How to point a Ku-band dish to get Satellite Galaxy 25 signal with Sonic View SV-4000 (last updated on Jan 16, 2008 by an Oregon Center Quanyin Practitioner )

For do it by yourself the whole Very good price Basic Complete system from http://www.wsidigital.com/smtvsat/products.htm , 76 cm dish + Traxis DBS3500 Receiver costs about 170 dollars, or a high end system 100 cm dish + Sonic View SV-4000 Receiver (programmable via USB and Sat & Chanel Meter function included) costs about 350 dollars, that is, no monthly, no yearly whatever fee, it is 100% legal in United State. For more information in detail or where to buy please read FindGalaxy25FAQ.htm pages.

The purpose of this guide is to show you how to get SMTV from Satellite Galaxy 25 (old IntelStar5) in USA with particular Sonic View receiver model SV-4000 ONLY, simply because the writer never had experience with receiver model Traxis DBS3500, if someone has experience with receiver Traxis DBS3500 and want to share then I will be happy to prepare a "how to" guide for receiver Traxis DBS3500 upload it on internet, if your area is clear for 76 cm size dish and you already have some experience with FTA system them the 76 cm dish + Traxis DBS3500 Receiver system will save you some money.

Again this guide is for particular receiver SV-4000 only, the guide relies mainly in Signal (Sat&Chanel) Meter function of SV-4000 to locate the SMTV signal so it is non sense to use this guide with other receiver model. Comparison of two basic and high end systems can be found on Q1& Q2 of the  FindGalaxy25FAQ.htm pages  

If you still have no clue "how to do" after read through this guide or you are so new to satellite stuff then it is advised that you skim through the applicable sections of "SV-4000 Manual" and "SelfInstallGuide.pdf" and  then read this guide again. These docs can be down loaded on Q9 of the  FindGalaxy25FAQ.htm pages.

https://g25smtvfinder.tripod.com/index.htm is the internet address (URL) of this guide. If tripod site busy you can go to URL http://www.geocities.com/g25smtvfinder , they are identical. The writer assume no responsibility for using this guide, use it with your own risk.

Assume that you already have a Ku 39" dish and Receiver SV-4000 + cable accessories ... here we go:

1.0  Finding a Clear Line of Sight to install dish (picture below is just for Portland and Seattle areas)

  1. Go outside and locate at least one site on your property that has a clear view to the satellite. You should be reasonably certain you are pointing toward South East for Portland and Seattle area (others: check your direction (Azimuth) from http://satcalculator.freehostia.com/ )
  2. Imagine an arc ranging from 30 to 45 degree above the horizon (as figure above)
  3. Do you have at least one clear view to the satellite? Remember, no trees, leaves, buildings, or windows can be between the dish and the satellite. If the answer is YES, your site should be suitable for installing the system. Go ahead to the next section in this guide.

2.0 Install dish

Follow instruction goes with your dish, if you use a pole for your dish then hammer the bottom the pole to "un-round" it before you pour concrete on it so it can not rotate around easily after concrete settled, of course the pole should be a good quality one, otherwise the dish will be vibrated  by wind and system will have poor signal, tight the nut just enough so the dish can be adjustable, the dish should point to (Azimuth) about 150 degrees (where magnetic North = 0 deg) and the elevation about 30 degrees (with horizon). The actual Azimuth and Elevation of some USA Centers are

Portland Oregon Center, Magnetic Azimuth: 129 degrees , elevation: 32 degrees

Seattle, WA Center,   Magnetic Azimuth: 130 degrees , elevation: 30 degrees

Hamilton, Ohio Center,  Magnetic Azimuth: 204 degrees , elevation: 42 degrees

Dallas, Texas Center, Magnetic Azimuth: 175 degrees , elevation: 52 degrees

Glendale Arizona, Magnetic Azimuth: 142 degrees , elevation: 48 degrees

New Jersey  Center, Magnetic Azimuth: 226 degrees , elevation: 37 degrees

San Jose Center, Magnetic Azimuth: 128 degrees , elevation: 39 degrees

LA  Center, Magnetic Azimuth: 133 degrees , elevation: 45 degrees

3.0 Set up Dish - Receiver - TV station

Set up a station near the dish so you can see the signal change when rotating the disk . Follow the receiver SV-4000 manual, connect a LINEAR LNB of dish to (IF-in) input of receiver, connect TV to "TV OUT" of receiver, TV should be set at channel 3 . In test phase all connection will go thru straight cables WITHOUT any SWITCHES

3.1 Verify TV connected to Receiver properly

Assume that you've done all above steps, start from all units in OFF condition:

Fig 3.1a Language Screen

3.2 Some thing about installation screen

For practical purpose you do not need to connect receiver to the LNB (dish) to perform this section 3.2, the section 3.2 shows you how to use RCU to get around the INSTALLATION screens, Please take 15 minutes to practice this section 3.2 before perform FIELD work of section 3.3, this 15 minutes studying will save you a lot of sweats in the future:

 

 

3.3  Pointing Dish to Galaxy 25

In this section you DO need to connect receiver to the LNB (dish) and receiver must be in "Signal Finder" screen mode to do the pointing process,  since this is kind of a tedious process, please prepare all necessary tools and equipments must be set up correctly to have a good result

  1. Use Sections 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 as a guide to set up test station near the dish so when you rotate the dish you can see the signal Strength S and Quality Q changed on "Signal Meter" panel as shown on fig 3.2K "Signal Finder" screen.
  2. Assume that you are at Fig 3.2K "Signal Finder" screen during all pointing process.
  3. If your neighbors have Dish NetWork or DirectTV system, you can use their dish as reference for direction (Galaxy 25 orbits at 97 deg, DirectTV orbits at 101 deg)
  4. Do NOT press RCU scan buttons until procedure tell you to do so, please DON'T
  5. For Seattle or Oregon center you try to rotate left/right VERY slowly azimuth around 130 degrees, rotate up/down VERY slowly elevation around 30 degrees such that strength S > 55%, Quality Q => 35% , be patient! all rice and tofu are here ! That all you have to to do, if you got it - you're completed 99% of the job
  6. You should see S before you see Q value, if you see S > 50 but Q = 0 then ... it is normal, even you line up to a wrong satellite you still have a good S value (but NOT Q value), our Galaxy 25 orbit at 97 degree but believe it or not there are 2 satellites nearby at 95 degree, another 2 satellites nearby at 99 degree, thus within +/- 2 degree we have 4 unwanted satellites nearby, keep in mind +/- 2 degree is about big as few hairs! if you have error +/- 10 degree you might line up with another 30 unwanted satellites. So the question "In 30 unwanted satellites, how does I can identify which one is the correct Galaxy 25 one ?" the answer is "That's why you need the Q value for, that why you have to be configured as Fig 3.2K "Signal Finder" during pointing process.
  7. As discuss on step 3.3.6 above, if we do step 3.3.5 slowly and carefully you should get S value easily, if you try very hard but you still get nothing then please check cable line from LNB to receiver, is your LNB is a LINEAR type ? (for Linear LNB you should see its frequency label at 10750 MHz), is your receiver configured as shown on Fig 3.2K "Signal Finder" screen ?
  8. If you start to get S signal that means at least your connections are good, do not worry about Q value for now, try to up/down fine tune to maximize the S signal then lock the ELEVATION nut, since all satellites fly at same altitude so the elevation control make not much difference between them, for 39" dish you can get S value at 100% easily in a clear day.
  9. After having a good S value (say > 60%) now you go to search for Q value by rotating slowly (for machine responds to signal) left/right about 30 degrees, observe the Q value on SignalMeter panel for any spike on Q value, if you get any spike of Q value then stop there and mark on the azimuth and elevation nuts, now you turn left/right VERY slowly to maximize the Q value, you can release the elevation nut and combine left/right and up/down to fine tune Q value again, in good weather you can get Q at about 60% easy, Q value should be greater than 40% for so-called good signal, at Q = 30% system barely works. Conclusion: If you get Q value greater than 40% you've done 99% of this job!
  10. If you get a workable optimum Quality Q value then LOCK and mark the azimuth and elevation nuts, if you can not get a reasonable Q value then please repeat steps 3.3.1 to 3.3.9 of this guide. For very fine tune on the LNB can be found from Q13 of the  FindGalaxy25FAQ.htm pages. Still have trouble? goto WhyItDoesnotWork.htm
  11. At this step we assume that you already have a good Quality Q, press RCU "scan TP" GREEN button to search for available channels, the search result should look like as shown on Fig 3.3A  that scanned TP11716 on Jan 7, 2008. Take a look on the letter "Sup" in the first line of channel 003 on Fig 3.3A, it is a part of the words "Supreme Master TV", we got it!. Use left/right to make sure to select YES (Yellow) then press OK to save the result. After Scan results of  TP11716 was saved as Fig 3.3A, you press EXIT to go back to normal screen for movie, Select YES (Yellow) press OK for setting change as shown on Fig 3.3B. After this you should be in the normal screen
  12. At this step you should be in the normal screen, use RCU channel up down to find the SMTV channel, in my particular case figure 3.3A tell SMTV is channel 003, however, your case the SMTV channel number might be different, (if by mistake you scanned Satellite instead of scanned TP11716 you might end up with hundreds of channels that take you a long time to locate the SMTV). To this point you are successfully completed the job.

 

 

3.4 Few extra thing you might want to know

This section suggests few thing to verify that your work done correctly:

  1. MENU > INSTALLATION, you should see now SMTV is a main player in installation screen as shown in figure 3.4A
  2. MENU > INSTALLATION > ChannelEdit > OK, you should see all channels you just scanned TP11716 display as shown in figure 3.4B
  3. go to http://www.lyngsat.com/galaxy25.html  you should see all channels listed for TP 11716 as shown in figure 3.4C, compare fig 3.4B and fig 3.4C to have a rough idea about "our" transponder. In the future if you have a trouble about transponder information then the  http://www.lyngsat.com/galaxy25.html site is the site you should look at first.
  4. You can get few more percents on Q value by doing a very fine tune on the LNB, this procedure can be found from Q13 of the  FindGalaxy25FAQ.htm pages.
  5. I will leave misc issues as running cable thru the wall of your house, thru the switches etc for yourself.
  6. If you try to run signal thru switches then please read Q17 of the  FindGalaxy25FAQ.htm pages first.

3.5 What if I tried hard but it simply does not work ?

You see this guide give you many real screen copies from real work, if you do it correctly it should work, however, if it does not work you should write down what step # you are, what screen you see so we can help you by phone. If you are in Seattle or Portland areas the writer might come to help you. The writer is about 60 years old, he can help you technically how to point the dish to the right direction, but will not help you physically to set up the system.

Before call for help please read this document and  FindGalaxy25FAQ.htm  carefully first.

Currently writer is happy to train any young brothers/sisters who really want to learn and help, hopefully these young brothers/sisters will help you to set up the system both electronically and physically

 

Thanks

WML, NamMo THVTS

by a practitioner of Oregon Center Jan 16, 2008