First Bud 10 foot aluminum

[Lone Cloud]

It looks like the declination adjustment is done approximately at first by choosing one of the three holes on the top of the mount where it connects. Right now it's in the middle hole.

I'm betting those are separated by whole degrees like 2 or three.

Once you determine what the declination is supposed to be for your latitude, and you determine how many degrees of declination each of the three holes represents ( I wonder if it was stamped on there originally) then I would compute washer thickness this way -

Distance between top hole and bottom hole where it connects to the actual dish

"D" times 2 (2D) times Pi (3.1415) divided by 360 = how thick a shim has to be to equal 1 degree of declination.

You can nail the declination exactly that way in my opinion.

That said, I never used a shim on my Birdview and it's set for 5 degrees. My declination is a quarter of a degree less and I get every satellite from 55.5 w to 148 if I wanted it.

 

[Anole]

The entire range of latitudes for the lower 48 US states is from 25° to about 50°.
So, the entire range of declinations, falls in the range of 4° to 7°.

 

[r424chevy482]

ya

 

[jamie1969]

site survey

Did site survey today trying to find best spot for dish. My little 30in motorized dish gets mostly everything from Amazonas 61.0 w to G27 129.0 w… but my c band dish is going to have a harder time getting the view my little dish has so I spent my time today trying to find the best spot.
Using This Link to find my [FONT=&quot]Elevation and Azimuth for the Sats I’m trying to hit.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And old military compass to site Azimuth and a homemade inclinometer using [/FONT]thisBUDsforyou plans.
[FONT=&quot]http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...a-straw-inclinometer-line-sight-pictures.html [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Can't just yank this big dish up and move the a few feet like the smaller dish so taking my time with my site survey.[/FONT]


Thank for all the feedback on everything guys. This big dish project is about to drive my wife mad...she is a clean freak...and I'm a mud magnet as he says

 

[Cadsulfide]

Glad to hear you're spending time up front planning. It will pay huge dividends down the line, Good Job!

 

[Lone Cloud]

You are very right to think location completely through.

I actually have both of mine - 8.5 ft Birdview, 1 meter Winegard- over my roof . They are in the same general vicinity of the roof, since that is, on my entire property, the only place I can see enough of the arc..

The masts go through the eaves, which made it easier to plumb them ( Hole in the eaves oversized, wooden wedges , fill it with concrete)

I'm sure you are thinking of it, but consider the future growth of trees in your site analysis.

 

[jamie1969]

A success story

A success story
Well a week long journey comes to an end. Post was set last night and this afternoon a buddy came over and we installed the mount and dish and pointed south (89.0w my south sat) and hooked up the wires and signal meter and looked for my first signal.
It took some time to get g28 locked in but after that tightened down post bolts and then hit g17 then went crazy and went way west (using 12v deep cycle battery) and stopped on strong signal came inside and did a blind scan to see what sat I was on.
I was hitting g23 121.0w (love that sportsman channel) so I would say the declination is right on so I’m good to go. Will check other sate tonight but I’m a happy camper right now. So far all sates scanned in everything. Looked on lyngsat to make sure I was hitting all transponders.
Guys thank you again for all you suggestion and help. This buds for you….
Anyway it has been fun …time to clean up my yard.

 

[Anole]

good job!

I take it your first picture shows your anti-rotation dog-leg?

In the last picture, I don't see the scalar on your LNBF.
You might do even better with it! - :up

 

[Cadsulfide]

Good Job!

I always like to see a freshly planted dish alongside other dishes. Keeps 'em from being lonely.

Looks like you have room for 1 or 3 more.........

 

[jamie1969]

scalar ring

I take it your first picture shows your anti-rotation dog-leg?

In the last picture, I don't see the scalar on your LNBF.
You might do even better with it! - :up

Yes that pipe was from an old steam heating system. It was 3 1/2" pipe and had that little 2" pipe coming out of it. I went back and cut the old 4" post down and it went right over my pipe and I welded it at the height I wanted. Worked good seemed like I could have mounted dish same day it was solid but I let it set over night.

Being new to C band I was not sure about the scalar ring, it came with one. And mine having that button hook arm and nothing attaching to the scalar, I thought that they were for prime focuses dish with arms that needed a Scalar ring to hold feed horn.
Anyway I have hit every C band Sate from 87w to 133w so far. Now some sates are so strong that my cheap meter pegs out with full signal right through weak sates and only way I could tune then was to find a transponder off of lyngsat of a good free dvb channels and add it to my pansat if it was not in list, and use my cell phone and call my house phone and move my dish outside and wait for the signal strength beeps and then I could fine tune with meter. Really need old receiver or gbox. Thought about taking an old receiver apart just to get the 36v power supply out of it and make me a right, left, toggle switch out of it.

Was a bit disappointed to find out that I was not reading Lyngsat right and was trying to tune in some free channels. Not realizing till I looked above and seeing Digicipher2 and not DVB. Just seeing the Free on the channels was misleading me, after reading how they list them as free does not mean my pansat will get them. And I’m not going after a 4DTV DSR922 type receiver that gets Digicipher2. That’s out of my price range. Was really wanting that Black belt TV channel to…lol
Will one of them 4dtv receivers with the dead battery or have lost memory still get the free Digicipher2 channels? See them cheap some times.

 

[Anole]

Geo-Orbit:

Doesn't look like we mentioned this Geo-Orbit site.
It's a must-read for anyone getting started with a BUD.
This particular page linked above, will discuss setting up your feedhorn and scalar.

Or, you can follow these simple steps.
- aim at a signal that's somewhat weak, and doesn't have high powered birds on either side
- move the feedhorn toward and away from the dish, peaking your signal Quality
- slide the scalar ring on flush with the end of the feedhorn (your signal may decrease)
- move the scalar away from the dish in 1/4 inch steps, looking for a Quality increase
- once found, try fine tuning the scalar position.

Alternately, if the feedhorn has F/D markings on it, determine the required F/D for the dish, and set the scalar accordingly.

PS: also, if you would leave the default font,... and size of 2,... it would make for much easier reading by those of us on mid-sized displays.

 

[jamie1969]

I installed the scalar ring and it made the signal stronger but I have not been able to fine tune yet.
My cheap signal meter I have is pegged out on most sates and wife doesn’t want to set and help me....maybe my meter needs replaced. I left it hooked up once and it rained on it and I had to dry it out. The phone to phone thing works but not good enough to fine tone it.
Does anyone else’s cheap meters peg out full signal on c band? It does not do that on my ku on my little dish I can fine tune it easy.

 

[Anole]

If you are talking about a signal meter like this, it has its uses and its limitations.
It's all I ever used when setting up my Dish Network equipment some years ago.
Worked fine.

However, for FTA, it may get you half way there, but then you need to switch to the Quality meter on your receiver for the fine tuning.
You may also experience some signal loss through the meter, so don't leave it in line.
And of course, they're not water proof, so...

If that's a 10' spun aluminum dish, I can only imagine what a nice signal it must deliver.
Do your initial arc-tracking and alignment on C-band, but then switch to Ku for the last word in tweaking.
You must have the LNBF centered perfectly, and aimed at the center of the dish.
Also, users have had a lot of trouble aligning the BSC-621's to Ku after getting them on-bird for C-band.
If you have trouble, we can discuss the matter further.

Last but not least, if you can't get any help, bring the receiver out to the dish so you can see what you are doing in real time.

 

[coolsatbob]

Nice setup , did you weld the 3 1/2 pipe to the tee where your anchor is that's where it might turn. hopefully the threads are rusted together.
maybe scribe some lines on the pipe and cement base , so you could check after some strong wind.