Motorised TM5200 failing to find transponder

[the_unrepentant]

Hi all

Apologies for the length of this one - but hopefully someone will have some ideas.

I helped my father install his TM5200 super, running on a motorised system with a 80cm dish. The location is Milton Keynes. Although it is working well, we cannot find every transponder that we should. For example on Thor 4w the tm is looking for 10722 V and 10722 H (correct), but it only gets 100% signal on the vertical and 20% on the horizontal. It does find other Horizontals on Thor 4W at around 90%. When tuning into Freesat and Hotbird, we pick up most vertical and horizontal transponders. We get strong signals right across the arc from 30W to 30E

The dish is mounted on an exact south facing wall and is vertically aligned. (checked by spirit level)

We have tried rotating the LNB, with little change, and raising/lowering the elevation of the 80cm dish - again with little change to the performance.

I feel that the LNB is OK, and that the problem is one of alignment, but we have tried so many times to realign that the only thing rotating is our heads.

Heeelllp please


Cheers

[parad0x_i]

Hi..

First of all.. Thor is not on 4W.. Amos is 4W :regular_smile:

Each transponder may have a different output power in (EIRP) and this will affect signal strength..
Also each transponders alignment may not be exactly the same and this will also affect signals..

However... the main thing is the quality of the signal and not the signal strength itself..

If you get a good picture then i would leave it..
You could try another LNB if you have one as it could be the LNB is less sensitive on the horizontal..

:wink_smile:

[the_unrepentant]

Thanks Tony

Yup realised after I had posted it that it is AMOS and not Thor. The signals are too low to receive anything. We don't have another LNB to try.

I guess it is a case of up the ladder again at the weekend.

Thanks

[parad0x_i]

If you are getting good signals on the Vertical transponders then i doubt the dish is misaligned.. and it would seem the coax and F connectors are made off ok.. so if i were you i would turn my attention to first checking the LNB output voltage of the reciever..

If you have a voltmeter to hand set it on the 20v DC range..
Turn off the Tm and disconnect the the dish..
Turn on the Tm and select a horizontal transponder channel..
The voltage at the receivers F socket (for dish) should be around 17v to 18v
On vertical it should be about 13v to 14v..

If these volateges are correct then i would suspect the LNB is faulty

[parad0x_i]

After writing the post above i just need to clarify with you about the vertical signals you say are 100%..

What is the quality showing..? and are you actually receiving channels to watch?

[the_unrepentant]

Hi Tony

When I do get a reading (either V or H) it is usually showing 90 to 100 percent for strength and quality.

I have since been informed that I should consider increasing my dish size from 80cm to 100cm, but I have no budget left to do that.

I did a complete factory reset on the TM last night and plan to start over again at the weekend - aligning the dish and voltages etc. I have noticed that the TM search picks up transponders from nearby satellites - which makes it difficult to be accurate about which channels are being picked up on a specific satellite. For example, with the dish pointing to nilesat it picks up the majority of the Astra satellite transponders.


Not got to the point yet where I am pulling out hair etc.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

[parad0x_i]

Ok.. but are you able to watch any channels on any satellite..?

Tell me your location area (eg: the town) so i can work out your settings for the motor and dish.. beause now from what you have said it looks like the dish is not set up properly
Transponders on many satellites are close in frequency.. so it is possible to get a belting signal on Badr 26º East on 11.785V and be picking up a signal from 11.788V from Astra2 at 28.2º East.. leading you to think your dish is aligned correctly.. however you can't watch anything

[the_unrepentant]

Hi Tony

Thanks for your help and advice (I'll push the button)

Prior to resetting the receiver I was getting thousands of channels. The TM overfilled its memory and I had to delete all the NDS channles to make room for newly found channels to take their place.

The dish is in Milton Keynes and is mounted on a true south facing wall. It is vertical (set up with a spirit level)

If memory serves correct, the elevation angle (on the motor assembley) was 37.5 - but I was unable to set an accurate angle on the dish as there was no target information in the stamping of the bracket. My supplier told me to set it about off vertical (facing into the wall) This worked surprisingly well, and I get good signals from Nilesat through to Arabsat at 30.5 east.

I started by aligning the dish to Thor at 1W, swung it eastwards to the Astra channels to check signal strength and ditto in the opposite direction.

Some of the forums mention Azimuth, but I cannot see where I could adjust for this, apart from rotating the LNB.

As I say, the weekend beckons (Weather permitting) to start over.

Thanks Tony

[parad0x_i]

Hi m8..

Your motor should be set to your latitude of 52º (on the Latitude scale). Once set correctly tighten the bolts up and don't move them again
The dish angle setting is 30.5º (for Intelsat 10-02) and this needs to be set using the scale on the dish bracket not with a protracter because an offset dish will appear almost vertical and have no comparison to the actual elevation angle (in your case 30.5º)

(If your dish hasn't a scale then something is wrong and i would be returning it.. as there's no reliable method of setting the angle!)

Your receivers Latitude setting is 52ºN and Longitude setting is 0.7ºW

Your Southmost satellite will be Intelsat 10.02 @ 0.8º West.. So in your receivers Motorised setup menu after you had entered your Lat/Lon setting you would choose BBC World 11325H 24500 as the setup transponder and then watching the signal strength & quality rotate the whole motor/dish mount until you have the best results..

With an 80cm dish you will definitely not be receiving Nilesat.. You would need a 1.8M dish and then you would only receive the V transponders :wink_smile:

Azimuth is the angle from North that you would rotate the dish in a clockwise direction (Nothern Hemisphere) to arrive at the satellites position.. see my little picture below for a visual explanation

[the_unrepentant]

Thank you very much Tony - you are very helpful.

I will update this post and let you know how successful I have been after the weekend.

Cheers for now