Well no easy answers as to how I got it all lined up. On the sats below 123w I neglected to find a live T.P on a few of them. I knew better from all I read, just in a hurry. It pays to buy a decent receiver, that was my biggest issue I think. Make sure your receiver has a built in signal meter that beeps...You'll learn to love that beep. The in line meter may go in the trash now. It beeps at anything and everything! We my first receiver didn't support Usals. I've got everything on the Fortec Dynamic set up using disec 1.0. Some say its harder than Usals.....I was easier for me. I can look out the window and see the dish too which helps. I'm still tweaking things. If I get a strong signal on 123W or 129W and peak it there then 95W and 99w etc...suffers. If I peak it on the 95/99W etc...then 123W etc suffers. Bottom line is for anyone new to this. 1. Hopefully you know something about electronics 2. You tend to be mechanically inclined. 3. Don't start with a motor first. Read everything you can find here about alignment, switches, dishes, when you read it once read it again. 4. Alignment is very critical...a few degrees makes all the difference. 5. Patience helps a lot too. 6. Ask questions!!!!! 7. Get ready for that moment when you can kick back and enjoy the all them FTA channels. Thanks! Blind
Blind,
You nailed it pretty darned good with your 7 bottom line points!
If you want to try a tip, try this...
Once you find your due south satellite and get the dish aligned fairly well for it... move the dish with the motor to the most eastern satellite that you can obain a signal from and adjust the dish elevation to peak the signal, but do not adjust any other parameter.
Next pan the dish to the furthest west satellite and adjust the azimuth to peak the signal, but do not touch any other parameter.
Return to the east-most satellite and readjust the elevation as necessary to peak the signal, then back to the west-most satellite and adjust the azimuth. Keep repeating this process until no further improvements in signal are detected.
Then move the dish to dial in a further east and further west satellite and repeat the process. Eventually you will make your way across the entire horizon and all sats will be perfectly aligned.
Just ensure that you always use satellites which have a standard orbit. You do not want to use any sat that may have an inclined orbit as that will throw your arc off. You can use information provided from Lyngsat to determine which satellites that you should NOT use (inclined orbits).
Also, make sure that you are using only linear satellites to align your arc. Circular satellites do not require precision focus and therefore will not aid you in aligning your dish. An analogy to this is comparing a shotgun blast to a rifle shot. A circular sat will allow for a wide margin of error, like the pattern from a shotgun. You can be off a good deal and still detect a circular signal, but you have to be right on the mark with a linear sat target. That will help you with all other linear targets. Any circular targets will fall into place naturally.
Radar
