Portal lighting seems to be bugged, I get the "Place a sign etc" message and follow the instructions and the portal does not light. Tried placing the sign on all the lower blocks of the portal, also blocks under each lower block, tried levers, redstone torches, lines of redstone with levers and torches. Tried 3 different levels, Y 147, 63, and 21. Portal is standard size 5x4.
Are you sure that you made it properly? Tutorial. This link should show you how the proper setup is made. Try to make it exactly like that. If you continue to have issues, I can jump on SF2 soon, if you have time.