AFN Satellite Setup in Afghanistan

[gmcclintock]

Thanks bro

 

[sonnetpete]

Pleased to hear you've got it sorted. Are you stopping up all night to watch the game or just getting up early? By my reckoning it'll start about 4:30am Afghan time.

 

[gmcclintock]

I will be waking up early for that, I'm actually abou to go to bed very soon (headache) lol.

 

[gmcclintock]

Update:

Ok guys I/we tried to align the bigger dish using the local guy's receiver, my sat meter, a compass, and we couldn't get anything. In fact using the guys receiver I wasn't able to get any signal quality at all (picture attached earler) then I hooked up the sat meter and we maximized the singal using that but when we hooked up his receiver after that still nothing. We then looked for other satellites using his receiver just to see if our equipment (LNB, Dish, and Cables) are working and we were able to watch programs on those satellites. When we enter the information for AFN 12342/12341250 27500 V--- we can't seem to get any signal quality on his meter.

Do you guys have any idea what could cause this?

 

[Captain Jack]

Is that LNB a normal universal or some other type? Also, did you straighten out the LNB holder arm?

 

[gmcclintock]

Yes the LNB is universal (pictured above) and NO I did not straighten the arm because that is the way its suppose to be if the arm was bent as you suggest I don't think I would be able to get programing from other satellites, would I? if you answer yes I find that very hard to believe.

 

[Captain Jack]

It's much less likely that you'd be able to receive signal with a bent arm, especially on a dish this big.

As we said before, larger dishes are much harder to align due to a tighter beamwidth which means a smaller margin for error. Do you know what other satellites you received?

 

[gmcclintock]

No I didn't take note of the satellite, I know it was one that broadcasts many european channels because there were allot of engilsh peograming on there. I know the army is right because I've seen other dish setups just like mine that works perfectly, and we've also been able to get AFN here (first week of feburary 2011) with this same dish because we watched the superbowl using it. The reason we don't have the AFN signal here anymore is because the new unit felt the need to move the dish to a new location.

But I'll be heading back up there in about an hour to give it another shot.

 

[Captain Jack]

Good luck. Have patience with it and remember - small increments. Sounds like you were on Hot Bird 13E or possibly 16E.

 

[gmcclintock]

If I was on either of those satellite would I be aiming higher or lower in elevation? don't know that information off the top of my head.

 

[Captain Jack]

If you were on Hot Bird or 16E, then it would be a higher elevation at your location. So you need to lower your dish for Eurobird by about 3 degrees if you were on 13E and about 5 degrees if you were on 16E.

 

[gmcclintock]

Ok got it, I'm on my way out there now...

 

[gmcclintock]

Hey guys I managed to get the bigger dish alighed, and this time using my sat meter still no difference in sig quality though. We have one more dish on base to get going for the MWR/Recreation Tent and I'll be working on that one tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice guys.

 

[bravekc]

ok im in southern afghanistan been having trouble getting a signal lock...we had afn working for about a week when we 1st got it and the team came down to set it up then we lost the lock and basically we didnt care now the tv and sattalite have been moved around and its been a few months since its been up now im just a grunt lcpl trying to get it back up on my free time between patrols so we can watch football been trying to get the rep to come down but its just a pain in the butt so i figured why not try and reach out and see what i can do.....i have a D9865-H decoder and sepatriot sattlie dish the lnb specs are ku band input freq 10.7-12.75 lo freq 9750-10500 .2 db(sorry not sure what all this means but figured it might be helpful) i can get the dish to get a signal level of 81....im sure with a bit more tweeking i can get it up a bit higher cn margin is at 11....the setting for the decoder are(ive tried changing a few and what not but i just ended putting it back to factory defult...which ended up as these below i dunno if the box has been uligged for to long it loses the setting it had before or what but ya)

Mod type- DVB-S
Downlink-12.34125
Symbol rate- 27.5
net id- 10
Lo Select- Auto
Lo Freq 1- 9.75Ghz
Lo Freq 2- 10.6
Crossover-11.7L
LNB power- 13-v
Diseqc-disable
diseqc-off

also the preset settings are the same and the LNB settings are the same i click on activate and it says failure to aquire network....not sure what im doing wrong i know i need a signal lock but its not locking sorry im a boot at this if u need a better description let me know thanks be a big help if you guys could help me get it runnning (i have a dollar bet going that i cant get it running before the rep get set down here or we leave lol) also i belive i should be connecting to Eruobird9A but again im not sure if there is a way to figure out which bird im suppose to connect to that would prob help us all out thanks

 

[gmcclintock]

first of all where exactly in "southern Afghanistan" are you, city, town, provence name please. I'm also in Southern Afghanistan may be able to give you some pointers (no guarentees)

second if you are in the region I think you are and you're getting a sig level of 80 you're probably on the "wrong" satellite. Like I said i'm in southern afghanistan watching AFN that I just setup took about 2 months for me but my sig level is at 60 and sig quality is 0, so if you're getting 80 (which I did get at one point during my setup, still din't lock because it was the wrong satellite) I will bet you're on the wrong satellite.

 

[ralphmagno]

hello,
what size dish and send us a picture.
the other guys had trouble and got it running.
if your lnb is bad and is stuck in the horz lo it will not switc to upperband
if you moved the dish up or down from hot bird then it is messed up.
if you twisted the lnb then there will be no lock.
your settings seam correct
send us a picture of the lnb possion
ralph

 

[bravekc]

helmand garmser...well just got a signal lock but i cant get any channels...not even channel 8...i messed around with a setting called CA two options are std and open i swticed it to open and i got some crazy afghan channels if i remeber correctly i need to activate the CA for the afn channels...not sure how to do that i think i might be on the wrong sat but im shooting the corret azmiuth of 246 and elevation at 19( from what i researched)

 

[ralphmagno]

hello,
why did you mess with the ca????you need to follow the instructions.
if the ca is off it alows you to lock onto another transponder and no picture means that is encrypted and you will see nothing.
if you look at the afn site it shows all the information on the new sat.
you will not have to raise up or down the dish from hotbird
you will not have to twist the lnb clock or counter clock wise.
all you will have to do is standing behind the dish move it about 1/4 of an inch to the right.
ok we will try to fix it.
please post some pictures of the dish so we can see if it is prime or offset
and how the lnb is set on the dish.
i will check here at noon naples time.
i did 3 yesterday without a tester.
just a walkie taklie.
set the peramaters and with someone watching the desplay make small movies.
send some pictures and i will post some as well.
ralph

 

[bravekc]

i switched back the ca was just messing with settings to see what would happen everything is set back to normal. signal is right at 71 now not 80 any more the satellite was moved so we were not going off hotbird im not sure if it was even connected to hotbird or a dif one id assume that it was tho and now its suppose to be at eruobird9a but i know i right there to getting it ive got it locked which seems to be the hard part..ill post pics he in a few mins

 

[bravekc]