Hi guys,<br /><br />I really appreciate your help and advice as I'm still a newbie in this area.<br /><br />I have an ex-TARBS MDS 3100 decoder box with the original smart card I got from TARBS.<br /><br />Before I went and got someone to realign my dish to Optus B3, I wanted to prove that the decoder box would work to pick up other FTA channels. So, I figured since my dish is aligned with RAS8 (from the days of TARBS) I went to lyngsat and got a list of FTA channels on PAS8.<br /><br />I went to the transponder settings and changed the frequency and S/R. I left the FEC on "Auto Detect" cos I didn't know how to change it. When I pressed "Exit", my decoder box displayed a message saying "Loading NIT Table" or something like that. Then nothing happened! Every few seconds, the "Lock" light went on and then off again.<br /><br />For example, I tried to pick up BBC World. On lyngsat, BBC World is listed under frequency 3940 H. The provider is California Bouquet and the S/R is 27690 - 7/8.<br /><br />I also tried CCTV on 3829 H and S/R 13240 - 3/4. As I said nothing happened! I tried turning the decoder box off and on but didn't make a difference. I tried the "Map channels" option and the one below it (I think it's called "Force Loading" or something like that) but that didn't help either. Finally I tried pressing the reset button at the back of the decoder box, but that reset the frequencies to the old TARBS ones!<br /><br />During my experimentation, I checked the signal meters. I had 60.0 for the signal and 0 for the quality!<br /><br />This is the story of my little experimentation last night.<br /><br />Now, my questions are:<br /><br />1. After I enter the frequency and S/R (that I obtained from lyngsat) how do I get the decoder box to scan for available channels?<br /><br />2. On the Transponder Settings screen, there's an option called "22K Tone" and it is set to OFF. What is this? Do I need to change it for what I'm trying to do?<br /><br />3. How do I set the FEC to something like 7/8?<br /><br /><br />As I said above, I'm only trying to prove that my MDS 3100 will work for FTA channels before I reposition my dish to Optus B3. I'm assuming that it's currently aligned with PAS8 as no one touched it since TARBS went off air.<br /><br />Thanks in advance for you assisstance.

for one your entering c-band frequencies which wont work on a ku-band dish <br /><br />c-band freq's have 4 digits eg. 3659<br />ku-band freq's have 5 digits eg. 12563<br /><br />some boxes will work on the UBI channels on B3 some wont UBI have locked out some of the boxes you can only try if you want <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" /> <br /><br />but UBI will be starting very soon so maybe you should wait til they start selling subs? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" />

Aha. I see. Now, that makes sense.<br /><br />Ok. Let's say that use a ku band frequency. Do I need to do anything else after I enter the frequency and S/R in order to get the MDS box to scan for channels?

yeh thats all when ur dish is pointed to b3 just enter freq's details and see if you can get the UBI channels there are also FTA globecast channels aswell on there that might be of some interest to you <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" />

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by pkid:<br /><strong> Aha. I see. Now, that makes sense.<br /><br />Ok. Let's say that use a ku band frequency. Do I need to do anything else after I enter the frequency and S/R in order to get the MDS box to scan for channels? </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">you also have to set the pol such as vertical or horizontal which on b3 for the UBI channels is horizontal <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" />

and if you read around the forum threads you will find lots more information cause this has been discussed ALOT OF TIMES!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" />

Yes TARBS/UBI box only for OPTUS B3.