FTA System Install
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Drumroll please...
...
pause here for 5-10 seconds
...
:sleeo
ok, not too long, wake up!
It's official, I did manage to get it working, on the motor even, last night!
@party :clap
So, count me in as a new FTA hobbyist, amateur for now but I hope to help anyone else interested since you guys have given me so much help. For starters, here's a few mistakes/lessons I learned:
Mark_AR - thanks for pointing out the red line on the dish bracket, I don't know how I missed it (just had figured I had to eyeball the center of the bolt which is not easy)
Iceberg - per your pointer I got into the USALS position settings screens for the satellites, the manual never really comes out and says "press OK on USALS" to get into my lat/long but if I read it close enough it eventually would have dawned on me
PSB - Mark has his dish on the top hole of the motor's pole, and once I realized I need to point via the red line I saw there was enough range of motion, using that hole, for all the declination settings (6.1 in my case) in the motor's manual
I also realized (a) my true south pointing for motor reference position was off quite a bit, don't know how I misread the compass on that one... and (b) the mast was no longer plumb with the weight of the motor and dish (must not have had things tight enough). I corrected (a), to perfectly 185 degrees (per my magnetic deviation, now that I understand it better), and corrected (b), eventually leaving a screwdriver cocked under one side of the mast foot to make it perfectly level. The screwdriver has for the time being been sacrificed to the FTA gods. After the sacrifice (screwdriver in place, mast verified level) I looked at the small TV down below and immediately had a quality reading of about 60% on AMC3! (I had previously motored over there via USALS since nothing was on my true south bird, AMC 9.)
So, without even needing any tweaking I was able to reach 6 of the satellites from SBS6 (74) to G10R (123), the good ones, including those I was afraid would be blocked by trees. A few might still be blocked, but I'm not sure since it was dark outside and I only had a couple hours to play with the receiver. I'll definitely play with it more this evening and tomorrow evening to get a solid feel for what I can and can't get. I'm happy with what I've got so far though.
...
pause here for 5-10 seconds
...
:sleeo
ok, not too long, wake up!
It's official, I did manage to get it working, on the motor even, last night!
@party :clap
So, count me in as a new FTA hobbyist, amateur for now but I hope to help anyone else interested since you guys have given me so much help. For starters, here's a few mistakes/lessons I learned:
Mark_AR - thanks for pointing out the red line on the dish bracket, I don't know how I missed it (just had figured I had to eyeball the center of the bolt which is not easy)
Iceberg - per your pointer I got into the USALS position settings screens for the satellites, the manual never really comes out and says "press OK on USALS" to get into my lat/long but if I read it close enough it eventually would have dawned on me
PSB - Mark has his dish on the top hole of the motor's pole, and once I realized I need to point via the red line I saw there was enough range of motion, using that hole, for all the declination settings (6.1 in my case) in the motor's manual
I also realized (a) my true south pointing for motor reference position was off quite a bit, don't know how I misread the compass on that one... and (b) the mast was no longer plumb with the weight of the motor and dish (must not have had things tight enough). I corrected (a), to perfectly 185 degrees (per my magnetic deviation, now that I understand it better), and corrected (b), eventually leaving a screwdriver cocked under one side of the mast foot to make it perfectly level. The screwdriver has for the time being been sacrificed to the FTA gods. After the sacrifice (screwdriver in place, mast verified level) I looked at the small TV down below and immediately had a quality reading of about 60% on AMC3! (I had previously motored over there via USALS since nothing was on my true south bird, AMC 9.)
So, without even needing any tweaking I was able to reach 6 of the satellites from SBS6 (74) to G10R (123), the good ones, including those I was afraid would be blocked by trees. A few might still be blocked, but I'm not sure since it was dark outside and I only had a couple hours to play with the receiver. I'll definitely play with it more this evening and tomorrow evening to get a solid feel for what I can and can't get. I'm happy with what I've got so far though.
TuxCoder said:
The manual doesn't tell you much, but I know if you select 1.2 or USALS and hit "ok" it throws you into a subscreen
Congrats TUX! I knew you could do it. 
Don't feel bad. I didn't know the RED line was there until I crawled up there the other night to take pics for you. *grin*
It must have been dumb luck that I got mine so close. I will probably climb back up some day and set it a little closer to the right mag. deviation.
Don't feel bad. I didn't know the RED line was there until I crawled up there the other night to take pics for you. *grin*
It must have been dumb luck that I got mine so close. I will probably climb back up some day and set it a little closer to the right mag. deviation.
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