C Band Dish Installation Update

[JFOK]

Hi All

One of the suggestions I received last Saturday was from waylew who suggested that I get a cheapo satellite meter and when I find any signal, do a blind scan. I suppose I could also do this with my Pico Peaker. So...if I was searching for say 83W and nothing showed up on my microHD signal meter, but did show on my Pico Peaker, just blind scan anyway as if I found the satellite with my microHD to see where I am ?

John

 

[fred555]

Over the weekend, 83W was hard to spot for me on an ElCheapo meter. I just selected the PCN transponder in the setup menu, loosened the adjustments, moved the dish up and down, moved it slightly to the side, and repeated. Slowly scanning that area of the sky, like a grid pattern search.
Got a blip on the meters on the receiver, then homed in on it.

 

[JFOK]

Hi fred555,

Moving the dish up and down would be kinda hard with a 7.5 footer.
I had several instances earlier this week when I tried for 83W and got nothing on the microHD, but did get a strong signal with the Pico Peaker.

John

 

[. Raine]

Hi All

One of the suggestions I received last Saturday was from waylew who suggested that I get a cheapo satellite meter and when I find any signal, do a blind scan. I suppose I could also do this with my Pico Peaker. So...if I was searching for say 83W and nothing showed up on my microHD signal meter, but did show on my Pico Peaker, just blind scan anyway as if I found the satellite with my microHD to see where I am ?

John

Yeah, the MicroHD will have the transponder entered that your looking for and it's Q meter most likely won't respond to any other one, but the satellite meter will. So if you get a response on the satellite meter, do a blind scan with the Micro and see if any channels come in. If you get any channels, you can check Sathint, etc, to see what sat you're on, if the channels aren't from the sat you're trying to hit.

I wish you were a bit closer to me, John, I'd run over and help you out. I might be able to next month, if you don't get it by then. I have a FS1 meter, inclinometer, etc, everything we'd need, just finding the darn time to spare is the tough part!

 

[JFOK]

.Raine,

Hopefully I will have my dish up and running before then, but I really appreciate your thoughtful offer to come to the Cape.
Would be nice to meet a fellow "Woodstocker."

John

 

[waylew]

Yeah, the MicroHD will have the transponder entered that your looking for and it's Q meter most likely won't respond to any other one, but the satellite meter will. So if you get a response on the satellite meter, do a blind scan with the Micro and see if any channels come in. If you get any channels, you can check Sathint, etc, to see what sat you're on, if the channels aren't from the sat you're trying to hit.

Yep,what he said

 

[JFOK]

Hi All.

Success !!!
I tried what waylew and .Raine suggested and that is just find a strong signal on my old Pico Peaker and see where you're pointed at, by scanning. I went for broke and moved the dish by hand just east of true south. Watching the Pico Peaker I found a strong signal almost immediately and although I had 83W on my screen to scan, I knew it was too far east for that satellite. Well I did I scan and it turns out I was on 55.5W and the signal quality for most transponders was 73-75.
Now hopefully when I hook up my ASC-1 to scan the arc I'll be spot on, but being realistic, I'm not expecting perfection.
Thanks so much to all of you who helped me get this far...I especially appreciate Michael's (K4EST) generosity...so deeply indebted to this man.
I'm sure I'll be back as I fine tune things.

Thanks,

John

 

[KE4EST]

So glad to hear you got it John! !! I knew you would get it with a little persistence.

 

[fred555]

Mark your pole!

 

[FTA4PA]

Congratulations!

 

[waylew]

Sometimes when you're lost in the woods,you just need to find a tree

 

[fred555]

Congrats!!!!

 

[. Raine]

Excellent news!

 

[bpalone]

Congratulations!!!!!!!! You did it and earned it.

Hopefully, everything is close enough so that you can enjoy for a bit.

 

[Babadem]

Job Well done!!!

 

[Cham]

It's a great feeling to pick up your first C-band signal, we've all been there. Glad you got it working! Have you tried any other satellites yet?

 

[JFOK]

Hi Cham,

In addition to 55W I also located 83W. I marked both positions on my dish pole as suggested.
My goal is to now find 78W as that would be the closest satellite to due south for me. I'll then lock the mount on the pool and start looking for more satellites, moving the dish by actuator
Then I'll try to see how close I am to being on the arc.

John

 

[gpflepsen]

Good to hear you have located some signals.

If you're marking your pole and mount, like I suggested in post #104, make sure the dish is pointing at it's apex relative to the mount. Be precise and make sure it's at the apex, because if it isn't, you'll chase true South too.

Get the mount pointed due South and you're about home free.

 

[primestar31]

I've installed more than one c-band system by siting UP the center polar mount, and aiming it for when Polaris (North star) is in the bore site at the proper time of night for the location.

If you do this carefully, you'll be almost dead-on very quickly.

 

[gpflepsen]

I've installed more than one c-band system by siting UP the center polar mount, and aiming it for when Polaris (North star) is in the bore site at the proper time of night for the location.

If you do this carefully, you'll be almost dead-on very quickly.

I never thought if doing that, but it's f'n brilliant!