Help with Primestar 85E

[Gray1]

Could someone post a picture of the elevation scale and pointer of a Primestar
85E. I tried for two hours to get a signal on this thing. I may have the wrong
bracket for this dish. pointer is missing and elevation just doesnt seem right.

Thanks
Allen

 

[ken2400]

Are you using a signal meter?
The marks are a little off.

Good luck

 

[Gray1]

No just the signal meter on Merc II. I know the marks will be off a little. But I have NO pointer. It is missing. I have done this a few times. But what alarms me
is that the (look angle) of the dish seems to be completely off. I got the dish in pieces, and im not sure if the pieces are correct. Sometimes I wonder why I mess with this stuff .

thanks
allen

 

[turbosat]

I'll try to get you a picture of an 84E tomorrow if it's not raining by the time I get up!! I've got 2 of them , the standard mount/with elevation markings.

 

[Cadsulfide]

You can aim by braille, start low on elevation, pan east/west for signal, nudge elevation up, repeat. Goes pretty fast.

 

[Mr Tony]

here is the one from my 84e...the edge is what you use

Aimed at G10 which is 30 for Minneapolis...looks pretty good

 

[Gray1]

Oh man..No wonder I couldnt get a signal. I was thinking there was a pointer that went straight accross from the bolt like my .75 Channel Master. When I was at 34, I was only at about 25. Which also explains why the elevation looked wrong. Good Grief.

Iceberg.... Thanks for the pics. That explains a lot.

Thanks all
Allen

 

[Mr Tony]

no problem
glad to be of help

 

[turbosat]

THanks for the pics Iceberg, it rained all day on me and I didn't go out in it. Never knew that about the 'edge' either lol, just thought they were waaaaaaaaaay off!

 

[Gray1]

Yeaugh... Its still the dish's fault

 

[Tron]

The mount on my 1 meter Channel Master has a pointer washer under the bolt, so it looks like some mounts use the edge and other mounts use a pointer...

The pointer washer is dead-on accurate, like the edge on Iceberg's mount

 

[Gray1]

As we all know, Iceberg was correct. I hit the satellite in about 10 seconds using the edge of the bracket.

I really like the way the dish turned out. I wish I would have taken a pic before I started on it. It was really a mess. A guy at work had brought this Primestar to throw away in our dumpster. I caught him before he could accomplish that dastardly deed. Signals strengths are a little stronger on this dish that the .75m Channel Master. I would guess its because its a little larger.

I always like to look at other peoples finished products so heres a pic if anyone
is interested.

Thanks to all and especially ACradio for again comming to my rescue with an
LNB.

 

[phlatwound]

That looks very nice!

Nice rescue, there's tens (hundreds?) of thousands of those P* dishes rotting in landfills now.

 

[Mr Tony]

That is one sexy dish

 

[Anole]

That looks very nice!

That is one sexy dish

Yea, no kidding!
You repainted both the dish and the LNB arm/cover! -
And ya did a first rate job, too.
Kudos.
So, please share your paint 'n prep secrets.
I'm sure others would like their dishes looking so nice. - :up

 

[Gray1]

Just take your time. I think thats the most important. I started with "Simple Green". It does a marvelous job getting the crud and mold off the dish. Paint for dish came Home Depot. Dont use cheap paint you will regret it later. You get what you pay for. I matched the paint with a Channel Master dish. Its not Primestar colors, but I dont really care. I used a mini-roller to paint the dish. I've painted several dishes this way, and the mini-rollers work great. The rest is just Krylon flat black from Wal-Mart. Gave the arm and LNB cover a couple of sprays.
Thats all.

 

[Cadsulfide]

It has that sexy, european look.