With the motor none , I will have to use a telescope that I do not have, lol.

On Ku , from 30W to 129W (nothing beyond 129W on Ku anyways and the motor is not installed nowadays BTW) when the tripod was in the center of the patio. For the 1.8 m C band Dish , from 58W to 135W in the summer , and I am hoping in the winter when the tree has no leaves to go as east as 43W (nothing interesting beyond to 30W). I guess I miscalculated something when selecting the location for the 3" pole because I was hoping to get 137W and 139 W on C band but a neighbourgs roof blocks it (today it was also cloudy , maybe tomorrow I will be able to see the Sun during the Solar Interference and see what mistake I made). the big 1.8 m has no actuator arm yet and probably will never have since everytime I get used to a particular channel or show, it eithers disapear or gets scrambled.

With a USALS motor , you can drive the motor + - 65 degrees from your longitude , so that gives you an idea. some extreme sats you have to use DiseqC to drive the motor there because using USALS it falls above 65 degrees. Telestar 12 at 15W comes to mind, with USALS the Stab motor does not move , but I can move it to 22W and then select DiseqC and keep moving to 15W.

BTW , any progress with your set up?

BTW when installing or working on the DISH these days keep in mind that during the day there are Solar Outages that will kill the signal. the odds of someone precisely aiming a dish to the same SAT that is being affected by the Solar Outage are very slim or quite low but in any case they are not 0.

Given I'm from the side of the family with no business sense there's no danger of me being home during the day to watch TV.

Good on the East and West. I agree, there's nothing much beyond 129°W worth aiming for. I've made very good headway with the Ku band dish motor. It needs a very minor tweak to bring some of the signals up on 97°W and above. This could be sag on my mounting pole too (probably is). I'm gonna move the dish to a different location on my wall and use a more sturdy mounting pole which I'm fabricating. Also going to install a Channelmaster 39" dish on the motor. These work better all round from what I've been told.

I did find a number of grievous errors on the Lyngsat lists so last night I started blind-scanning all the birds. Definitely picked up more channels. At about 10 minutes each it takes a while so I'll finish this off tonight. This USALS thing works perfectly. I've been unable to trick the motor by changing channels quickly and powering it down during moves. Much better than a typical TV antenna rotor!

Glad it works for you. you have not mention which motor , but keep in mind that for a big dish like a 1.2 meter , you need a powerful motor , either the Stab 120 or the new DG 360 (sold by Sadoun) I beleive it is called. read the documentation of the motor and see if it can drive such a big dish.

you do not need a 39" Dish (requires the Satb 100 motor), a 36 Dish is fine for the GTA. I even use an 80 cm dish (32") for Hispasat 30W which is very low in the sky but I recommend a 90 cm dish (36") to track the whole arc with a motor since then you would want to get all potential signals. you are a microwave engineer so you probably know this.

On ku, there is nothing FTA above 129W. BTW I chequed today and the Sun was behind the top of the roof of my neighborg for 139W (it is been cloudy all day these days) so that is why I can not get that sat on Cband. Came to late to home to check for 135W, will try tomorrow , but got a feeling that one clears the roof perfectly. Anyways, Dishpointer is a great tool but it is not 100% precise nor was my math I guess, lol. Well I was limited on the potential locations for the BUD anyways.

Being cloudy of course does not help , since the RF noise emited by the Sun , unlike the light , does not get blocked. But it helps to protect the LNB during the Sun Interference since on a very Sunny and hot day it could damage it . Not a bad idea to aim it away or use non shiny reflective dishes eh?

The funny thing is , ( I have being recording shows from several SATS these days at the exact time of the Sun interference) today the Univision channel on 91W did not suffer any interference at all but yesterday it did. On 30W , some signals were blocked , specially the Uruguayan which uses DVB-S2, but the more powerfulls , Cuban and Spanish Muxes have suffered a decrease in levels up to close the minimum but they have managed to keep working 100% so far but tomorrow even those must go down at least 2-3 minutes. The colombian Mux was also affected today. Oct 8 and 9th are the dates for my location when the sun travels exactly behind the Sats in the sky. the higher the frecuency of the signal the less affected it gets by the Sun.

But I am unable to find an explanation as to why today this Univision signal was not affected (Cband , Galaxy) . Too bad the Bell PVR decided on its own not to record a TVO show (Bell ku band) today to compare since both signals are coming from the same orbital position 91W. The HD channel from 82W was recorded perfectly but that SAT is very new and powerfull therefore I am expecting it will only get affected by Oct 9th probably.

The RF noise from the Sun radiation , decreses the Carrier/N ratio (since the Noise level increases) or if you prefer Signal/N level to a point were the receiver no longer is able to decode the info. for powerful TP signals that usually have higher Signal levels , then they get affected a lot less by this Sun Outages but at some point the Sun will inevitably be exactly behind the Sat and then in that case Ni el medico chino te salva , lol.

Lyngsat is kept by Users like us , most of them from Europe that do not have LOS to our NA sats. For that reason European Sats get updated more often and their info is more accurate.

All good information - thanks. I still haven't blind-scanned all the birds as it takes 10 minutes plus each. Very tedious. Another question. I'm using an el-cheapo linear LNB (18$). I have two and although both work, the signals I'm getting from this one are better than the other. If I sprung for a higher-cost QUAD style LNB a la Invacom Quad QPH-031 KU LNB (about 69$) would I notice an improvement in signal strength do you think? Is there anything FTA wise on circular polarity worth chasing?

I have no idea what brand this motor is. Its one of the Chinese sweatshop ones sold on Mathieson. Its very well built from what I can see. It looks identical to the SG2100 H-H Motor including the graphics on the box.

Agreed on the microwave engineering - but I'm 100% terrestrial so satellites are new to me. :) I'm learning fast though.

If you know of a more up-to-date site than Lyngsat let me know.

Cheers!
DJ

There is also The List on SatelliteGuys.US. Most users there are North American, with me being probably the only Cuban , lol.

el-cheapo Linear LNB does not tell me anything , with technology like with women I do not care about their names but rather their performance, lol.

Check Noise Figure values , 0.3 t o.5 being the most common but there are 0.2 dB LNB out there and very cheap. That could account for the difference in the 2 LNB's you have , if you use a Spectrum Analizer you will see a higher Noise Floor for the one that has higher N.F. Check Gain also.

There is Circular FTA signals but they are on C Band , mostly east of 61W I guess. The famous Invacom is only usefull for KU and if you also need the circular DN signals for instance. I would not spend extra money on that one for FTA or FTE (Forgot to Encrypt, lol).

I also have a chineese knock off which is basically the exact copy of STAB 90 but with plastic enclousure and probably the gears are not metallic or high quality. It works ok , thought but should not last many years.

The basics of a communication link are the same and even the terrestrial microwave is very close to the C Band Frecuencies so they behave similarly. The antennas used are also a Dish although the modulation squemes are different therefore behave somewhat different , but in general should be easier for you, like it is for me, than for the average user.

BTW , just an update , not even today the Cuban and Spanish Mux showed pixealation but the rest of the TP on the same sat 30W got affected. I guees my link , with the 80 cm Dish , is more than optimal , then eh?. I was expecting than at least today I should have got affected. With close to 11 db C/N and over 80 dbmicroV (36 % quality pre-BER) measured with the Birdog , I guess I could not improve it more, unless I get a bigger Dish. But this is what I meant by reminding you are a microwave engineer, there is a minimum configuration at the lowest possible cost that will work reliably more than 99 % of the time , so why spending more money on "better" equipment then. After all , that is why we are Engineers, not salesmen, no?.

BTW , 110W and 119W from Dish Network , showing all channels ITC or FTA. Enjoy it while you can since it is perfectly legal.

Today , with the help of heavy clouds and rain, finally the Spanish and Cuban Muxes on Hispasat @ 30W were interfered by the Sun. It only lasted less than 3 minutes and never lost the lock of the signal. Just heavy pixealation and sound cut off. I guess if it would have been sunny like yesterday those 2 TP's would have escaped the interference since the signal level would have been higher therefore C/N or S/N levels would have been kept above the receiver threshold.

Finally at home to check the Sun Transit. There is a place in the patio where I can even get Telestar 12 @ 15W. Nice to know just in case, other than MSNBC there is nothing else interesting now. I was not at home to check the location for 135W and 137W though. But in any case very usefull this Sun Outages despite no signal for a few minutes.

On the DN CNE (Could not Encrypt, lol) signals , an update , most are back with Nagravision 3 but apparently the spot beams are still ITC.

Big PPV fight tonite at 11:30 ET in the open on TV Azteca 7. Pacciao y Julio Cesar Chavez will be 2 of the cards. SD DVB version on Ku via G25 @ 93W and HD version on C-Band @ 121W but it is DVB-S2 8PSK and you need a Dish bigger than 6 ft , at least from Canada.

Both fighters are very good, enjoy it.

Im looking to point at AMC4 using a fusion reciever, any idea on what size dish I should be looking at, I know people say the bigger the better but a 40in is hard sell on the wife. Im Located about 30miles south west of toronto

Welcome. An 80 cm Dish should be fine , most people use 90cm to be safe. 1.2 m is an overkill. I beleive AMC 4 has RTPi , if that is the case even the smaller 60 cm is fine since RTPi signal is so strong (although on very sunny days you get adjacent interference from the adjacent satellites). It also has un-encrypted , History E and BIO East channels as well.

In my opinion this website which is exclusively dedicated to Satellite matters has more info , SatelliteGuys.US .

RTPi is main reason why I am trying to get AMC4. I dont want to miss any of the pork chop(Portugal) games during the world cup

Thanks for your help

Well, then you are going to miss them all since RTPi does not hold the rights to broadcast them in America. As you might infer , the internacional version of any channel has usually different programming than the national locally broadcast channel. RTP has the rights and will broadcast them but only in Portugal and probably free OTA (never been in Portugal). RTPi is basically RTP but with an American friendly schedule and only with programming that they hold the rights to broadcast in America.

If I may suggest , the Cuban Tele Rebelde will once again like in the last 20 years , broadcast all of the matches (unlike Portugal and so many countries that only care about their team). Their DVB-S open signal is on Hispasat @ 30W. 11884 V , SR 27500 and FEC 2/3. Too bad they will probably again use local cuban commentators that IMO althought have improved over the years still are light years behind most spanish speaking commentators from other countries, if not all.

Azteca 7 will have them as well , mostly mexico probably. Univision will have almost all of them in the open at 91W and 118.8W C band.

CBC HD OTA for free will have them in the , sorry guys, dis-tastefull (insipido in Spanish) English version. I just do not feel anything when I listen to an english narration of a soccer match. Baseball on the contrary is another story. I like better the way brasileans narrate the soccer match though. In spanish my favorites , Argentineans. But heck , Para gustos se hicieron los colores y para escojer las flores. Enjoy the matches!

And .... your welcome.