2500A with Motorized Dish

[joel(PA)]

Hello all...

I just bought this dish/reciever combo and I have a few questions...

How does the motor actually move the satellite, does it move it just horizontally? and if so, then how is it able to pick up everything if its just one diagonal line across the sky? Is there a guide or FAQ somewhere that explains a motorized dish?

I bought the dish mainly to pick up DishNet, but how would i point the dish exactly? I found the settings for altitude, but since the dish moves left and right, would i have to have it pointed perfect? I thought that is what the ability to move the dish was for.

Also, in the pansat, the blind search... does this actually pan the dish back and forth looking for satellites, or is it not anywhere as simple as what I thought it would be.

I have my dish pole mounted, perfectly level. I set the elevation to what the motor calls for. (motor elev. and dish elev.) --- is this all i need, i just need to pan the dish left and right to find the correct satellites? Is there any good resources on the motorized dishes and FTA?

thanks for listening to my ramblings.

 

[PSB]

Hello, and welcome to the SatelliteGuys.US forum, you are right in your assumption that the motor simply moves the dish east and west, combined with the elevation angle on the motor and the elevation/declination set on the dish the dish "should" follow the arc of satellites in the sky (Clarke Belt). The classic way to find the arc is to find out your true south satellite for your location, then taking into account the magnetic deviation in your part of the country point and peak your dish to this True South Satellite. Let us know where you are and we can help you out with some of the angles needed, there is also a FAQ area at the top of the FTA forum you should read through as it will answer a lot of your questions.
I see you said you got the dish for Dishnetwork, there are indeed some FTA channels on Dish network but I must remind you at this point that stealing satellite service is against the law and we do not condone or put up with ANY Hack talk here, I am sure you do not intend to do this but thought I would remind you and anyone else that reads this that hack talk is of course not permitted in this forum, hope you find the forum useful and we are glad to help with your system setup!

 

[joel(PA)]

understood, I am looking to only get FTA channels from Dish. I am located in altoona, PA zip code 16648.

 

[Mr Tony]

Here is what you can get FTA with Dish Network or ExpressVu

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=25452

 

[joel(PA)]

Here is what you can get FTA with Dish Network or ExpressVu

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=25452

sorry, i have a motorized dish, i want to get more than just dish, but i still want to be able to get dish. if you know what i mean.

 

[TuxCoder]

Well that link still applies with a motorized dish, check on LyngSat (http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html) for the other free channels you'll get. Since your setup is a 30" dish with Ku-FSS LNB and Pansat 2500A, that means you'll get the 5-digit transponders that have H or V polarity (not R or L), and that are light yellow and say DVB. For the small handfull of DBS FTA stuff you'll need to add a DBS LNB.

 

[Mr Tony]

check out this post
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=34538

It should help out better

 

[joel(PA)]

i'm not worried about channels, i can worry about that later. I just want to get the actual dish set up to my southern satellite, and get it all set up to hit the clarke belt.

Let me see if i Understand something right... When looking for my southern most satellite, my dish motor should be turned to the far left? or should it be straight? I'm about to call a pro to have this installed, i am so far lost on this. anyone in central PA wanna help me out?

 

[PSB]

The problem is most folks here have the SG2100 motor, but the principle is the same, the dish should be set in the "0" position pointing forward, then you try to find your true south satellite, it will be at the same orbital position as your longitude, stand by and I will give you some angles to get you started...

 

[PSB]

16648 Zip

Lat.= 40.4 deg. N Long.=78 deg.W

True south = 78 degW Nearest Satellite= AMC-5 at 79 deg.W

Distance to satellite = 37970km.

Use Empire Sports to find AMC-5

11808 Freq.
H Pol.
4164 S/R.

The elevation to this satellite is 38 deg.
But that would be without a motor, read the manual that came with the motor for the motor elevation and dish angle and declination.

ON the SG2100 the motor elevation would be....50 deg.
And the dish elevation would be at.................24 deg.

Hope this helps a wee bit!

 

[zaxxon2000]

Joel I live here in SW Pennsylvania . Peter will give you the angles you need to set up the dish. He helped me with mine. Worked perfectly. I use a 2500A and a Winegard 30 inch dish and the 2100 motor. Don't feel it's complicated-it's really easy to do and the 2500 has a lot of cool features. You'll be a pro in no time.

 

[zaxxon2000]

Those angles are almost my settings.Get a compass too. It will help you understand satellite positioning.

 

[PSB]

Well said Zaxxon2000 forgot to add you magnetic deviation would be + 10 deg so on a compass you would be pointing at 190 deg W.

Had almost forgot how to do the above : ) Nearly gave up after all the stick I was getting for trying to help people ; )

 

[joel(PA)]

Thank you PSB for the info. If you could, take a look at this guide. I have my motor center turned to 187 compass south, which is for Harrisburg, PA, the closest city to my location. I also have the motor elevation, and antenna elevation set to these levels.

http://www.pansatusa.com/support/PM900.doc

How do I know how far to turn the motor with the pansat (west) in order to find the AMC-5 satellite? Also, am I correct when I say this... to pick up AMC-5, my motor will be turned almost all the way to the right(west) to pick up AMC? I will take a little tv, and reciever out to the dish tomorrow, and hopefully get the dish set up.

The pansat has the USALS controls, wouldnt it automatically know where to turn to find AMC-5?

 

[PSB]

The motor should not be moved at all to find the true south satellite, simply return the motor to the "0" position and rotate the motor dish and all on the pole by hand until you hit AMC-5 Empire Sports, check the below link for some help setting up the SG2100 motor again the principle should be much the same, the motor and dish should be pointing straight ahead then slowly rotated east and west by hand to hit true south, a compass will save a load of hassle and can be the best $5 you can spend to help with the set up!

http://www.dmsiusa.com/documents/SG2100 easy manual.pdf

 

[joel(PA)]

i used a compass to set the motor to where the manual instructed.

 

[TuxCoder]

The motor should be set so that its 0 degree mark is pointing straight south (true south, accounting for magnetic deviation). Then, since you have the advantage of using USALS, just set up your receiver with your specific latitude and longitude, and just tell the receiver to move to AMC 5. NOTE the motor will not move very much IF at all, since you're telling it to move from 0 degrees to your true south satellite. But this way you keep the motor's reference point pointed directly south for most accurate turning from east to west. If what the motor thinks is south, is actually somewhat east or west, then the further east and west it turns will be less aligned with the arc. Anyways, once the receiver has turned the motor (or it may not move) to AMC 5, then slightly adjust the dish around until you find the satellite and get a good strong quality reading.

 

[joel(PA)]

i give up. Local installer person who knew nothing about KU satellite dishes came, and tried to find ANY satellite with his fancy tool, and still couldnt find anything. He said I have a bad LNB. I am officially ready to sell off my sh*t. what a P.I.T.A.

 

[PSB]

Another sad installer story trying to "wing it"! Its always a good idea to ask if they have ever done a KU install before, not to mention a motorized system, if they use the TV to point the dish show them the door as you can do that yourself, ask what kind of satellite meter they will be using and tell us here BEFORE you hire them, you can be 99% sure its not a bad LNB, I would not give up, go back to just trying to find one satellite without a motor right now, sorry to hear you are still trying : (

 

[joel(PA)]

Wouldnt something have to be wrong with my equipment for the installer to not pick up absolutely anything in the sky?

We moved it around looking for any type of signal, and didnt even get a single beep out of his tester.

I see a lot of people have trouble getting any "quality" with their dish/reciever. I called the company that sold me the dish/motor/reciever, and they said if i get "signal", even though i get no "quality" that the LNB is fine. How true is this?

thanks