Then I tried tipping the dish with my hand like Phottoman said (100 times) and the signal got better.
BTW, the new meter, I like it. A LOT.
So I climbed down and went behind the dish and adjusted the tipping bolt up and down until I got the best signal.
I went back up top and made sure the lnb was pointed to the center using the plastic pipe then I adjusted the dish east / west with the remote control and tipped it up and down with the bolt until I got the best signal numbers and best picture I possibly could.
I had decided to not get into this discussion again, but I see you only read PART of what I wrote, so I will try it one more time.
Dee-Ann, at NO TIME did I tell you to change the elevation (declination) on your dish, and your description of changing "the tipping" bolt makes me believe that you really screwed this up big time.
I ~believe~ that by changing the elevation (declination) of this dish, you just threw off the calibration of the arc, but maybe I misread your narrative. I hope THAT is more the case that what I read.
What I told you to do was really such a SIMPLE thing to do.
If by holding the bottom of the dish, and pulling up (slightly) improves your reception, your dish is too far West (or too low), move the dish East by loosening the four bolts holding it to your pole, move the dish East just a small amount, then tighten the four bolts and use the actuator to bring the dish back to the West. Then try the test again, and if necessary, move the dish again. The DISH Dee-Ann, not the tilt (declination) adjustment.
OK, let me try to put it to you another way.
If your dish was stationary, and you were off just a tad, you would probably try tilting it up and down to get a better signal, and once that was done, you may even try tugging slightly on each side of the dish to see if you needed to move it East or West slightly. Once you tighten everything down, you try again to move the dish to see if the signal improves.
OK, same thing here with an actuator (or motor). If the signal improves by holding the dish higher or holding it lower, that means that your original estimate of True South was off, and that is extremely possible, as I mentioned when I was trying to tell you that magnets are not the most accurate tools in any yard. So we compensate.
Once you find as close as you can to your true south with a motor driven or actuator driven dish, you need to know that it is as close to true south as you can make it, so you line up on a satellite and see how close you are. You HAVE to do the small steps in order, like learning to crawl before you try running.
So, let me try using different words on this test I was trying so hard for you to understand. If you can tilt your dish UP and get a better signal, that means your dish is too low, right? Now before you go out and start messing with the dish again, think of the EASIEST way to correct that angle without messing up the entire arc. Let's see, if it's too LOW (West) then let's try loosening slightly the bolts that hold the entire dish and everything connecting to it to the pole, got that? Now move the dish just a smidgen by hand towards the East and tighten everything back up. What you have in effect done is RAISED the dish a hair when it is pointed at your True South.
Now bring the dish back to the satellite by using your actuator/motor and bump it slightly until you are back pointed at your goal. And try the pulling on the bottom again. If pulling on the bottom of your dish improves your signal, then do it all again. If you can get to the point that neither pulling nor pushing the dish improves the signal, you have arrived at the sweet spot, and THEN you can start messing around with other things.
Before you start again spending money that you don't have, and believing that some better more expensive toy will improve your signal, you will STILL have to start at the basic concept of pointing the dish AT THE SATELLITE before any new better more expensive LNB or LNBF will improve your signal. All the meter can do is HELP you aim your dish, NOT make decisions FOR you, do you see that?
I read in your posts that you made something to help improve the aim of your LNB, that's good, but if your dish is pointed to the North instead of the South, would that help you get a better signal on the satellite you are trying to get? No. But if your dish is CLOSE to pointing at your intended satellite, all you have to do is readjust a little bit at a time instead of large movements to get the dish properly aligned with THAT satellite.
IF your LNB is square to the dish, and IF your square to the satellite in your aim, then you will get a better signal to your receiver(s) and PC. But if the dish isn't aimed AT THE SATELLITE, all the pushing and playing and new meters are NOT going to improve your signal.
The fact that you are getting the strongest transponder (NASA HD) tells you that you are VERY CLOSE, but not quite there yet. Use that transponder to aim as close as you can, then go to another weaker transponder and tweak your dish. Once you find that weaker signal (and yes, I am aware that you only have that 6 foot dish, so maybe not ALL the transponders will come in) tweak the dish again. You may only be off on your pole by quarters of an inch, but when you extend that aim out 24 thousand miles, it becomes a BIG miss, and like they say, close one's only count in horseshoes and A-Bombs. If you are off by as little as a half degree AT THE POLE, you may be missing the satellite by much more than you realize.
I didn't multi-quote your posts, but you also asked a question in your last post.
"It makes no sense to me why ~some~ channels come in just fine 24/7 and some channels come and go like hummingbirds in a tornado. ?????????"
If you are close to your intended satellite but not quite ON IT, you also have to take into consideration that the satellite moves around, it moves a LOT in a sort of box up there, and if you are not ON the satellite with your aim, that satellite 'drifts' in and out of your aiming point. The stronger transponders can be seen by your equipment sometimes during part of the "drift,' but if our not dead on with your aim, you'll lose some weaker transponders as the satellite "slides" past your aim.
My advise, is if you changed your declination by changing the "tipping bolt" or what ever you called it, go back and try to get that back where it was, then tweak your dish East or West as needed, THEN try other things that have been mentioned IF NEEDED !!!
Photto
