Bad LNB???

[paulnj]

I replaced a three LNB dish today with a Slimline 5 LNB. Accutrac 22 gave me readings of 97 and 95. When connected to the H21 most transponders were at zero. A few with high 90's but not many.

I swapped cables and all sort of other minor changes but still no good. I put the 3 lnb up, reaimed with the Accutrac 22 and it has readings on the H21 of 90-100 across the board.

I figure the lnb is bad. Has anyone seen that before. This one was an Andrew and there are marks on the white plastic looking like it took some good shots in transit.

Very fustrating day for sure.

Paul

[P Smith]

I would try other AU-9 LNBF block.

[litzdog911]

What transponders showed a signal? I'm guessing your new dish is aimed at the wrong satellite. If you're only seeing readings on transponders 28, 30 and 32, then your dish is aimed at 110-deg W instead of 101-deg. Your old 3-LNB dish was aimed at 110-deg W, but the new 5-LNB should be aimed at 101-deg W.

[K4SMX]

I replaced a three LNB dish today with a Slimline 5 LNB. Accutrac 22 gave me readings of 97 and 95. When connected to the H21 most transponders were at zero. A few with high 90's but not many.

I swapped cables and all sort of other minor changes but still no good. I put the 3 lnb up, reaimed with the Accutrac 22 and it has readings on the H21 of 90-100 across the board.

I figure the lnb is bad. Has anyone seen that before. This one was an Andrew and there are marks on the white plastic looking like it took some good shots in transit.

Very fustrating day for sure.

Paul
Before you send that back, it seems odd that you had "a few with high 90's but not many." Did you re-do the satellite setup from the 3 LNB to the 5 LNB? How did you adapt your mast to the 2" required for the 5 LNB dish? Is your mast perfectly plumb?

It's definitely possible to aim your dish with an Accutrac 22 and get all "0's" on 103(c). Maybe you should post your 101/103(c)/110/119 satellite signal strengths in grid fashion.....

[jlancaster]

Yesterday I had a similar situation except it was a 3 lnb...sub had a problem with locals (for us 119) 90 on every other transponder on the 119...hooked up superbuddy to the dish and it showed a (near) perfect 95 on the 119... so I replaced the zinwell multiswitch still same problem. Now its pouring rain so eventhough I had a perfect signal with the meter on the 119 I replaced the lnb...sure enough that fixed it!!

Bottom line replace the lnb and check it again (at the receiver!) Don't trust the meter. It just takes a few minutes but could save the day.

[paulnj]

I scanned the back and forth on the direction and then did the same after changing elevation. Still NG.

I had great signals on the accutrac using the two inputs. Once I put the 3 lnb in the same spot heading, elevation and tilt it was fine.

[RobertE]

You do know that the the elevation, azimuth & tilt settings are different between the 3 LNB and 5 LNB dishes right?

[jlancaster]

Both elevation and tilt are different on 3lnb vs 5lnb....those settings are are specific to the type of dish you are installing.
----edit

Robert beat me to it...and as usual he is right!

[K4SMX]

You do know that the the elevation, azimuth & tilt settings are different between the 3 LNB and 5 LNB dishes right?
Are you thinking he may have lined up on the wrong satellites....?

[RobertE]

Are you thinking he may have lined up on the wrong satellites....?

Yes. AFAIK, the accutrac 22 doesn't tell you which sat your on, just that you are on a sat. If he is using all the settings from the 3 lnb dish, he can easily be centered on the 110 instead of the 101

[paulnj]

I did not use same elevation settings for both dishes, give me a little credit here please :)

I set the 5 lnb up for the azmith, elevation and skew from dishpointer.com. The 3 lnb settings except azmith, were locked down on the old dish.

When, after setting up with accutrack on 110/119 and dithering to obtain peak I had just about nothing on the h21 tranponder list but 97 on 119 and 92 on 110 using the Accutrac. On the H 21 just a couple of weird transponder readings but searching for signal on the start up screen and it failed the internal test.

I then checked on the h21 for the dish pointing specs to confirm the dishpointer.com specs, I re-peaked at the dish and again nothing. I scanned the horizon with the 5 lnb and then made elevation adjustments and rescanned and still nothing except on h21 signal meters.

Put the 3 lnb back up, pointed at the same azmith, since elevation and tilt were locked down on mount and bingo 90-100 on all transponders and again the same great readings on the accutrac.

This is third 5 lnb I've put up and the other two were no problem using the accutrac and the methods described in the instructions and what I'v recapped here.

I appreciate all your help on this!

[jlancaster]

Do you have another lnb to swap?

[K4SMX]

For central NJ, your EL/AZ should be 36.7/230.1 for the 5 LNB dish. This is the same as the 101 satellite. This is the satellite you should be finding. In your post above you keep referring to the 110. That is the satellite you should be finding for the 3 LNB dish.

What does your EL show on the side of your 5 LNB from your last alignment? Is it possible that it shows ~31.5? That is the EL for the 110 satellite. When you have the 5 LNB dish pointed at the 101 satellite, it should appear to be pointed about 10 degrees to the left of where your 3 LNB dish was pointed, looking at objects in the distance.

It doesn't otherwise seem reasonable that your Accutrac22 is showing hot signals from the 5 LNB dish, yet you're not receiving the satellites properly at your receiver. The LNB is obviously working....