S/Q strength and locking onto correct sats

[jodatoo]

Hey guys has anyone else seen these issues and maybe knows the cause or how to fix...
- I've got 2 dishes, one with 82/91 and a larger one with 110/119/129.
- 82/91 is aimed and picks up with S/Q around 85.
- 110/119/129 I put 119 in the middle and can get in the low 80's. 110 seems to be high 70's. I haven't been able to pick up 129 at all. Out of frustration I pulled out one of my old Limesat ultra boxes to see if there was an SD transponder on 129 that I might be able to pick up with it. This is what I thought was strange - if I used my old LS ultra to tune, both the S/Q are consistently 8-10 points stronger than with the JB on all sats. Has anyone else seen this?
The other thing that's happening is that once it locks onto 110, everything says it's locking onto 110. Individually they all lock onto the correct sat, but once I hit 110, they all say they are locking onto 110. Would that be a receiver issue or maybe my diseqc settings? I have a little generic 8x1 diseqc 1.1 and have it set as 2 cascades, Port 1 for 82, Port 2 for 91, Port 3 for 110, Port 4 for 119, Port 5 for 129. I don't know much about diseqc 1.1 but 2 cascades is what I was told to use.

Has anyone experienced either of these issues and do you have any recommendations? Thanks for any help or insight you can provide!

[Terryl]

The "S" measurement is for the connection between the receiver and LNB/switch, all it tells you is that you have a connection, it will be the same if you point the dish at the ground or at a satellite.

The one to look for is the "Q" this is the quality of the signal after it is decoded at the receiver, the higher the "Q" the better the signal.

For alignment on the 110/119/129 dish you need to zero in on 119, to do this use transponder 12457R, it is a CONUS beam and has the "Dish 101" channel on it, this is an open channel.

Adjust the dish for the maximum "Q" on 119, then use TP 12224 on 110 to adjust the "Q" for the max by turning the dish (it's skew, turning it left or right like a steering wheel) very very very slowly, once this is done check 129 by using TP 12516, this is an SD CONUS beam and has the "You have a dish on 129W" channel, (ch#9599) once you get this done you should have no problems.


What type's of LNB's and switches are your using?

What type/brand of coax did you use?

And are the switches externally DC powered?

[jodatoo]

Thanks for the reply Terryl.
Here's the info you asked:
The cable is RG6 quad shield, cant remember brand but it was the most expensive stuff they had at Annixter.
The 2 LNB's on the 82/91 are the dual lnbf 11250 Bell ones that say Bell right on them.
The 3 LNB's on the 110/119/129 are Royal+ N18K dual lnbf circular 11250.
The switch is a DGS-SW8X1 multiprotocol programmable diseqc 1.1 and is not externally powered.
I'll try to dial in again tomorrow as per your suggestions without the switch in place. IF the switch is not faulty, is 2 cascades the correct way for it to be set up? (2 cascades, Port 1 for 82, Port 2 for 91, Port 3 for 110, Port 4 for 119, Port 5 for 129).
Thanks again.

[fn59]

Leave the switch out when setting up the dishes. Connect receiver to one lnb at a time and confirm you're aimed at the right satellite.