Dish Aiming help

[coldiron]

Hi,
I'm a noob, and I've jumped in with both feet. I am struggling like most noobs here with my dish alignment. Please let me know if I am doing something wrong, or if I just need to be more persistant. I am getting some channels, but I'm not sure I'm on the sat I think I am, and I got lost when adding the motor.

Here is what I have done. I Live in Dayton Ohio, 45459 and have determined that my longitude is 84. With that info, my true south sat should be brasilsat b3. I think I have calculated my az correctly, and allowing for magnetic del., my compass heading for true south should be 184. My elevation should be 44

I attempted to align the dish with the aid of an sf-95 signal finder and ended up on AMC3 which is at 87 instead of my desired 84. Today was real cloudy, so I said close enough and went on to adding my motor.

Although I quickly got a strong sat signal, I did not re-acquire the same satellite and got poor results when scanning for channels. I started getting confused on the elevation settings when attaching the motor. The way I understand it is I set the motor elevation to my latitude of 39, then set the dish at 30deg min 6.1 for my del. angle, which I did After a while I got cold and tired and quit for the day.

I quess I have a few questions. Did I do my math correct for my compass and elevation settings? And after that, is the USUALS settings as easy as it sounds. Basically set my Long & Lat on the receiver for each Sat I care about after I have my True south set? Does it still work that easy if I miss my true south sat by a few deg and program on a sat like amc3?

I know I asked a mouthfull here, but I think this is where I'm goofing up.

Your guys conversations here have got me hooked. I'm ready to be part of the community

Viewsat VS2000 Platinum
Winegard 76cm (31") Dish
SG2100 Rotor
Invacom QPH-031 Quad LNBF
4x1 Diseqc Switch.

 

[PSB]

Hello and WELCOME to the satelliteGuys.US FTA forum.

Brasilsat B3 @ 84w is a C-band satellite. So use an adjacent satellite like AMC-9 or AMC-2/16

Really any satellite will work with USALS to aim your dish. Best to use one close to your true south satellite.

I would remove the motor refind any satellite close to true south, then add the motor. After entering your Lat. and Long. in USALS. Select your satellite and the dish/motor will move slightly, only then try to re-find the satellite by moving the dish and motor as one watching for signal quality and you are done.

 

[Sadoun]

So far it seems you are doing fine. Here is what you should do next

• Move motor to 0 position
• Try to aim motor and dish to True South (for your location it is 186 on the compass)
• Now, use USALS to move the dish to AMC3
• If you don't see signal/quality, try to adjust your true south by moving the motor assembly East/West a few degrees. You do that by standing behind the motor, loosen it off the mast slightly, hold it by both hands, rotate it East/West a few degrees VERY VERY slowly until you see quality. Make sure you are using a good traponder parameters.

More reading here: http://sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/HH-mount-installation.htm

 

[voomvoom]

There are no 24/7 channels with video on AMC2 or AMC9. You could do a scan for a wild feed, but that could be useless if you're not on the sat. However, there are several 24/7 data channels on AMC9. Try entering this: frequency 12060, signal rate 30000 and polarity on Vertical. This won't give you a picture, but it will give a strong signal. You should be able to do this and use Sadoun's advice and find the sat. Then you can do a scan and probably pick up a wild feed. Then you can look for other sat's.

Al

 

[coldiron]

Thanks for the input guys.

So if I get the motor/dish assembly zeroed out and pointed at 186, Use USALS to move to AMC3, adjust East/West little and up and down a little for maximum strength, that should pretty much be it?

Will I have an issue with Sats on different Latitudes, or does the motor deal with that also?

Thanks again

 

[PSB]

As long as your mast was plumb and level all should be good, some satellites may come in better using DiSEqC 1.2 thats to be expected especially at each end of your arc.

Remember the dish elevation can be changed slightly for better quality but the motor elevation should never be moved.

 

[voomvoom]

Thanks for the input guys.

So if I get the motor/dish assembly zeroed out and pointed at 186, Use USALS to move to AMC3, adjust East/West little and up and down a little for maximum strength, that should pretty much be it?

Yes, but you'll need to use transponder frequencies from AMC3 and not the one in my above post. You can find TP frequencies on the lyngsat website.

Will I have an issue with Sats on different Latitudes, or does the motor deal with that also?

Thanks again

The motor should deal with them O.K.

Al