First try at inverted Ku dish. ? on skew

[delta_charlie]

Hi all, I want to see if I can hit Telstar 12 at 15W. The elevation will be quite low for me so in an effort to get the dish to point low enough I decided to try the inverted trick. It was really very easy to flip the clamp part of the mount over then turn the dish upside down. It looks like it might work. I have LOS just behind the BUD and just over some far away trees. After looking at the setup I can not wrap my brain around the skew. Does it get reversed when the dish is upside down?

I will need almost 60 degrees of skew but will it be clock wise like it would when mounted right side up or will it be counter clock wise?

Guess I can try both?

Should be a fun project for this weekend.

Thanks in advance for any tips on the inverted skew, DC

 

[Anole]

The skew does not change for the dish being inverted.
So, you twist the LNB the same way as if it was not inverted.

edit:
From your picture, I estimate your dish is aimed at about 21° elevation. (with some room for error)
Seems a bit high, but since you didn't list your location, I cannot guess if that is close.

 

[tibeu]

This is exactly how I set up mine to get telstar 12 and it works very well. As Anole mentionned, leave the skew as is. A good strong transponder to aim for is 11963 H SR=14714. I'm in Montreal and it's about 12 degrees over the horizon and the dish looks angled at about 45 degrees. good luck

 

[Sadoun]

Good job on the inverted setup. Usually for low elevation between 10-30 degrees, the stationary dish will need to be inverted. Check the picture of this elevation bracket that accommodates elevation between 10 to 90 degrees.

 

[Anole]

Very cool bracket - :up

And it avoids that awkward moment, trying to figure out how to set the elevation. -

 

[delta_charlie]

The skew does not change for the dish being inverted.
So, you twist the LNB the same way as if it was not inverted.

edit:
From your picture, I estimate your dish is aimed at about 21° elevation. (with some room for error)
Seems a bit high, but since you didn't list your location, I cannot guess if that is close.

Hi Anole and Tibeu, dishpointer says I should be at 12 degrees elevation for Telstar 12 and when I add the 24 degrees offset angle for the Winegard 76 I come up with a dish face angle of 36 degrees. The dish may well be more then that now - I just flipped it over and tightened the mounting bolts so I could leave for work. I will try to aim it Saturday morning.

Tibeu, thanks for the transponder info. I will try that first.

Got to run, DC

 

[delta_charlie]

It works! Found Telstar 12

Hi all, I was up on the roof first thing this morning and found Telstar 12 at 15W.

Almost ran out of room between the dish rim and the roof but it just clears.

Transponder 11963 turned out to be the second strongest with 12178 being the strongest for me in central Florida.

Some of the other transponders may be too weak for the 76 CM dish as I was getting some picture breakup.

Sure turned out to be a fun project trying to lock on to such a far away (and low) bird.

Here are some pictures showing the final setup and locked on the the sat.

Later, DC

 

[Mr Tony]

very cool

 

[mikelib]

Hi all, I was up on the roof first thing this morning and found Telstar 12 at 15W.

Almost ran out of room between the dish rim and the roof but it just clears.

Transponder 11963 turned out to be the second strongest with 12178 being the strongest for me in central Florida.

Some of the other transponders may be too weak for the 76 CM dish as I was getting some picture breakup.

Sure turned out to be a fun project trying to lock on to such a far away (and low) bird.

Here are some pictures showing the final setup and locked on the the sat.

Later, DC

Check the transponder quality when the sun is in back of the dish and you will most likely get different quality readings. Now that you reached 15W you can watch the camel races. Good Job:up

 

[pedrogarcia]

Great Job DC