Tuner settings for my LNBF

[Doug_M]

Sorry if this is in the wrong sub-forum. I've got an Edision Mio and a new 39" dish and a standard LNB that came with it. Specs on the box are:

Model: GT111S
Input: 11.70 - 12.75 GHz
Output: 950-2000 MHz
LO: 10.750 GHz

So in TNAP for Type of LNB/Device can I just choose KU STD 10750 or do I need to use a user defined setting? I ask because I'm getting nothing on the signal finder. I'm trying to get 97W. Used dishpointer to get the azimuth. I have a good compass with the declination set but I've tried both bearings given at dishpointer.com with no luck. I have one of those el-cheapo signal meters and I can get it to "scream" when I move the dish a bit to the right of where dishpointer says to aim, but I get nada in the signal finder in TNAP. In the signal finder I have it set on the 97W sat and pre-defined transponders. Scrolled through them all. I've even set up all the KU sats from 93W to 117W and same. So I think I've got the LNB settings wrong.

Cheers,
Doug

[Megatron817]

Hi, have you skewed the Lnbf ? Looks like for your area for 97w, standing in front of the dish turn the cable end counter clock wise 29 degrees.That would be around 4:00 and 5:00 oclock but you'll need to fine tune after you get the signal. KU standard will work or user defined L and H 10750.

[Megatron817]

Should have told you to do a blind scan when your hand held meter is showing signal. If you could find a transponder maybe we can tell what satellite you are pointed at.

[Doug_M]

Yes I did skew the LNB that way. I also tried a blind scan on several sats (including 97W of course) when the dish was pointing to what was probably 10 or 15 degrees West of 97W and my el-cheapo (I have no faith in it) increased significantly in pitch. Nothing. Zero on every sat.

If that strong signal was say ANIK F1, even though I obviously couldn’t do anything with the signal on my STB, would that be able to set off my signal meter?

I’ve got one of those portable signal finders that are essentially little battery powered STB’s with a small LCD screen coming which should make this much easier. But it probably won’t be here for a few weeks.

I did try user defined with LO low and high both set to 10750 but no luck. What should the Threshold setting be set to?

[Megatron817]

Threshold is for universal LNB. tells when to turn tone on and off for low and high band but go ahead and set it 10750 also. That type of meter probably will find signals the mio can't see like dss and dc2 so a blind scan may not find anything. Just have to look at when moving the dish the satellites are on an arc so if you find a signal then move the dish west a little you have to go down in elevation a little to trac the arc or clark belt. Moving the dish east go up in elevation until you reach the top of the arc then start down in elevation.

[el bandido]

Threshold = 10750. So all settings = 10750 in user defined.

Good, clear pictures of the dish and lnb might help.

[stephan94]

Hello,
i think the main problem is tuning the antenna which is not on the clark belt
Even if your LOF is wrong, during a blindscan the MIO will find frequencies, the values of the frequencies will be wrong but the transponder will be found.
If you are properly tuned to a satellite the receiver will always find something.
(it happened to me by inattention to do a search in KU band with data for C band the result was wrong, but there was a result)

[Doug_M]

Okay, that all makes sense. I've got 10750 for all values. I'd seen that while googling but information from googling is all over the place so I thought I'd ask here.

As for the dish, I'm probably off on elevation. It's already too hot to get on the roof today so it'll have to wait. I may even wait until that fancy meter (a GTMedia V8) shows up so I don't have to climb up and down that ladder so much lol.

While not the same as actual photos of my setup, this is the dish and LNB I bought. No doubt "starter" level quality. [Only registered and activated users can see links]

[el bandido]

How can it be a 39" dish when these are the measurements???

Front Measurements: 34.5" X 36.25" Edge to Edge.

Anyway, If you knew the degrees of offset, you could use a protractor to set the elevation. So with this dish, the settings will be a guessing game, and may take some time. You will need time and patience unless you get lucky.

[Terryl]

Dishpointer doesn't tell all, try the one I posted at the bottom, it is an active footprint map, scroll to the end of the TP list at the top and select the Ku band beam for Galaxy 19, then zoom into your location, this will give you the estimated signal levels, all angles and elevations and estimated dish size for your location, you may be on the boundry of a signal level transition, this could affect the reception.

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[Doug_M]

How can it be a 39" dish when these are the measurements???

Marketing. Like when they say a hard drive is 500 gb but it is really 488 gb.

[Doug_M]

Dishpointer doesn't tell all, try the one I posted at the bottom, it is an active footprint map, scroll to the end of the TP list at the top and select the Ku band beam for Galaxy 19, then zoom into your location, this will give you the estimated signal levels, all angles and elevations and estimated dish size for your location, you may be on the boundry of a signal level transition, this could affect the reception.

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Neat site. I am on a transition boundary, or pretty close to it. Shows me as 46.1 dBW and needing a 31.5" dish.

[Doug_M]

Okay so I said I wasn't going up on the roof because of the heat, lol, but I did. Things I tried, three different coax (already up there from previous Shaw Direct install). Nothing. Tried to tune 99W. Nothing. Used the SignalMeter app that works with Enigma boxes. Nothing. Used the OpenWebIf signal finder. Nothing.

I know you have to be precise when tuning a dish, but is it normal to get absolutely nothing on the signal finder? I mean if you're close shouldn't you get at least some jumping on the meters? All they've ever looked like for me is as if I don't even have the coax plugged into the STB.

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[Doug_M]

By the way, thanks for everyone's help and input. I do appreciate it.

[el bandido]

All of your pictures look correct, and Normal for a satellite dish with no signal being received from the satellite.
Also, your setup should be fta receiver ---> satellite dish. No switches, splitters...etc should be installed between the dish and receiver.

[Doug_M]

Okay, that's good to know. I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait for that V8 satellite receiver/finder to show up lol.

[Terryl]

Are you getting any DC voltage out of the receiver or sat finder???? It doesn't look like your LNB is getting power....Maybe????

Even with the LNB sitting on a work bench you should get some type of reading,(very low readings) can you try a short piece of coax right from the receiver directly to the LNB??? On a work bench as a test...Quick way to see what going on.

[Doug_M]

I can give that a try. Will have to wait until tomorrow though as it is raining today.

EDIT: I just took a multi-meter to the coax connection on the back of the STB and I'm getting 19V or 13.9V depending on whether I had the signal finder on an H or V transponder.

[Terryl]

OK those look good.....How about out at the dish??? When it's not raining that is, disconnect from the motor and see whats out there.

[Doug_M]

Hi All,

So my GTMEDIA V8 Finder little box came. Needed programming for NA sats. I put in a few and got up on the roof today. Didn't have too much luck. I pointed the dish at 97 west and started moving the azimuth and elevation. I eventually managed to peak a signal at 70%. A blind scan found a few encrypted channels. So I thought hmm, maybe I'm not on 97 but something else. It was starting to get hot and I'm already sunburned from watching my son's double-header ball game yesterday lol. So I tightened bolts up and went inside.

I switched to my Edision MIO and long story short, it is 103 West I'm on and all I can get is the PowerVU Fedex channels (signal, not actual decoding obviously) on transponder 12182 V. The signal is:

AGC: 74%
SNR: 36% and 4.6 dB

and the screen says LOCK. I can scan, clear and re-scan the 6 PowerVU encoded channels repeatedly. However, moving down in frequency in the transponders and I get zero on everything. Then next transponder down is 12145 V and I get nothing. Then on other occasions it comes in fine with similar signal strength (and lock) as the first transponder. None of the horizontally polarized transponders come in at all.

I've got LO/L, LO/H and threshold all at 10750. The first time I got the lower freq vertically polarized transponder to come in was when I switched threshold to 12200 (after google and reading some random fta forum post). I though aha! That's it. But none of the horizontally polarized transponders came in. Then when I went back to 12145V it too was dead. But 12182V is always there.

I've got the signal finder parked on 12145V and it is periodically coming in and going dead and again when it comes in the signal is around 75% and it gets a lock.

So I think the lnb is junk. I'm going to look for another one to purchase. Any recommendations?

[el bandido]

What image is installed in the MIO? (Main Menu--->About)
LO/L, LO/H and threshold all at 10750 will work. You may also use Circular lnb setting in Non-TNAP images, or I think Standard lnb setting in TNAP images.

Blindscan is your best friend right now. Blindscan is the best way to check for signals when aligning a dish imo.

Most likely, The lnb is fine, and I would not worry about replacing it.

Transponders 12145v and 12182v are very strong on 103w. They are also DVB-S, which explains why you only get these two transponders.

You do not have a motor installed, correct?

For a fixed dish, Without a motor:
Try to make the signal "Bigger" on either one of these transponders . Lnb skew is important, so get a signal and very slowly rotate the lnb a bit.Understand where the lnb is skewed before you rotate it so you may return it to its original position if needed. Try skewing the lnb in the opposite direction as you may have skew reversed.

Slightly pull/push on the right, left, top, and bottom of the dish while watching the signal meter. Does the signal improve or get bigger when you do this?

You are just barely on this satellite. Here are some screencaps from a 1.2 meter dish and Edision receiver. The signals on your dish when tuned will probably be slightly less.

16931

16932

16933

[Doug_M]

Okay, that makes sense (mostly). What I thought was a half decent signal your screenshots show clearly isn't lol.

I'm using OpenPLI 7.3 but have multi boot with TNAP and whatever TNAP is based on, can't remember off the top of my head.

This: "Transponders 12145v and 12182v are very strong on 103w. They are also DVB-S, which explains why you only get these two transponders." I don't understand. Should I not also be able to pick up the DVB-S2 transponders like the two clear ones on this sat?

[el bandido]

Continue to use whatever image and settings that produce a signal. I do not suggest changing images until the dish is aligned.

Transponders 12145v and 12182v are very strong on 103w. They are also DVB-S, which explains why you only get these two transponders.
DVB-S2 require more signal. You do not have enough signal to receive these transponders right now.
DVB-S2 8psk Requires more signal than DVB-S2.

To put it another way, You have a very poor or weak signal for this satellite. DVB-S requires the lest amount of signal. You should get the DVB-S2 transponders once the dish is better aligned.

[el bandido]

Here is a chart. DVB-S is not shown here:

Standard Modulation FEC C/N [dB]

DVB-S2 QPSK
1/4 -2.4
1/3 -1.2
2/5 0
1/2 1
3/5 2.2
2/3 3.1
3/4 4
4/5 4.6
5/6 5.2
8/9 6.2
9/10 6.5
DVB-S2 8PSK
3/5 5.5
2/3 6.6
3/4 7.9
5/6 9.4
8/9 10.6
9/10 11
DVB-S2 16APSK
2/3 9
3/4 10.2
4/5 11
5/6 11.6
8/9 12.9
9/10 13.1
DVB-S2 32APSK
3/4 12.6
4/5 13.6

[Doug_M]

Had a chance this evening to go try tuning again. I set my tuner to 12182 V and then did my best to get a stronger signal (azimuth, elevation and skew). The mounting pole that came with my dish was a thinner diameter than the mounting plate on my roof and I didn't want to put a second plate in. I had to drill another hole in the pole to mount it and it "works" but it isn't completely rock solid. It does have a bit of play when I'm moving the dish around. So I think I'll bite the bullet and put up a pole in a concrete base in my back yard (I have lots of room for it). Anyway, I did get the signal a little better. 53% SNR. Still only good enough to get the two DVB-S transponders but at least this time when I did a scan it found all channels on 12145V and pulls them in clearly. This is enough of an improvement to motivate me to dig that hole in the back yard and plumb in a mounting pole lol.

[el bandido]

A few fractions of an inch or a couple millimeters of movement will destroy or degrade satellite signals.
Make sure the pole is straight or plumb om all sides before pouring the concrete. A leaning mounting pole can be made to work for a single satellite, but the elevation will not be correct. A leaning mounting pole cannot be used for a motor without great headaches. Pay close and precise attention to the way the mounting pole is installed.

There is an android app that I use for dish alignment. You may want to try it as it has a talking signal meter.
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