Now assuming you have everything you need, let me talk you through the steps necessary to set up a typical system. For this illustration, let us use nss7 ku band, which is a fairly ubiquitous satellite. Now because I am based in northern Nigeria, I know I don’t need a really big dish so I will opt for a 90cm dish as this should give me enough signal concentration for all practical purposes. So the first thing to do is to chose a part of the exterior of my house which should give me a clear line of site to the satellite. This invariably means the north-eastern aspect of the house. Next I have to ensure there are no trees or other obstacles blocking my line of site.
Now another consideration is whether I am going to do a wall mount or a ground mount. For small dishes like 60 and 90cm, a wall mounted unit is usually the best though it requires more technical know how to accomplish attachment to the wall. With larger dishes such as 1.5 and above, mounting it on the ground remains your surest bet, as this gives you etter options for securing it properly from the wind which is the greatest danger to satellite dishes. Personally, for my setup I would prefer to use a ground mount via a pole, this will allow me to be able to rotate the dish towards the east if I get tired of my present satellite, it is also very good for motorized units. What this entails is driving a pole, (a good stout metal one) into the ground and securing it with concrete. Then it is to this pole I will attach the dish.
Now it’s time to do the actual tracking. This is done outside the house. Use a long extension cable to bring a power point outside and attach your TV and decoder to it and power up. Next, attach the lnb to the dish at the focal point and connected it via a cable to the decoder. Assuming I am using a strong decoder, I will then try tracking the satellite from here. To do this, press the menu button, this will bring up the system menu, shift right under Installation to the fifth option which is ‘m anual scan’. Pressing this will bring up a list of satellites. Scroll laterally to nss7 ku, there is already a list of most of the available frequencies from that particular satellite. The first frequency listed is 10.756, with V polarity and a symbol rate of 27500, written in short hand as 10756v27500. then back to the dish, use the a compass to calculate 22ºw from south, twist your lnb so the point the wire attaches points about 45 º to your right along a vertical axis. Then move the dish up and down slowly and turning it right or left until the two red signal indicators for level and quality turn green. Then try adjusting it by small degrees in all directions until you get the maximum signal levels attainable. Try and aim for a signal level of at least 80% to ensure that every available frequency from that beam will be at their maximum. The frequency used for tracking any satellite is usually that which has the highest signal levels and thus is the easiest to pick up. By adjusting it to the best level you can, you ensure that those frequencies which have a lesser intensity will also be at their peak.
After this go back up one level and you will see the option for blind scan, press this and wait, it will scan for all available transponder frequencies from that particular satellite including those not included in the decoder but are being broadcasted. After this, save and exit. You will see a lot of channels, the ones with the dollar symbols are the encrypted ones, while those without are the fta channels.
Let’s say I wanted to get more than one satellite, I would have used a 1.5 or 1.8m dish as this would give the necessary dish diameter for receiving satellites that are not too far apart. Let’s say I wanted to receive nilesat, and nss7 ku, I would first start by trying to track the nilesat, since it is more distant, it would require the maximum dish diameter possible. So, the steps listed above, but somewhere between the lnb and tne decoder, as close to the dish as possible, put a diseqc switch, then use the same tracking procedure, but you only attach the diseqc after you have finish setting up the lnbs and they are receiving signals. For nilesat, the frequency with the highest signal level is 10.756V27500, so by setting the manual scan frequency on nilesat to that, then use your compass to estimate 7ºw, the lnb skew is similar to that for nss7, then tilt the dish slowly up and down and move it slowly right or left until you can get the maximum frequency possible. Please not that unless the signal level for that particular frequency is at least 75%, you cannot get the other frequencies clearly, so with this in mind, try tweaking with the dish until you can get at least that, then do a blind scan for nilesat.
Next, to track nss7 ku, apart form a new lnb, you would need a connecting rod, this is usually available at all stores that sell things for satellite TV. This provides an extension to the dish, to which you can attach a new lnb. Remove the wire attached to the nilesat lnb and attach it to the one for nss7. Now, because the signals for nss 7 are coming from the right if your back is to dish receiving nilesat, it means they would reflect from the dish left hand side of the dish. Also, the beam is coming from a slightly lower angle than that from nilesat, so it would be reflect to a slightly higher level. So with this in mind, your lnb will be placed slightly towards the southerly part of the dish (i.e to the right hand side of the nilesat lnb if you stand facing the dish). To receive this signal move the lnb slightly outwards in short steps while moving it slowly up and down until you hit the signal, then keep tweaking it until you get the maximum signal level possible.
Next connect the diseqc by attaching short wires from each of the lnbs to the diseqc inputs 1 and 2. then the main cable going to the decoder is attached to the diseqc and it is hidden somewhere at the back of your dish. Next take the decoder to the menu page and under dish setting find nilesat, and set the diseqc switch mode to ‘on’ and below that, select, the diseqc input number for nilesat, the nilesat signal bars should turn green. Do the same for nss7 and you are good to go.[left]
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
