Hey all... Recently got interested in FTA and kitted myself out with an inverto ultra black LNB and a Skybox F3 to see what I could pull in.
I figured I'd try for Galaxy 19 first, since most forums make that sound like the "My First FTA" experiment. Okay, so I plugged in my coordinates to SatSig's dish pointing guide. Manually tweak the dish to the azimuth, elevation, and polarization appropriate to my location (perfectly comfortable doing that, background in amateur astronomy... It may need a few nudges but I feel pretty confident I have it within a degree of true, perhaps 5 degrees on the polarization).
I'd also mention that I used an inline standalone meter to help me get it peaked, although it has disconcertingly wide range of "peaked". Figured that would get me to the point I could use the F3's antenna setup to do the fine adjustment (like the LNB polarization).
So I add Galaxy 19, 97W, 9750-10600 22k auto H/V polarity, and set up Transponder 14 (just a random choice) at 11966 H 22000. Then I go to the antenna setup page for my signal strength and quality, and here it gets weird.
I always have 45% strength and 10% quality (with the LNB actually connected). If I physically unplug the LNB, that drops down to 32%, so I know it measures something, but darned if I can figure out how to get it any higher. I've nudged the Az, El, Pz, even tried slightly shifting the focal point of the dish a few inches plus or minus, no change. Always 45%, no more, no less. I can even remove the LNB from the dish (but not disconnected from the F3) and point it at the ground, and still get 45%.
So I have to presume I've missed some really basic step here. Anyone else recently fight this same battle and have some tips to save my sanity?
And yeah, I know, newbie with a stupid question. But I swear I've Googled for every variation of this problem I could find, with no luck. Could I just have a bad F3 or LNB? Though in the latter case, I would expect the signal meter to show nothing.
Thanks!
I figured I'd try for Galaxy 19 first, since most forums make that sound like the "My First FTA" experiment. Okay, so I plugged in my coordinates to SatSig's dish pointing guide. Manually tweak the dish to the azimuth, elevation, and polarization appropriate to my location (perfectly comfortable doing that, background in amateur astronomy... It may need a few nudges but I feel pretty confident I have it within a degree of true, perhaps 5 degrees on the polarization).
I'd also mention that I used an inline standalone meter to help me get it peaked, although it has disconcertingly wide range of "peaked". Figured that would get me to the point I could use the F3's antenna setup to do the fine adjustment (like the LNB polarization).
So I add Galaxy 19, 97W, 9750-10600 22k auto H/V polarity, and set up Transponder 14 (just a random choice) at 11966 H 22000. Then I go to the antenna setup page for my signal strength and quality, and here it gets weird.
I always have 45% strength and 10% quality (with the LNB actually connected). If I physically unplug the LNB, that drops down to 32%, so I know it measures something, but darned if I can figure out how to get it any higher. I've nudged the Az, El, Pz, even tried slightly shifting the focal point of the dish a few inches plus or minus, no change. Always 45%, no more, no less. I can even remove the LNB from the dish (but not disconnected from the F3) and point it at the ground, and still get 45%.
So I have to presume I've missed some really basic step here. Anyone else recently fight this same battle and have some tips to save my sanity?
And yeah, I know, newbie with a stupid question. But I swear I've Googled for every variation of this problem I could find, with no luck. Could I just have a bad F3 or LNB? Though in the latter case, I would expect the signal meter to show nothing.
Thanks!
Comment