I'm hoping that one of you satellite experts can help this technically challenged old geezer with some good advice.
I travel a lot and bring my Direct TV receiver from home...mainly to watch football in the fall on NFL Sunday Ticket and some movies.
Based on positive reviews here and on other sites, I bought a First Strike FS-1 Satellite Meter to help setup the satellite system quickly and easily. I had the first opportunity to try it out a couple of weeks ago and the results were not good. The instructions that come with the meter leave a lot to be desired, but I found a You Tube video that pretty well explained how to set it up and use the meter.
I entered my latitude and longitude on the meter and found the Direct TV 101 satellite in the database as directed. The meter showed me the correct azimuth and elevation for my location (I checked it on the receiver and it was within a degree.) I'm only using a single LNB dish, because these old eyes really can't tell much of a difference between digital TV and HD.
Anyway, I set the elevation on the dish and aimed it more or less in the right direction using an old compass. Turned the meter on and started turning the dish to get the strongest signal. Nada...zilch...zero. The meter was merrily beeping but the signal strength and quality indicators never budged.
A friend of mine then used his Bird Dog on the dish and the signal came right in immediately. I tightened the dish down, connected the receiver, and had a strong signal and picture on the television. We then went out and disconnected the dish and hooked up the First Strike meter. Again, nothing. No locked indicator and no indication of signal strength or quality.
When I got home the other day I called First Strike Technical Support. Apparently these guys can't speak English very well...he kept using technical jargon that went right over my head.
When he finally realized that he wasn't talking to a satellite installer, he informed me that the parameters on the database were probably out of date and would have to be adjusted and saved manually. I know how to do that from watching the video, but what are the new parameters? He said he didn't have that information handy but to go to Lyngsat.com and they would be there. I thanked him and went to that site...more technical gibberish wayyyy beyond this old geezer! LOL
So what I'm asking you gurus is if anyone knows the correct parameters for me to enter on the meter, could you post them on here? Preferably in English? LOL
The parameters I'm looking for are:
1. Frequency.
2. Symbol Rate.
3. Local Oscillator frequency.
4. LNB polarization.
5. If 22 kHz control should be Off or On.
6. Which transponder to use.
I'm only going to use this for Direct TV on a single LNB dish. It seems that this should be easy, right?
Any help you can give me would be GREATLY appreciated!!
"The only bad thing about being retired is you never get a day off"
My FS-1 is gathering dust in a corner. After a week of frustrating calls to tech support, emails I didn't understand, and website which was NASA gibberish, I gave up. And, the speaker blew out! Here are some more sordid details.
You shouldn't need a meter at all for your setup. Your receiver has (or should have) a beep tone to tell you when it's locked in. Get it close, do some dish sweeping, and listen for tone. After a few tries you'll get real good at it.
HD is harder for several reasons, but the biggie is: The receiver has NO BEEP tone!!! I've been getting close, then making small adjustments and peering thru the RV window to see the meters on the screen. Takes a long time. I'm solving that problem by using a Swift Hitch remote camera.
Thanks 2oldman, and I know what you mean. I thought all this technology was supposed to make our lives easier?
I can set it up using just one of those cheapo signal strength meters and the receiver...it just seemed that this would be even easier. Especially since I got a $100 Amazon gift card for Christmas and the FS-1 was only $149!
Every one who has one (except you and I) swears by these things and I can't believe that they're ALL satellite installers. If somebody answers this post with the correct parameters for the meter, I'm going to give it one more try before I toss it.
On a side note, I received an e-mail today from an online electronics shop advertizing the AIM signal meter, apparently a satellite meter that is designed specifically for Direct TV. Supposed to work for both SD and HD, with everything you need to set up a Direct TV system. Works with SWM too, whatever that is. I don't know about SWMing, but I do know that right now I'm DRWNing in all this gibberish!
I'll let you know what happens if I get a workable answer to this!
I'm sure the AIM would do the job, but for $500 it would have to take itself outside, set everything up, and get me a picture while I was sitting in the recliner with a cold beer!
bigdaddogg1 wrote: I can't hear it from outside the camper!
There are times when I'm in a noisy place (traffic) where I cannot hear it either.
For that, I'll turn on the surround amp and blast it pretty loud. You may want to check out that remote camera I linked in my first post. Slick.
bigdaddogg1 wrote: Works with SWM too, whatever that is. I don't know about SWMing,
I do, I have a SWM lnb. That was another big oops with that FS1 meter - it doesn't work with a swm, which means it doesn't put out enough voltage to run it. There are ways to make it work.. but, after all the other problems, I just gave up.
* This post was
edited 06/01/12 10:50am by 2oldman *
I bought its brother of another name, Orbital Tracker. These meters are all show and won't hunt. The first issue as that the Azimuth setting is indicated in True. You need Magnetic to locate the satellite. The difference between Magnetic and True, Variation, is about 14ยบ on the west coast. Feature is worthless. The second issue is that the built-in factory database does not include any DirecTV birds. You must figure out what to put in the five parameter windows. As I understood it, from the condescending tech support, you must figure out the frequency your LNB uses. They have a chart online that you can use by trial and error. I found mine by setting up the dish with my Accutrac 22 Mk II and then seeing which one worked. Worthless. The left bar always shows signal. Worthless. The right bar is the same thing as a $5 squawker. Functional but not worth a $150. If you use DirecTV SWM, the meter is incompatible with the recommended ASL-1. I was able to get it to work with a DirecTV green label splitter but tech support said it would not work with any SWM equipment. Worthless to me. We tired of each other and they told me to send it back. I did. They kept my money. VISA gives them 60 days to respond to a dispute so I am waiting.
Look's like that makes Three Big No's for these meters. They are NOT going to Vegas.
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