I keep getting no signal for all the satellites and i'm going mad!!!

mgyi99

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Hi,

I had a motorised system installed and the installer scanned for the channels using his meter for about 5 or 6 satellites including Hellas Sat, Turk Sat, Hot Bird, Astra and a couple of others. Everything was fine for two days until I decided to do a manual scan for other satellites as I wanted to receive channels from other satellites too....

So I went through the instructions for my Phoenix Apollo receiver and then started moving the motor left until it finds a signal as it told me too, but I tried about 3 satellites and no signal was being found. After trying this for a couple of hours, I realised after that I was getting no signal at all for any of the satellites that the installer guy had set up so now I can't watch anything. It seems to me like the dish isn't pointing in the correct position anymore which is why I'm getting no signal.

On the screen, the receiver was telling me that I was getting a signal from ASIASAT 105 degrees east, but my dish wasn't even pointing in that direction!!! When I scanned for channels on ASIASAT, it retrieved Russia Today, Al Jazeera English and some others, but I checked and you can't even get that channel on ASIASAT.

So in a nutshell, the receiver or the motor has its positions all messed up and thinks its pointing at a different satellite when its pointing at somewhere else.

Also just to mention, at first, I thought it could be the cable because I found that it was loose at the back of the receiver and after that is when I started getting no signal, but I'm still getting channels as explained above, so surely the LNB isn't the problem??? or is it?

I really don't know what to do, do I have to reset the motor? If so, what do I do after?

Thanks so much for your help!!!
 

rolfw

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It sounds like you are on Hotbird, you can't see Asiasat at 105 degrees, it is well below the horizon, at best you will reasonably get from 50 degrees East to 50 degrees West.

Best thing to do is use the command to send your dish back to zero/reference point
 

mgyi99

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thanks for the quick reply, when I was scanning for other satellites, I did select 'GO TO REFERENCE' and the dish moved, but this was only when I was scanning for a satellite. Shall I go to the same place and choose 'go to reference' and then see if the channels are working or what should i do? The channel lists that I had originally are still there. Thank you.
 

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Providing your installer set up the dish correctly, your referencs point should be zero degrees or fairly close, so it should be right next to Thor 1W. If you have that scanned in, then check to see if the channels are showing. Have you got your coordinates entered in the USALS menu?
 

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yeah i've got my latitude and longitude co-ordinates. I'm gonna try the reference now. thanks.
 

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mgyi99 said:
thanks for the quick reply, when I was scanning for other satellites, I did select 'GO TO REFERENCE' and the dish moved, but this was only when I was scanning for a satellite. Shall I go to the same place and choose 'go to reference' and then see if the channels are working or what should i do? The channel lists that I had originally are still there. Thank you.


Hi,
Go to the setup menu for your motor, and select "GO TO REFERENCE".

The dish should move to its zero degree position, does it?

After that selecting other sats should make it go to the correct positions.
 

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i did GO TO REFERENCE and then I went to Hotbird and I'm still getting no signal. I'll go and try it one more time.
 

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damn, its still giving no signal.... In order for me to choose 'GO TO REFERENCE', I have to choose a satellite, then select 'motor' and then on that menu I can choose go to reference. I hope this is the correct way because I don't see any other way i can do it. thanks.
 

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Send it to reference an then try Thor 1W, if it doesn't show any signal, try moving the dish a little West until it does get a reading, make sure that you are using a transponder frequency which is strong 11325 H is a good one, with BBC World.

When you've found that, save it and it may well recalculate and find the others again.
 

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rolfw said:
Send it to reference an then try Thor 1W, if it doesn't show any signal, try moving the dish a littlw West until it does get a reading, make sure that you are using a transponder frequency which is strong 11325 H is a good one, with BBC World.

When you've found that, save it and it may well recalculate and find the others again.

about the transponder, do you mean just try the BBC World channel on Thor to see if its working rather than another a channel with a weaker signal? sorry for the silly question but im a newbie :-rofl2 i'll go try it now. thanks.
 

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When you are in the motor setup menu, there will be a choice of satellite, then a choice of transponder, you should then be able to move the dish to the East or West until you get a good signal and quality reading.
 

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i just tried it and its still on 1% signal.

I selected THOR 0.8W and then changed to Disecq 1.2 and then went to the motor menu. I did GO TO REFERENCE and then I moved it a little West, but still no signal. Is there anything else that I can do? Could this be a different problem, or am i doing something wrong? thanks.
 

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mgyi99 said:
i just tried it and its still on 1% signal.

I selected THOR 0.8W and then changed to Disecq 1.2 and then went to the motor menu. I did GO TO REFERENCE and then I moved it a little West, but still no signal. Is there anything else that I can do?

Your position, like mine is very close to 1W, less than 1 degree.

So when you're pointing at 1W the scale on the motor should be very close to 0, so moving a little west should have done it.

So if you've selected a strong transponder like the BBC world one already mentioned I don't understand why you are not getting a signal.

It makes me think that the dish was not aligned properly by the installer,
but if this was the case, how were you receiving the sats in the first place? :confused:confused:confused

I don't know if your motor supports USALs, but have you tried that?
As long as your long and lat are stored correctly in the receiver, you should be able to go to Astra1,Hotbirdor THOR for example, and get a signal.
 

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Robbo71 said:
Your position, like mine is very close to 1W, less than 1 degree.

So when you're pointing at 1W the scale on the motor should be very close to 0, so moving a little west should have done it.

So if you've selected a strong transponder like the BBC world one already mentioned I don't understand why you are not getting a signal.

It makes me think that the dish was not aligned properly by the installer,
but if this was the case, how were you receiving the sats in the first place? :confused:confused:confused

I don't know if your motor supports USALs, but have you tried that?
As long as your long and lat are stored correctly in the receiver, you should be able to go to Astra1,Hotbirdor THOR for example, and get a signal.

it could be possible that I didn't select the BBC World transponder properly, but I was a bit unsure of this in the first place. After doing 'GO TO REFERENCE', I highlighted THOR 0.8W and I chose 'Transponder' (yellow button) and the list of transponders appeared for THOR 0.8W. I selected the BBC World one and then went back to the menu, changed the LNB to Universal, changed the motor to Diseqc 1.2 and then tried scanning moving the motor a little bit right until a signal appears etc. I'm not sure if I did this the right way, I didn't see how else I could select the transponder, unless its TP Scan?

About my motor, its a Manhattan HH-100 or HH-120 as it says on the manual. I'm not sure if it supports USALS but I did try scanning a satellite with USALS and it found a few channels but I don't think it was the correct channels for that satellite.

thanks.
 

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I think you need to phone the guy who set up the motor and ask him if he aligned the dish to Thor 1W, sounds to me like he only aligned on Hotbird or Astra.

A problem is, that I haven't seen the menu system on your receiver, so am not sure what is required to fine tune the dish, can you provide some screen shots of the various screens, particularly the ones wher you can move the motor?

My standard procedure is to align on 1W (or another more suitable due south satellite if not in my area), then when found I will move the dish using my meter to the extreme East and West, to check that it can receive all of the receivable satellites in both directions. I will then connect the receiver and scan Thor, Astra 1 and probably Hispasat, leaving the customer to scan in the others at his/her leisure.
 

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ok, but if the installer set 0 reference as Hotbird, then shouldn't Hotbird work after I have done 'GO TO REFERENCE'?

Here are some screenshots that I just took:

after going to the main menu, this is the 'Satellite Search' section:
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/28203/2005130922185774984_rs.jpg

these are the list of transponders for THOR 0.8W. I highlighted 11325 H and then went back to the satellite search.
http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/24664/2005141427060037141_rs.jpg

this is the motor menu. I pressed OK to go to reference then tried moving it a little bit West etc. but signal strength stays as it is.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/26366/2005147863063920671_rs.jpg
 

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i was just checking it again now. I did 'go to reference' again from fresh and when I scroll through the satellites, it says Atlantic Bird 5.0W has a good signal, but thats the only satellite giving a signal. Does this mean anything?
 

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It means that your receiver is getting a signal on its default transponder frequency for that satellite.

It does n't necessarily mean that its aligned to 5W though.

If you scan the TP and compare with Lyngsat , this will confirm one way or the other.
 

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mgyi99 said:
ok, but if the installer set 0 reference as Hotbird, then shouldn't Hotbird work after I have done 'GO TO REFERENCE'?

If he has set Hotbird as reference satellite, then the arc will be way out, reference has to be zero degrees on the arc.

PS. Can you not use img link to pictures and upload them using advanced options, Manage attachments.
 

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Robbo71 said:
It means that your receiver is getting a signal on its default transponder frequency for that satellite.

It does n't necessarily mean that its aligned to 5W though.

If you scan the TP and compare with Lyngsat , this will confirm one way or the other.

nop i don't think its aligned to 5W. Just to clarify, is this problem something that can be fixed using the receiver, or will the installer need to get up to the roof and set the motor? thanks
 
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