All,
Driven by a sudden attack of ASAS symptoms, I found myself on the roof on Saturday hunting down fringe satellites! Goal was to track both Eutelsat 7A at 7.0°E (European beam) and the Nilesats (Nilesat 201 at 7.0°W and Eutelsat 7 West A at 7.3°W) on one 120Cm offset dish. I had set this project for December but couldnt wait any more
.. couldnt sleep coz of excitement!
This time, I decided to try my brand-new Satlink WS-6906 satellite meter, brought last week from Dubai by an ASAS forum member
.. Wakilongo to be precise.
After 5 hours of camping on the roof with all sorts of hunting paraphernalia I managed to combine two LNBs on the 120Cm (marketed as 130Cm). Both are single Inverto Ultra Black LNB. See attached photos. The LNB on 7E position brought in 447 channels while that on 7W position managed 502 channels. Decoder used is Strong SRT4922. This is detailed below:
RESULTS FROM 7EAST LNB POSITION
[Check:
Eutelsat 7A at 7.0°E - LyngSat]:
330 Channels (both scrambled and FTA) on 7E Europe Beam; 80 Channels from 7E Africa beam; 110 Zuku Channels from 5E; and 37 FTA Channels from 5E. Signal level and Quality (in brackets respectively) in percentage, and some of the good channels available in English are given below:
10721V27500 (97,64)
. Inspiration TV;
10721H22000 (97,69)
. BBC Persian
10762V29999 (97,64)
. All HD Scrambled;
10804V29899 (97,64)
. BBC Knowledge, E2 movies;
10804H30000 (97,64)
. All HD Scrambled;
10846V30000 (97,63)
. Extreme sports, BBC entert., BBC News, Euronews, MCM-Top, Fashion, Style;
10846H30000 (97,63)
. All HD Scrambled;
10887V30000 (97,63)
. Eurosport;
10887H30000 (97,62)
. Fox Turkiye
10928V30000 (97,62)
. Moviemax;
10928H30000 (97,61)
. World Travel, CNN, France24, Aljazeera English, etc.
11472H30000 (96,57)
. Eurosport2, Disney Junior, MTV Hits, etc.;
11492V30000 (96,56)
. Sundance Channel Europe;
11513H30000 (97,57)
. MTV, E-Entertainment etc.;
11534V30000 (96,57)
. CNBC-Europe, Cartoon Network, Animal Planet;
11554H30000 (96,56)
. Nickledeon, CBS Reality, Duck Tv, Discovery Channel, Discovery Science);
11575V30000 (96,57)
. Bloomberg Europe; Blue Hustler; Playboy
11596H30000 (96,56)
. Eurosport News, Moviemax family, Moviemax festival;
11617V30000 (96,54)
. Nat-Geo, Nat-Geo Wild, History Channel
11637H30000 (96,50)
. Moviemax Stars, MGM Channel Europe, Intimacy
11678H30000 (96,50)
. Fox Turkiye, Eurosport, Moviemax Premier2
TPs from the Africa beam on 7E:
10967H01950 (97,79)
. Record Mozambique;
11110H01600 (97,60)
. Feed;
11192H03210 (97,87)
. MBC1&2 Mauritius;
12521H27500 (97,90)
. 2 FTA (Muvi TV, Africa Unite);
12604H30000 (97,87) .... 37 Azam Mux (NTV, K24, Citizen, Dubai One, etc. FTA);
12645H30000 (97,87) .... 32 Muvi Mux (Africa Unite, Muvi nyimbo, Prism Africa etc. FTA);
12728H30000 (97,87)
. 8 Free2View Mux (TV Zimbo etc. FTA);
TPs from SES5 Africa beam on 5E:
11728H27500 (97,59)
. 20 Zuku Channels
11747V27500 (97,62)
. 20 Zuku Channels;
11785V27500 (97,55)
. 11 FTA Channels;
11804H27500 (97,54)
. 20 Zuku Channels;
11824V27500 (97,61)
20 Zuku; i24 News FTA;
11881H27500 (9759)
. 20 Zuku Channels;
11900V27500 (97,61)
. 10 Zuku Channels;
12015V29950 (97,57)
. 12 FTA (DW Tv, France 24, etc);
12034H27500 (97,57)
. 2 FTA (samanyolu Turkey);
12054V29950 (97,58)
. 10 Channels (New Horn TV, CCTV4, CCTV9 etc.);
RESULTS FROM 7WEST LNB POSITION
[Check:
Eutelsat 7 West A at 7.3°W - LyngSat]:
On this position, 502 Channels are available on 32 TPs, and all have Signal strength of 96-97% and stable Quality of 59-63%. Al least 8 movie channels are available and stable, namely Fox, Fox Movies, Top Movies, MBC2, MBC3, MBC Action, MBC Max, MBC4, Majestic Movies. The TPs are:
10719V22000; 10757V27500; 10795V27500; 10834V27500; 10872V27500; 10921V27500; 11227V27500; 11315V27500; 11353V27500; 11391V27500; 11430V27500; 12169V27500; 12245V27500; 12322V27500; 12361V27500; 10727H30000; 10776H27500; 10815H27500; 10853H27500; 10891H27500; 10930H27500; 11219H27500; 11257H27500; 11296H27500; 11334H27500; 11487H27500; 11526H27500; 11564H27500; 11603H27500; 11641H27500; 11679H27500; 12418H27500.
All Nilesat201 TPs are not receivable in this setup. No Problem since CNN, BBC, France24, EuroNews, Aljazeera, CCTV Mux, Bloomberg, Dubai One etc. are available on the 7E LNB. However, this setup will let down JSC-Sports lovers! Those TPs will not come up; maybe only the HD1-6 on 12476V27500.
TRACKING PROCEDURE:
First track Fox movies (11296H27500) on Eutelsat 7 West A at 7.3°W. Quality of 70% on SRT4922;
Next, insert and saveTP for MBC1&2 (Mauritius (11192H3210) on 7East.
Lift dish abit and maximize reception on the above TP (11192H3210) on 7East.
Insert and save BBC Persian (10721H22000) on 7East, European Beam.
If using SRT4922, maximize it to Signal 97% and Quality 69% and above; then all the other TPs on the European Beam will pop up with quality of 60% and above.
If using Satlink WS-6906, ensure it reads Quality of 35% and above.
COMBINING THE TWO LNB:
LNB for 7E is placed at the original LNB arm of the dish, while that of the 7W is suspended above it as seen in photo. Distance between the two LNB should be approximately 24.5Cm for good results.
Since the extra arm for 7W is not stable under strong wind, visit a metal fabricator to make a special type similar to the one made by Freddygaz; I call it Freddygaz Innovative Robotic LNB Arm.
Given that the two LNBs and the holders exert some weight pressure on the dish, add an extra 57Cm long steel supporting between bottom of dish and mast. It also acts as a wind break.
Any TP above that registers signal quality of less than 60% is slightly unstable. I plan to experiment with other LNBs such as Stargold and Starlife in next 1 week. Once all TPs hit quality of 60% then all channels in both LNBs should be very stable, even in cloudy weather.
SATLINK WS-6906 METER:
This is a very useful gadget. I charged it for 5 hours the night before, and used it on Saturday for 5 hours (continuously) plus Sunday for another 2 hours without recharging! Its LCD screen has very sharp images. It has a tiny speaker projecting sound at the back; supports DiSEqC switch 1.0 and blind / auto scan; has fully fledged DVB-S, MPEG2 decoder capabilities. It costs around USD80 100 out there (China). It comes with an AV cable, car charger, USB-software upgrade cable and a small carry-case with a strap to enable you to hang it around your neck or somewhere else as you hunt for Satellites.
Once I fabricate a robotic LNB Arm plus experiment with other LNBs, I will report back the adventure. Pardon FTA-Nash for a very long story.
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