Assistance setting up Ku dish on 7,0 East & 10,0 East

[satlearner]

Hi, could someone please assist me with my dish setup on 7,0 East. I am in SA and would like to setup the dish on FTA for 7,0 & 10 East. I am using a 80cm dish with a universal LNB (10600). I used to receive channels on 10 East and this weekend i had to relocate the dish due to addition of another dish. What i find strange is that the signals i received before are no longer there (10,0 East). I pickup 4 transponders on 7,0E and their signal strength looks good on the meter but i cannot get a 'lock' onto any of the transponders. When i look at the constellations of the signal, at first all the little dots are close to each other and two seconds later they spread out very far apart. I set the lnb to the correct skew of -36,4 deg c/clockwise as this is the info for my region and still no joy. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. I am using a Satlook G2 meter.

 

[iwol]

Are you sure your on the right sat use the identify sat option on your satlook to make sure its 7e or use the spectrum to locate a strong signal then do a channel scan and make sure the channel's belong to 7e

 

[satlearner]

well i certainly hope i am on the correct sat......there are three satellites that are really close to each other, ie. 4,8E / 7,0E / 10E........so i firstly locate 10E, then move the dish westwards (i'm in the Southern Hemisphere) to and locate 7,0E and then further west to locate 4,8E.....this way i am certain the the satellite in the centre is definately 7E....and there are no other sats that are receivable between these positions........is this the correct way to do it?

I have tried the MATCH method on the meter but no luck there. I also cannot use the NIT ID method on the meter as i cannot lock onto a steay signal....so, it will have to be the hard way afterall....i am just surprised that this was working fine on 10E and now i can't even get that back....i am replacing the LNB this evening as well so that i can ensure that everything wass checked.

 

[smoggy07]

well i certainly hope i am on the correct sat......there are three satellites that are really close to each other, ie. 4,8E / 7,0E / 10E........so i firstly locate 10E, then move the dish westwards (i'm in the Southern Hemisphere) to and locate 7,0E and then further west to locate 4,8E.....this way i am certain the the satellite in the centre is definately 7E....and there are no other sats that are receivable between these positions........is this the correct way to do it?

I have tried the MATCH method on the meter but no luck there. I also cannot use the NIT ID method on the meter as i cannot lock onto a steay signal....so, it will have to be the hard way afterall....i am just surprised that this was working fine on 10E and now i can't even get that back....i am replacing the LNB this evening as well so that i can ensure that everything wass checked.

dont forget 9E right ontop of 10E, i only have to lean on my dish pointing at 10E and 9E locks so you might have locked that (if 9E has a beam out over your region)

 

[satlearner]

Hi smoggy07, that may well be possible but those are Euopean beams and I don't think they are reachable here, not with a 80cm dish....I will still take this into consideration and maybe i should take a few pics of the spectrum as i move the dish from satellite to satellite....it may be of use to others in the future. Well, hopefully the rain holds out today but if not, it will have to be tomorrow.

 

[iwol]

hi sat learner go into the spectrum screen find the biggest peak while its on this screen press the right button which highlights frequency turn the knob till the vertical line is on the biggest peak then hit the right button again till it says channels,hit the right button again and it will search for channels on that high peaked freq,check the channels with a channel list for 10e or 7e and it will tell you which sat it is on...good luck

 

[satlearner]

well, that is what i normally do when setting up the dishes..but this time it's not even getting to a point where i can lock onto the signal consistently. In order for the channel function to work, i need to firstly get the satellite locked and and retrieve the NIT info and this requires the signal to be constant for at least 4 seconds....the problem i'm having is that the signal is fluctuating every second...if you have seen the display of the G2, then you will know that the four blocks on the top would be filled to black if the signal is perfect and then the sat name will come up....now on this satellite it gets to the second or third block and then it goes away and this happens quite a bit and this can be seen on the constellations as well....it is uncontrollable. Hopefully i can try a few more things this evening...and this time i will work systematically......only thing is that the storm clouds are setting in right now....just hope it clears up later. Thanks for the words of advice..much appreciated.

 

[iwol]

i know it sounds daft but re-end your connectors make sure no braid is touching (weve all done it)

 

[satlearner]

ha....ha....ha....yes, i know, it's happened to me before and i have checked both cables and on both ends and they were good. It's good to see tha the simple 'mistakes' are still put under consideration as 'normally' we overlook these little things.

 

[satlearner]

Okay, so i went out and got another LNB thinking that maybe this would solve the problem....installed it and still cannot get the dish setup. I then tried a stronger satellite, 36E...got the signals on the spectrum and tried to lock on....same problem.....then tried 16E and still the same....i finally decided to try the most common one in SA, 68,5E...all signals looked great and i got a perfect lock within 3 seconds, NIT info comes up and channel display per TP is working. Now back to the drawing board.....what is causing this...i can see the satellites but cannot lock onto any of the transponders. So i stood up on the roof and looked around....okay, no tall buildings in site, a couple of factories in the distance, but, hey, there's something different. About 500m away is the new upgraded electrical substation. Wow, it looks great with all those fancy transformers and cables feeding back and forth and those tall aluminium poles rising up high into the sky....lightning rods as they are commonly called....well, this is hte only change in the neighbourhood. The old substation had everything installed within an enclosed, bricked up building but the upgraded area is out in the open. All the signals i am trying to lock onto is in the direction of the substation.....and here is the question: Can there be interference (EMI / RFI) generated at this substation, that is strong enough to cause me not to be able to receive a clear signal from the satellites?....taking into consideration that these sats are over 30 000KM away, one still has to pass throught the barrier of interference as this is within line of sight from the ground to the satelite.

 

[satlearner]

well, well, well.....the problem is now sorted and those that have contributed will be glad to know what the problem was. It was not related to interference from the power station nor was it a problem on the meter.....and it definately was not anything to do with the installation or the STB. I mentioned that sometimes we overlook the small bits....well this time i did and it cost me endless hours of searching for a problem which never existed....well in a way that is. So the basics came into play once again and believe it or not, all i had to do was concentrate on which transponders were important to me.....locate the centre frequency and work on that...ignore the other peaks as they are not important right now. So, once again i set everything up and back on the roof....scrolled to the frequency i required and within 30 seconds i was back in business....signal was perfect and strength was at peak level on the meter....and this was after adjusting the skew on the lnb.... So, what was the problem in the first place ??? The initial TP's that i was looking at were DATA TP's....this is the reason that the signal appeared for a few seconds then went astray......well, now that i am all sorted and i can watch the Mauritius channels when i want to, all is sorted and i'm sure that others will learn from this little exercise.....so, i will still be called "satlearner".....as it never stops!!!

 

[Captain Jack]

We never stop learning.