motorized dish installation

[boxget]

Im installing a motorized dish to get 82w to 129w. I can catch all except for 129. If i moved the dish to alligned 129 i loose all others. my true south is 82w. whats wrong

[StanW]

Obviously your dish is not alligned properly - the farther you get away from your true south, which I assume is the sat that you used to set it up, the bigger the loss in signal quality. Recheck your dish, especially paying attention to the mast, make sure that it's plumb. You might also try skewing the lnb or moving it in/out in the lnb holder.

[boxget]

Thx for your help. ill try that

[satchick]

The most important thing when setting up a motor is making sure that the mast is totally plumb. Even one degree out of plumb will cause a loss of signal when moving farther away from True South.

Stan, with a motorized system the LNBF should not be skewed. It should be at 0, as the motor skews the whole dish as it moves.

129 is weak in some areas, especially farther East...

Most receivers and positioners allow you to "bump" the dish East or West one degree at a time. Did you try that? Not all receivers are totally accurate, and you may have to do some fine tuning of each satellite position. You should then be able to save the new position.

[Terryl]

How big is the dish your using???

[boxget]

How big is the dish your using???

Its a 33" dish.

[Costactc]

As mentioned above, your true south sat is the most important. Try concentrating on 129w only and nudging the dish and or skewing your feed till you get optimum signal quality and then go back to your true south sat and see what signal quality your getting. Do not expect, especially with a 33" dish, to achieve maximum signal quality across the arc- just balance it out where all sats are scanned in.

[boxget]

I found out its easier to setup the dish with usuals. but when i do the motor doesnt go to 0 for my true south. it goes to about 10. should i aligned 82w at 10.

[Terryl]

USALS I find is not that accurate in some locations, as you only have one decimal point of accuracy to work with. Example 40.1 by 120.1, when you live at 40.145567 by 120.145678, this error can put you quite a bit off for those satellites at the end of your arc.

This can make for some hair pulling when looking for those hard to find birds, remember your trying to follow an arc in the sky 22,500 miles away that has satellites the size of small school buses in it, if your not true on the arc, and within the receive beamwidth of your LNB and dish you will be missing some.

You say the 82W is your most southern bird, this will be close to the zero point for the middle of your arc, not the beginning of it, 82W will be your reference satellite for the top of your arc, BUT you must start off with the dish and LNB pointing at TRUE South, this is exactly 180 degrees from where the dish is located, and if your using a compass to find South you must take into account the magnetic offset for your location.

180 degrees on the compass is magnetic South not true South, magnetic South can be as much as 16 to 18 degrees to the left or right of true South, so 82W may be a few degrees to the left or right of true South at your location, the arc of satellites is in a geographical orbit centered on the equator not the magnetic poles.

At my location I can use ether 119W or 121W for my reference satellite, as ether one of those satellites is due South from my location, 180 degrees true South is equal to 166.3 degrees magnetic South for me, so you can see that if I used magnetic South to align the dish I would be off by 13.7 degrees and missing some birds..


So as others have pointed out, make absolutely sure your mounting mast is as vertical as possible, this is left to right, and front to back, and does not move when the dish and motor tilt left or right.

Then align the dish, motor (with the motor at it's middle starting point) and LNB to True South first, then do your elevation setting to get 82W dead on in your sights.

You should then be able to pan right to 129W, and you should also be able to pan left to see 61.5W, and as it looks like your on the east coast you should be able to see even further East then the 61.5 satellite.

With a 39" dish and a Invacom LNB you can get every satellite you can see from your location.(except the "C" band birds)