No Frame Lock problems

I see quite a few RX stations w/o frame lock. Of course many causes are possible.
My setup seems to be working. I guess I’m lucky.
It consists of 35cm dish, and Maverick-1 LNBF, about 3 meters of RG-6, the newest DC, 2.5 amp PS and wireless to my router. Light rain now, SNR +2.75 (was 5 when clear an hour ago). RSSI is 83.
I set frequency of LNBF to 12102.95. Have frame lock. At frequency of 121032.00, SNR is -6 and no frame lock. I do not know why. This is the specified frequency to use. I picked 12102.95 based on the lowest Freq Offset (post-AFC) (Hz) reading over a few hours.

Syed @Syed you were going to send a message to all Dremcatcher customers advising them of the change in frequency. Did you do that yet? I didn’t get the message, but you know I know what’s going on. Ken

Not yet. I’m waiting to see if we can resolve a bug in the chat app tomorrow. If that doesn’t work then I will send the notice on Friday. I’m including information about the chat app in the same email.

Confused. . . I have read several post and thus far, I am not sure what the correct settings for SES-2. . So. . . what is the correct frequency in use now? The correct beam type? Currently I have 12.1029 for frequency and 164 for beam type. Please advise and thanks in advance.

KE7WWT

@kenbarbi
The frequency being used is 12.1032, with beam type 164. A number of us have had to adjust the frequency slightly downscale in order to get a lock. It seems to be a difference in the individual LNBs. My personal belief is that we are using the bleeding edge of the LNB’s capabilities here. At 12.1032, my unit will not lock, so I experimented, resetting the frequency using the Custom selection in the Satellite tab on the Tuner app. Mine locks with the best SNR, around +4.5 while using 12.10296. Your unit may line up a little differently. Jerry

Well put, Jerry. Everyone take note. Kn

Thanks Jerry. Something else must be wrong. Now I am getting a signal strength of -40 regardless of where I point the LNB

Set Elevation first about where you think it is. Azimuth is more important. Think of the bird like a star. My 8" telescope can find our Moon with little problem. It’s big and bright. But trying find a tiny star, one needs the Finder Scope with a much bigger field of view attached to the telescope, for the main scope’s field of view is only a few degrees. Move the scope without a Finder, and you’ll miss it.

Same idea for finding SES 2. You must move the antenna very slowly. As soon as the SNR climbs from -40 to maybe -25, try a tiny bit of elevation up or down. If better, go back to azimuth. The first time it takes patience. So relax and try it again. If successful, pat yourself on the back.

Finally got it working about a week ago. . .inside the house with a homemade dish. Getting -13 and a lock . . .switching over to a winegard mp1 this weekend. Any thoughts?

Didn’t know Winegard made a portable dish. Neat … should work. I’m using the 35cm dish that was sold here a few months ago.

@KE7WWT Can you take a picture of your DIY dish? I haven’t seen many of those for Ku-band.

@Syed

I take a picture in a day or two. . for the most part it just a med-sized planters peanut can. Drill a hole in the the both just large enough for the white plastic cap to fit snugly in the bottom.

Now I am trying to get the Winegard MP1 with its original LNB to work - -no luck

I think the difference is that I am using the original LNB - there are no specs other than it works with the dish network.

Ahh, I see what you made. It was a waveguide/horn extension. Yes, that makes sense.

You should know the LO for the LNB on the MP1, right? The problem you are facing is related to the stability of the LNB. Specifically, it’s related to the stability of the crystal reference used by the LNB. You are trying to lock onto an 800 kHz carrier when the LNB can be off by as much as 1 MHz.

Another thing is the beam width of the larger antenna. You will have less room for error with the smaller beam width of the higher gain antenna.

Is that why I could only get a lock with one lnb when I had multiple that were suppose to be identical?

Yes, but each one is not identical. Every microchip is a snowflake.