Equity 123W on Direcway?

[equant]

Yesterday I pointed my Hughesnet Direcway dish at 123 and was able to get an oscar feed and several other channels, but wasn't able to get Equity or the research channel on it. I had a quality around 62% on my Coolsat 4000, but it wouldn't scan the channels in. If I pushed the dish ever so slightly in any direction the quality would fall below 20%.

So my question is... Is this dish too small for Equity and/or research on 123, or can I rule that out as the problem?

I'm at 85745, which is south-western US.

Thanks.

 

[TRG]

Are you sure you were on 123W?

What transponders were active?

 

[Anole]

Take a look at this thread on using a DirecWay on 123°, and follow the link in my post to the thread by MikeInBaja.
Should give you some encouragement.

Did you have the skew set properly?

 

[equant]

Are you sure you were on 123W?

What transponders were active?

I'm pretty sure it was 123W. I got the Correctional TV channel. I don't remember what else, but the E! Oscar feed was supposed to be on 123W (which I found), and that's why I moved it there in the first place.

 

[equant]

Take a look at this thread on using a DirecWay on 123°, and follow the link in my post to the thread by MikeInBaja.
Should give you some encouragement.

Did you have the skew set properly?

Yeah, I've previously read both of those threads thoroughly. Those are the threads that convinced me to shell out $25 for a direcway dish.

I think the skew is set right. I've used the Satellite AV calculator for compass, elevation and skew, and had good luck with other birds. I've got 129, 101 and 89 using the same setup.

Am I right in saying that skew doesn't seem to be as critical? Anytime I get a satellite lined up, I can move the skew by 5 degrees in either direction (maybe more) with no large change in quality.

My next question is... Is pole plumbness exceptionally critical with a fixed dish? My pole is about 2 degrees off, but it seems like it shouldn't matter if I've taking elevation, skew and compass readings off of the back of the dish right?

 

[Anole]

...I can move the skew by 5 degrees in either direction (maybe more) with no large change in quality.

Is pole plumbness exceptionally critical with a fixed dish?
My pole is about 2 degrees off, but it seems like it shouldn't matter if I've taking elevation, skew and compass readings off of the back of the dish right?

I think twisting an LNB for a few degrees skew change seems harder to do.
Twisting that big dish and reading the skew markings on the back of the mount is way easier.

I've operated on poles 15..20 degrees off plumb, but did my alignment by braille.
Okay, I used The Force. (get a firm picture in your mind of the satellite you want...)
YES, it matters. Off-plumb throws your mount-marks off, too.
But if it's just 2°, you should be able to compensate.
I'd fix the pole. :up But that's just me.

 

[meinename]

On Ku-band skew is very critical for me...

I don't get much forgiveness with skew
+/- 5 degrees of play for weaker transponders
+/- 10 degrees of play for those really strong ones
I do every thing I can to keep within 2 degrees overall but I try to get within 1 degree

It's so tight that I had to get an angle-meter just to get anything not near my True south skews.

When I had to reinstall my BSC621 I ended up installing it by eye one visit and came back another day to find out it was off 20 degrees.
C-band came in okay but Ku was non-existent 'til I adjusted it.

As for plumb posts, with a Fixed dish I can compensate for.
A motor or H-H (I can speak for an H-to-H mount) plumb is critical.

EDIT: Anole made a great point.

Skew the dish to your required amount. Then if needed (when your on your satellite) and if possible fine tune by adjusting the lnb.

You'll get a heck of alot better signal quality skewing your dish, than skewing your lnb and leaving your dish parallel to the ground.

 

[equant]

Ok, thanks for the replies. At least I can now go back out knowing the dish is big enough and try again.

I don't trust the markings on the mount, and have been using a magnetic inclinometer to measure the elevation, but it's hard to measure the skew. I can't find a good way to measure the skew that is perpendicular to the ground in order to give me an accurate reading.

Another thing is that it's a bit hard to figure out what imaginary line I should be using to aim the dish for the compass reading. I'm assuming it's a line perpendicular to the surface of the dish going through it's center, but with the dish skewed, it becomes hard to eyeball and aim at a point on the horizon. So far with my elevation settings being spot on I can swing it around and find the bird, so I guess that's not much of an issue. I'll move forward assuming I haven't gotten the skew right.

Thanks.

 

[turbosat]

You're so close now you can taste it, so work slowly and deliberately. You'll get those other tps in. If you got CEA on 123 with its low SR, you have to be very very close to alignment.

 

[Mr Tony]

Research is very strong so you should have no issues picking it up

 

[equant]

Research is very strong so you should have no issues picking it up

Well I do!

I was able to get it at 62%, but not enough to scan it in. CEA was fine though, coming in at 68%.

As suggested, I'll go give some tender loving to the skew.

 

[WildeComputers]

My next question is... Is pole plumbness exceptionally critical with a fixed dish? My pole is about 2 degrees off, but it seems like it shouldn't matter if I've taking elevation, skew and compass readings off of the back of the dish right?

In my experience with this dish, skew won't be your issue but your pole being off will. I move my DirecWay quite often from satellite to satellite. I've had on G18 where I've had 78% on TP 12103 (12105 on my receiver) but not even get TP 11730 and 33% to 40% on the Equity TPs 11798 & 11718 (11795 & 11715 on my receiver). This usually isn't enough to keep those channels reliably unless the weather is perfect. I usually tweak the dish for these two TPs to improve them to 48% to 53% at the cost of the other TPs...but then I get RSCH & UWTV 48% or better, which stays regardless of the weather.

My pole is actually 1 degree off plum, and it's made a HUGE difference on G18 than it does on G19 or AMC4. I have some markings on my pole and dish for the different satellites, but since my pole is no longer plum, they are not as accurate and the biggest hassle is fine-tuning G18 when I move it back.

 

[Anole]

Another thing is that it's a bit hard to figure out what imaginary line I should be using to aim the dish for the compass reading. I'm assuming it's a line perpendicular to the surface of the dish going through it's center, but with the dish skewed, it becomes hard to eyeball and aim at a point on the horizon.

This is an optical problem I haven't thought about nor faced in quite a few years.
But you bring up a good point:
Aiming a skewed dish is very confusing.

You're too close now to suggest this, but here's what I do:
- set the skew to 90° (0° on DirecWay mount) or whatever straight up is.
- now set the magnetic azimuth
- mark your pole
- dial in the elevation
- dial in the desired skew last
- proceed to hunt your bird, keeping close to the azimuth mark you made.