Dreamcatcher 3.03 Feedback Thread

OK you’ve zeroed in on a problem. LED #6 blinks when packets arrive. Mine is always blinking. Given you have Bias T voltage to the LNB and no packets being received when everybody else is getting them (the Status board at status.outernet.is shows that) means you’re probably not correctly pointed to the satellite. Ken

I see 3 LED’s on or blinking.

LED 3, LNB On
LED 6 was blinking, now off. Was getting packets for few minutes on 14 May
LED 8, heartbeat blinking
LED 9, power on

Voltage at LNB 14.11

I show Beam Type as 228 under Satellite
I show Beam Type as 247 under Custom
I show Frequency of 11,9024 under Custom

Why are beam types different? Is this correct?

Satellite is SES 2
Old DirecTV dish being used with MK1-PLL
Azimuth is 120.5 magnetic
Elevation is 38 degrees

System now dead in water

@Syed, @zoltan, @Abhishek
Something went wrong with the satellite or the uplink, most of us have no frame lock as of about 1730-1745 EDT today. My SNR is over 17, no lock, 34% packets, bitrate down to 16K.

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Can’t read the clock. And now, surely as if I had scared the thing, it is back to normal snr of <13 again. Time now 1942 EDT. J…

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I should have said more. I think this method is acceptable.
First notice if you hold the inclinometer in air and turn it CW till the pointer is at 90 degrees and a right angle corner looks parallel to the ground.
Now, place inclinometer at center of dish with degrees facing you to the side. My elevation for SES 2 is 38 degrees. So I adjust the dish elevation for 52 on the inclinometer. Why? 90 - 38 = 52 degrees. So when the inclinometer shows 52, the dish is at the correct elevation. I dreamed this up myself. If I’m wrong, someone says so. Thanks

This is not quite right. The SES-2 Satellite is not infinitely far away from you, but over the equator at 22,500 miles.

So for example. Seattle is approximately at 47.5 degrees latitude. By you approximation, the satellite should be at 90-47.5 = 42.5 degrees. This for example is the angle to the stars, or the sun.

But the satellite is much lower to the horizon. In Seattle, it’s at 25.7 degrees.

DETERMINATION OF LOOK ANGLES TO GEOSTATIONARY COMMUNICATION SATELLITES By Tom,is Soler, 1 Member, ASCE, and David W. Eisemann-’

There’s no cute short-hand way of calculating the proper angle.

Save yourself the trouble, use an online webpage sat locator like dishpointer.com It will compute your compass declination as well.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

I think what @donde is trying to do… is not to use the protractor scale that is normally built into the dish mounting bracket. Every dish I have installed has this because the math for the focal point is translated to markings on the bracket. Then the installer looks up the angle (in this case 38) and uses the markings on the bracket to set the dish.

I don’t have a neat method of not using the manufacturers scale markings.

Skew is not a big deal guys. There is something else going on that we can’t fix. My signal SNR this afternoon dropped below -13 dB, and I normally get around -6 dB.

When I think of skew (living east of SES-2’s location) and pointing the bare LNB at the satellite with a reported clockwise skew of 12.7 deg - - I turn the LNB in the clockwise direction when standing behind the LNB looking up at the sky as the LNB is. If my LNB were mounted on a support on an off-set dish antenna actually facing the dish, I would stand behind the dish and turn the LNB in a clockwise direction too. But theirs a difference here - - with the dish, the LNB is physically being turned in the opposite direction, but that’s how it aligns with the bird.

This all drives me crazy :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Ken

Understand. Here is picture of setup. The dish is horizontal mounted. I found the elevation scale is off with curved part being plumb. I think a grounded needs a straight section of pipe from the base.

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I guess I going in the upward direction 38. Anyway, Maybe I zapped the board. I’ll keep orienting. If I was working for a satellite company, they would fire me by now. How do one get it exchanged? I’m hungry, shutting down. 73

Skew may not be a big deal for you Ken, but I can’t receive anything without it being set correctly. Keep in mind that my skew in Seattle is almost 30 degrees. It’s good for 2-3 dB loss.

I fully understand that there’s something else going on. I started in on the skew discussion as part of the normal installation checklist, before this system degredation occurred. I’m still affected by it.

–Konrad

From your picture, it looks like the LNB is 90 degrees off. The cable should be going straight down so the skew settings are on the top of the LNB. But- - since its a linear orientation, 90 degrees shouldn’t matter. Ken

From your picture, you are way pointed way too high. For that mounting system, the lowest screws should be adjusted to make the pipe (after the bend) be vertical, then the scale attached to the back of the dish should be calibrated, it is hard to read under the gray paint, but the vernier scale next to the screw hopefully is readable. this is pointed at 39 degrees

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Huh? 90 degrees is a total block. Try it with polarized glasses someday.

–Konrad, WA4OSH

I agree with @Konrad_Roeder. Skew angle definitely matters. In Chicago we have close to zero skew adjustment. When I twist the LNB by ninety degrees, I get zero packets.

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This, I presume, is based on having the bare LNB orientated with ZERO at the top. The picture shows the connector in such a position that skew is off by 90 degrees.

skew

Ken

IT WORKS! Incorrect Elevation was the problem. The curved mast is for non horizontal mounting. I made vertical the shorter part of the mast instead the longer part. Then I used the marked the elevation scale and set it for 38 degrees. Almost immediately I began seeing packets. I’m getting -6.5 SNR and 98 % valid packets and Lock. I think the skew is set OK. At 0 skew the RG6 hangs straight down. My skew is -37.5 degrees. So I turned the LNB CCW looking from back of dish. Thanks for the feedback to keep me at it.
Don

I’m new to receiving packets for 24 hours with Lock. What should traffic should I see? Nothing in Messages, News, Reader, and What’s New. I do see articles in Wikipedia, and Weather is there, but patterns not moving.
What is Preview and Reader? I have not tried Wi-Fi Router mode but that’s next.

What’s New does take a long time to load.

But there is a system problem @Abhishek . The last news pack I received was a long time ago>>>
From my Log View>>System Messages >>
May 16 12:45:24 outernet user.notice root: Discovered /mnt/downloads/opaks/ca45-news-pack.2018-05-16_1243.tbz2, extracting…

@Syed
Sorry, ignorant post by me.