SES3 C Band Very Weak

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Kermit

Registered:1332532760
Posts: 1,636

Posted 1541176215	Reply with quote #1

I finally finished every little detail of getting my BUD up & working very well again. The one thing that has me scratching my head is the low signal quality of both polarities on SES 3 C band. Ku comes in very strong on that satellite. The rest of the arc (C & u band) come booming in. I know it must be some sort of alignment issue because in my preliminary setup I found PBS coming in very well & used that to find the MLB playoffs. But the signal has been gradually deteriorating over the past week & a half to the point where I couldn't even get the baseball games any more. 101w and 105w come in very strong. Using high quality Norsat PLL LNB's. Any idea what kind of tweek that I might have to do to pick my signal up on this bird? __________________ Equipped with Azbox Me, 2 X Octagon SX88, Linkbox 9000i, Geosatpro microHD, Synoq SR1, Openbox S9, Monterrey 90, Uniden SQ560 + SQ360, General Instruments X 5 RECEIVERS, Motorola DSR6000 9' solid Dish C/KU, "Muzak" 1.2m Prodelin + legacy Prodelin 1.2 dish.

cband

Registered:1297392545
Posts: 158

Posted 1541177490	Reply with quote #2

SES3 cband has been the hardest satellite for me to lock in up here in Alaska. SES1 is almost equally as hard. Their footprint is not as generous as the other birds, are you on the edge like me? A transponder that I have done hard work to peak at 12.2 is reading 11.5 dB this morning, so maybe a tad weaker than normal right now, but I would not call it a satellite anomaly just yet.

Kermit

Registered:1332532760
Posts: 1,636

Posted 1541178073	Reply with quote #3

Quote: Originally Posted by cband SES3 cband has been the hardest satellite for me to lock in up here in Alaska. SES1 is almost equally as hard. Their footprint is not as generous as the other birds, are you on the edge like me? A transponder that I have done hard work to peak at 12.2 is reading 11.5 dB this morning, so maybe a tad weaker than normal right now, but I would not call it a satellite anomaly just yet. That is quite possible as I am about 300 miles north of the U.S. border. I seem to do well with SES1 but some of the radio TP's on 105w are quite marginal. The only thing I could think of that might have knocked the signal down was adding the elbow to my Corotor for my Norsat C band LNB. I have read but not confirmed that the elbow will knock your signal down by about 3db. The weather changed so drastically the past few days that I didn't have a chance to remove the elbow and check to see if there would be a difference. __________________ Equipped with Azbox Me, 2 X Octagon SX88, Linkbox 9000i, Geosatpro microHD, Synoq SR1, Openbox S9, Monterrey 90, Uniden SQ560 + SQ360, General Instruments X 5 RECEIVERS, Motorola DSR6000 9' solid Dish C/KU, "Muzak" 1.2m Prodelin + legacy Prodelin 1.2 dish.

Callisto

Registered:1355878141
Posts: 458

Posted 1541197348	Reply with quote #4

A few other things to consider Is your feedhorn centred? Is your f/d set correctly - you can loosen the hex screw and move the feed in and out while looking at your meter to set it for maximum signal Make sure the orientation of the feed is correct or your skew may be off Check that your polorotor motor functions properly

majortom

Registered:1196641561
Posts: 5,975

Posted 1541201764	Reply with quote #5

I am in WNY, quick glancing at satbeams.. If I am reading it correctly.. 103W I lost a few of the marginal TPs when the new sat for 105W was put online. Small antenna here. 101W WNY 39 dBW 101W AK 33 dBW 103W WNY 40 dBW 103W AK 33 dBW 105W WNY 43 dBW 105W AK 40 dBW __________________ Perfect 10 7.5' mesh Chapparal C/Ku Co-Rotor feed, Norsat 8115 CBAND, Norsat 4106A Ku Thomson Saginaw Actuator, Vbox positioner, Home Brew Polarotor683 Servo circuit. Openbox S9, Prof7500, v4l-updatelee linux drivers installed. DB8E/VHF Yagi rotor FM Bandstop ap-8700 preamp 8way split LG lcd. ricardo's geo-orbit archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20071202191450/http://www.geo-orbit.org:80/sizepgs/tuningp2.html

Voltaic

Registered:1410568599
Posts: 448

Posted 1541203829	Reply with quote #6

Yeah, 103W is probably the hardest bird for me to catch. 101W is a bit better and 105W seems to be the very strong. __________________ C-band: 10ft Perfect10 / Chaparral Dual / 2x Norsat 3120F / C2PLL LNBF (sidecar for Circular) Ku-band: None (Future Project: Prodelin 1.8m Rx/Tx) Switches: WNC-4x8 Tuners: TBS6925, TBS6902, TBS5022SE, DSR-6000, Cisco D9854 OTA: CM4228 / CM7777 / HDHomeRun EXTEND

jimmypop

Registered:1451440784
Posts: 652

Posted 1541205148	Reply with quote #7

for me as well, 103w, 101w, 89w and 87w are much weaker than the rest. Those birds seem to like only the contiguous US 48 __________________ Scanning C Band 135º-43º on 10ft'er & C Band 61º-40º on 7ft'er from Central Mexico

bluzee

Registered:1227721584
Posts: 2,468

Posted 1541205271	Reply with quote #8

It seems low for me as well. I can't pull in PBS c band feed right now and I usually never have a problem with it.

Kermit

Registered:1332532760
Posts: 1,636

Posted 1541205426	Reply with quote #9

I guess I'm with the majority then. For the last few World Series games the Linkbox found the signals on 103w to be too weak. I switched to the Azbox Me & everything was stable to the very final game. The Me was my saviour this fall __________________ Equipped with Azbox Me, 2 X Octagon SX88, Linkbox 9000i, Geosatpro microHD, Synoq SR1, Openbox S9, Monterrey 90, Uniden SQ560 + SQ360, General Instruments X 5 RECEIVERS, Motorola DSR6000 9' solid Dish C/KU, "Muzak" 1.2m Prodelin + legacy Prodelin 1.2 dish.

jimmypop

Registered:1451440784
Posts: 652

Posted 1541208187	Reply with quote #10

Quote: Originally Posted by bluzee It seems low for me as well. I can't pull in PBS c band feed right now and I usually never have a problem with it. I noticed recently that they definitely lowered the power on PBS, I used to get it at 100% on the Openbox Z5, now it hovers around 60% __________________ Scanning C Band 135º-43º on 10ft'er & C Band 61º-40º on 7ft'er from Central Mexico

majortom

Registered:1196641561
Posts: 5,975

Posted 1541209333	Reply with quote #11

only 6 dB on PBS here in WNY. Per sat signature it looks to be around 3 to 4 dB below the strongest Vert TP. __________________ Perfect 10 7.5' mesh Chapparal C/Ku Co-Rotor feed, Norsat 8115 CBAND, Norsat 4106A Ku Thomson Saginaw Actuator, Vbox positioner, Home Brew Polarotor683 Servo circuit. Openbox S9, Prof7500, v4l-updatelee linux drivers installed. DB8E/VHF Yagi rotor FM Bandstop ap-8700 preamp 8way split LG lcd. ricardo's geo-orbit archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20071202191450/http://www.geo-orbit.org:80/sizepgs/tuningp2.html

Kermit

Registered:1332532760
Posts: 1,636

Posted 1541210829	Reply with quote #12

From all of the reports here I'm thinking I better not mess up my good alignment here trying to squeeze out a bit more signal from SES3. Being on the outer edges of the footprint I'm not likely to improve things anyway. I do enjoy the couple of FTA Ion channels which come in fine. This might have been my only sat on which I could have received PBS __________________ Equipped with Azbox Me, 2 X Octagon SX88, Linkbox 9000i, Geosatpro microHD, Synoq SR1, Openbox S9, Monterrey 90, Uniden SQ560 + SQ360, General Instruments X 5 RECEIVERS, Motorola DSR6000 9' solid Dish C/KU, "Muzak" 1.2m Prodelin + legacy Prodelin 1.2 dish.

Kermit

Registered:1332532760
Posts: 1,636

Posted 1541306558	Reply with quote #13

So I'm not sure how to interpret the footprint map of SES 3 C band that I posted. I live roughly where the yellow dot is. Is there an area where a bigger dish would make a difference on weak signals like those that are encountered on this bird? I have about the best C band PLL LNB that money can buy so another shot at fine tuning the dish may be in order when the weather breaks. Attached Images __________________ Equipped with Azbox Me, 2 X Octagon SX88, Linkbox 9000i, Geosatpro microHD, Synoq SR1, Openbox S9, Monterrey 90, Uniden SQ560 + SQ360, General Instruments X 5 RECEIVERS, Motorola DSR6000 9' solid Dish C/KU, "Muzak" 1.2m Prodelin + legacy Prodelin 1.2 dish.

superhero55

Registered:1523914816
Posts: 681

Posted 1541308341	Reply with quote #14

Quote: Originally Posted by Kermit So I'm not sure how to interpret the footprint map of SES 3 C band that I posted. I live roughly where the yellow dot is. Is there an area where a bigger dish would make a difference on weak signals like those that are encountered on this bird? I have about the best C band PLL LNB that money can buy so another shot at fine tuning the dish may be in order when the weather breaks. Use this site: https://satbeams.com/footprints tells you suggested dish size. Most of Canada C band says 6.2 foot dish. So you probably just need some fine tuning....

photoman76

Registered:1211217592
Posts: 11,779

Posted 1541310203	Reply with quote #15

Is SES 3 your southern most satellite? If so, maybe a slight elevation adjustment is needed.

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