D9234 needs more tweeking or is no good.

Thanks

 

[rolfw]

Yes, sounds like it needs a bit more tweaking or a new LNB, plus some decent cable, RG59 is not suitable for satellite frequencies.

 

[ralphmagno]

hello, here is a picture of a dish upside down notice it looks like your dish .
somehow even upside down you got it to work.

ralph
here is another dish 39 inches in diamater it is mounted right side up.
if the signal is comming in at qualiy 6 close to the dish that 75 feet or 22 meters of cable is eating the signal.
you can change the cable with something better like normal antenna cable or place a satellite amp in line.
15 db should do it.
the amp is like a bullet and will say 950 to 2150 mhz 12 to 24 v dc and with 15 db gain.
cost about 10 euro or less in some places.
ralph

 

[ralphmagno]

here is skew of the lnb notice it is twisted counter clockwise about 15 degrees this is wrong for afn bird.

 

[ralphmagno]

here is the proper skew notice the the lnb is straight and on the top there is lines 0 degrees and line on the holder
shows center.
if yours is working then do not tuch it.
your reflector is correct but the arm are working.
if you can change the line to something better ok.
your signal will go up and the quality will as well.
no to set up the other afn decoders remember all boxes can not boss the single output lnb.
3 boxes will have lnb power off one will have lnb power on.
other wise 4 boxes sending 22 khz tone to a single lnb will cause the signal to brake up.
the master afn box even in standby is still active and activating the system
ralph

 

[gmcclintock]

Ok I'm reading this thread because I'm having the same problem. I can't seem to get the receiver to lock, I have a MaxPeak Satellite meter that finds the satellite but the receiver still won't lock on. The only way I can get the receiver to lock is by changeing the LO Freq 2 (whatever that is) but even with the lock I'm still unable to get any channels. I did skeq the LNB, and tried flipping the dish but still no difference, and I was wondering why this is happening? what is LO Freq? and what could I do to get this thing working?

Oh and this is all using a smaller dish smaller than the one in the pictures of the OP, When I use the dish as pictured I can't get a lock using my Sat Meter but I can get a lock (after changing the LO Freq 2) on the Decoder. I've/We've been trying this for months now and we are so frustrated we're very close to digging a hole piling all this junk in it and toss a granade in after it. Please help

 

[Analoguesat]

Are you SURE you are on the correct satellite? Its easy to align onto the wrong one - we have all done it at one time or another.

 

[Analoguesat]

Oh and the FIRST thing to do is go onto the AFN site and put all the settings on the decoder back to what they should be. There are setup guides for each model of box on the site.

 

[gmcclintock]

Ok as far as being sure i'm on the correct satellite I don't know the only way for me to know is by checking my AZ and EL and also by going with what my Satellite Meter is saying and its saying "Satellite Found" As far as settings went to the website spoke to the techs and for lock of a better word those $%^&* are no help at all. I've attached an image of my settings take a look for yourself

 

[Analoguesat]

LO2 is incorrect for starters. It should be 10.6