Figuring elevation on an odd setup

[Mr Tony]

Well looks like my one motor died which might be a blessing in disguise (its the 2nd motor setup so its no biggie)

I want to aim that dish at 30W since my motorized can't get that far. The dish hits the braces on the mast around 33 or so and it resets (goes back to true south). Here is the issue
The mast is a 2" diameter (my old Shaw Direct mast) and the dish is the Glorystar model (90cm grey) which is a 1 5/8" bracket. Its squeezed on the motor right now. What I thought of doing is just moving the whole motor/dish assembly to 30W like you'd set it up for true south. But I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the elevation change. Dish is at 23 degrees and motor is at 45 degrees. This gives me a final result (as if it was fixed) at 38 1/2 degrees. True south for me is 93W and elevation is 38.4 or so.

I'm thinking skew the LNB for 30W and lowering the elevation on the motor to 17 latitude. My elevation on 30W is around 10 for a fixed dish. So 38-10 is 28 degrees lower. So 45-28 is 17. Move the motor to 17 then try and lock 30W. I have line of site and did this a couple years go with the old Shaw Direct dish (that got destroyed)

Does this sound right or does someone have a better idea? I know this is going to be a lot of trial and error but just wondered

 

[Apprentice]

You just made my head explode Ice.

 

[Mr Tony]

sorry didnt mean to

basically what I am saying is if the motor is at 45 elevation and the dish is at 23 that gives me a final result of 38 1/2
so if I lower the motor to 17 latitude and keep the dish at 23 elevation that would give me the end result of 10 degrees (I hope)

 

[Anole]

I'd be tempted to lower the motor and/or dish, and check the final elevation with an inclinometer.
At least that way, I'd be sure I didn't calculate wrong.

 

[FaT Air]

If your motor is stuck on South(true) that would work(perfectly). As the bend in the motor tube changes az and el as it rotates. IF your dish is say 24 degree offset, and you need a elevation of 10, the dish face should be -14 from vertical, (Face looking down 14 degrees) This assumes the dish is is in a vertical orientation (unlike mine on 30W). What-ever combination achieves this should ==success.

 

[Apprentice]

Is there a sheet that shows where or how to measure elevation on diferent dishes? That has always drove me nuts that the dish lines say one thing and the inclinometer says something else.

 

[Mr Tony]

well it didnt work

it a combination of a few things (bolts on the dish arm in weird spits, the pole in the way). I got close where the Pansat flickered the 10 then 99 then back to 10. Cant get any lower than that as the dish hits the mast. I thought about putting the dish on top of the pole...but that drew an issue of the elevation wont go down past 25 or so (and the pole is too high...its gotta be 3 feet up from the roof so lots of wind). I know with the Shaw dish I turned the mast around and that was off 90 degrees and the dish was jimmy rigged. Oh well

said screw it and aimed the dish/motor assembly at 97W for now.

 

[greg harris]

Well looks like my one motor died which might be a blessing in disguise (its the 2nd motor setup so its no biggie)

I want to aim that dish at 30W since my motorized can't get that far. The dish hits the braces on the mast around 33 or so and it resets (goes back to true south). Here is the issue
The mast is a 2" diameter (my old Shaw Direct mast) and the dish is the Glorystar model (90cm grey) which is a 1 5/8" bracket. Its squeezed on the motor right now. What I thought of doing is just moving the whole motor/dish assembly to 30W like you'd set it up for true south. But I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the elevation change. Dish is at 23 degrees and motor is at 45 degrees. This gives me a final result (as if it was fixed) at 38 1/2 degrees. True south for me is 93W and elevation is 38.4 or so.

I'm thinking skew the LNB for 30W and lowering the elevation on the motor to 17 latitude. My elevation on 30W is around 10 for a fixed dish. So 38-10 is 28 degrees lower. So 45-28 is 17. Move the motor to 17 then try and lock 30W. I have line of site and did this a couple years go with the old Shaw Direct dish (that got destroyed)

Does this sound right or does someone have a better idea? I know this is going to be a lot of trial and error but just wondered

I do not see anything wrong with your calculations.
You can also put a protractor or other angle measuring device on the back of the dish and use it to accurately set the dish /motor elevation. All you would need to know is the degrees of offset for the dish. I have found a protractor is very accurate for setting dish elevations. You can use the Satellite Antenna Alignment program if you do not know what your degrees of offset for the dish. You can input the height and the width of the dish and the program will calculate the degrees of offset for you. GregH

 

[Mr Tony]

couple other things I found out
the SG2100 only goes to 25 latitude so 17 wasnt even feasible
the dish elevation oculd only get t 20 or so until the arm hit the motor arm

Like I say, I tried but it takes some more rigging for me to get it and thats a maybe. The only way is with the motor/dish assembly together and the mast being turned around at minimum.

I guess 97W would work fine for the news channels and old Doc (and Mrs) Scott

 

[linuxman]

Put the dish on the shaft and raise the elevation on the motor as far out as you can to allow the dish to be away from the motor and all interfering brackets etc, and see if the dish will go down far enough.

 

[FaT Air]

Put the dish on _INVERTED_ Inverted with 25 degree offset would put the dish face at 35 degrees(back/up) from vertical for an elevation of 10. 90-35=55 Rain shouldn't collect in dish, but snow might.
Or sideways (Doesn't collect rain or snow) elevation is what it is(dish face), just the "AIM" is 25 degrees to the side opposite the feed. This is what I did with a CM 1.2 (yeah, I know it's overkill, but that's what I had available.).
I found the spec for a glorystar 90cm offset(current model) is 24.62 degrees. I rounded to 25

 

[phlatwound]

Can you tilt your pole any (enough to make it work)?

 

[Anole]

Yea, I like inverted.
But due to pipe diameters, you still have to keep the motor in the middle.
Sounds good to me. - :up

As for tilted poles, I re-used one I had on my house from retired DishNet 148° service.
It must've been tilted south by 10°..15°.
That was when I did a dedicated dish (upright) for Whitesprings, a few years ago.
What I noticed, was that I ran into the elevation stop, and barely could aim the dish high enough in the sky!
If tilting the inverted dish -down- you don't run into the same problem, ya might be onto something.
AND, don't be shy about using tin snips or a nibbler if you need to work the mount for a little more travel.
Maybe a cut-off disc in a hand grinder, if ya have one. - :up

 

[Apprentice]

I do not see anything wrong with your calculations.
You can also put a protractor or other angle measuring device on the back of the dish and use it to accurately set the dish /motor elevation. All you would need to know is the degrees of offset for the dish. I have found a protractor is very accurate for setting dish elevations. You can use the Satellite Antenna Alignment program if you do not know what your degrees of offset for the dish. You can input the height and the width of the dish and the program will calculate the degrees of offset for you. GregH

So per the above instructions. In the attached picture for the calc. program. The 54.23 degrees would be what the angle finder should say if it is on the back of the dish?


On second thought that does not sound right. 54.23 sould be a bit high would it not? Can someone explain the degress in the top of the capture and how to use them. I hate math lol.

 

[Mr Tony]

I'll work on it another time. After falling off the ladder twice on Saturday while helping my dad re-side a house I'm kinda leery of getting back up high on the ladder. I got the dish on 97W right now and enjoying the news programs on there

 

[FaT Air]

Apprentice, those numbers would work for a dish with an offset of 41.41 degrees.
Vision this, the face of the dish is perfectly vertical. The offset is X degrees above the perpendicular of the face of the dish. It would be looking up 41.41 degrees from the horizon. Therefore, to look at a sat 5..6 degrees above the horizon, the face of the dish would have to be lowered(Face down) (41.41 - 5.6 =) 35.81 from vertical. 90 - 35.81=54.19
BUT: Something's amiss in the calculations. I don't think there's an dish made with that kind of offset. At least not commonly available. I am aware of dishes with offset specs between only 22 and 28 degrees.

 

[Apprentice]

Apprentice, those numbers would work for a dish with an offset of 41.41 degrees.
Vision this, the face of the dish is perfectly vertical. The offset is X degrees above the perpendicular of the face of the dish. It would be looking up 41.41 degrees from the horizon. Therefore, to look at a sat 5..6 degrees above the horizon, the face of the dish would have to be lowered(Face down) (41.41 - 5.6 =) 35.81 from vertical. 90 - 35.81=54.19
BUT: Something's amiss in the calculations. I don't think there's an dish made with that kind of offset. At least not commonly available. I am aware of dishes with offset specs between only 22 and 28 degrees.

I am sure you are right. I have no idea what the size of the dish is. I am at work an was just messing with the program mentioned to see if I undestood it. I will measure the dish when I get home and plug in the right numbers

 

[AcWxRadar]

Well looks like my one motor died which might be a blessing in disguise (its the 2nd motor setup so its no biggie)

I want to aim that dish at 30W since my motorized can't get that far. The dish hits the braces on the mast around 33 or so and it resets (goes back to true south). Here is the issue
The mast is a 2" diameter (my old Shaw Direct mast) and the dish is the Glorystar model (90cm grey) which is a 1 5/8" bracket. Its squeezed on the motor right now. What I thought of doing is just moving the whole motor/dish assembly to 30W like you'd set it up for true south. But I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the elevation change. Dish is at 23 degrees and motor is at 45 degrees. This gives me a final result (as if it was fixed) at 38 1/2 degrees. True south for me is 93W and elevation is 38.4 or so.

I'm thinking skew the LNB for 30W and lowering the elevation on the motor to 17 latitude. My elevation on 30W is around 10 for a fixed dish. So 38-10 is 28 degrees lower. So 45-28 is 17. Move the motor to 17 then try and lock 30W. I have line of site and did this a couple years go with the old Shaw Direct dish (that got destroyed)

Does this sound right or does someone have a better idea? I know this is going to be a lot of trial and error but just wondered

Ice,

Did I read this whole thread correctly? I must have missed something here as I am a bit confused. You say that one of your motorized dishes is "dead" so you want to use that to aim that dish at 30.0°W as a stationary "fixed point" dish? But, you are finding some limitations in the elevation range? Can't you just take the motor completely off and set the dish on the mast and aim it for 30W as a true hard mounted "fixed point" dish? If the motor is dead anyway, why keep it on the mast? Take the motor off and use it for spare parts and set the dish as a single point fixed dish atop the same mast. I apologize if I am misunderstanding what you are doing here, but at first glance it sounds as if the motor is limiting you, so my instinct is "get rid of the motor".

RADAR

 

[rv1pop]

RADAR== ice has a pipe size discrep.

 

[AcWxRadar]

RADAR== ice has a pipe size discrep.

Aha! OK, can we slip a smaller tube (~1 5/8" OD) down inside the 2" mast and drill two or three bolt holes through both tubes to fix it in place? Then attach the dish to that?
I am used to using galvanized water pipe for a mast, so I can buy reducer bushings to adjust my mast diameter up and down in size from 1" to 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" to 2" quite easily.
Using a prefab mast might require a little searching in a metal salvage yard to locate an acceptable size tube to slip inside the existing tube, but I think that this would be fairly easy to locate.

For the prefab dish mount tube (mast) some shim material might be required it to fit it well and make it snug. Some brass shim stock wrapped around the smaller tube will do the trick. The bolts through the two tubes should squeeze the outer tube enough to make up for any additional slop. That will make the center insert tube just as stable and plumb as the original outer mast tube.

RADAR