Help - any tips for aiming (skew) Shaw Direct dish in Northern New England

[lhousesoccer]

Hi - so I live just over the border in VT, about 2 hrs south of the QC-VT border. I should be far enough north to tune in the 3 Shaw Direct satellites without any problem, I'm HOPING!! Much of southwestern Ontario is further south latitudinally than I am.

For equipment, I have an ARRIS HDDSR600 and for the antenna I have a Shaw Direct 60cm Elliptical Antenna with the XKU 4 port LNB.

So, when I used a couple of the online tools for calculating azimuth, elevation and skew based on my GPS location, I get a skew of +30.5 for the Anik F1 (107) satellite and a skew of +32.8 for the Anik F2 (111) satellite.

Problem is, the scale on the clamp mount assembly for selecting the SKEW goes from 40° to 140°. This is the first dish I've ever aimed, so maybe it's a dumb question, but how do I get a skew of 30° to 32° if my scale doesn't start until 40°?

It's "+" 32°, which according to the online tool means I rotate the dish to the right when standing behind it. Is the +32 referring to the base of 90? In other words, so I "skew" it 32° to the right from 90°? Meaning the skew alignment mark would be pointing to 58°?

Also, just out of curiousity, from what I read, Shaw has 3 satellites in orbit now. In the Shaw Satellite Self-Installation Manual I downloaded from their website, it says I should set azimuth, elevation and skew for Satellite "B", which I understand is 111. How does it pick up all 3 satellites? From what I understand, most of the HD programming is on the 3rd satellite.

Thanks for any tips and help!

 

[Frenchophile]

you will be able to receive all three satellites; your dish picks up all three because it is elliptical, and the LNB has a switch integrated into it, allowing the receiver to switch between the three satellites.

As far as aiming the dish, your initial focus should be on the azimuth and elevation, skew should be done last, to fine tune. and you will skew it 32 degrees clockwise (from behind) by 32 degrees, but seriously, do that last.

none of your questions are dumb! good luck

 

[catamount]

skew would be 90 +32 =122

 

[lhousesoccer]

Thank you for the input! I'll be back on the roof tomorrow seeing if I can get this baby lined up! Had to drop a couple tall trees on the edge of the woods first.

 

[lhousesoccer]

Still having trouble. I swapped out the old coax cable (25 years old) and ran 50-ft of new RG-6. The square in front of the signal metre is now green (yeah!), but I'm getting 0% signal strength. I've lined up the satellite at the compass heading and elevation required based on a couple online sat finders for my position. I've moved it incrementally back and forth. I had one moment where the signal metre filled green and jumped up to nearly 100% but that last about 1 second then back down to zero. So, I'm wondering if I have a bad XKu Quad LNB. Is that possible? One thing I failed to mention before is that the LNB actually fell off the antenna arm (screw wasn't tight) and slid down the roof and landing on the lawn. About a 15 foot fall from the edge of the roof to the ground. Could this have broken it completely? Also, should it matter what connection port I screw the RG-6 coax into on the LNB.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Mr Tony]

One thing I failed to mention before is that the LNB actually fell off the antenna arm (screw wasn't tight) and slid down the roof and landing on the lawn. About a 15 foot fall from the edge of the roof to the ground

Doubt it did any damage. I dropped my old Shaw LNB 2 stories a few times (dont ask.....) and it survived 5 years with no issues :
(the dish got destroyed when in storage...again another long story)

 

[lhousesoccer]

I'm kind of at a loss then. Just two hours south of the Quebec border in Vermont, I shouldn't have any trouble picking up 111.1. Would a satellite signal finder help? Like the SF-100? https://secure.shawdirect.ca/english/customercare/techcentral/hardware.asp?page=accessories&sub=10