How Do You Fine Tune Dish & Motor For Sat Channels?

[jsattv]

Finally got the HH120 Motor and the ViewSat to work, but cannot fine tune enough to get any channels at all on Intelsat 5 97.0W which is my South Satellite for Winnipeg. The Fortec Star 1 meter dish is set exactly for Dish Elevation of 23 degrees (22.7 is the required setting). The Latitude setting on the HH120 Motor is set exactly for 49.9 as per Stab Web site.

Took a small TV and ViewSat Rx on roof today and tried to fine tune for IA5, with no luck. Then I ran Invacom "L" Port directly to LNB In on Motor, and ran Receiver Out of Motor to ViewSat. Did notice that signal Tp levels from the motor up on roof were much higher around 55 to 60, compared to 30 to 40 in house. Moved dish and motor together to try and peak the dish, but after 1.5 hours and frozen fingers, gave up. I can see some high Tp values of "S" and "Q" for 12115 & 12122also 12090, but they are really erratic. Also even when I took OFF the Coax to Viewsat I still saw some high S and Q levels on Tp's 12115 & 12122, how is that even possible?

The Stab HH120 motor works fine, settings for motor Longitude and Lattitude are correct in USALS in the ViewSat. Back in the house, just for an experiment I manually selected sat 61.5 in USALS and went outside & saw the motor drive way over to the left, but again no satellite channels. Can anyone suggest how to fine tune this dish and motor combination to get sat channels on IA5 97.0W? I've read in the Stab Manual that once I have this South Satellite setup all the rest will be easy?

These were my Antenna Settings for ViewSat up on the Roof:
Satellite: Intelsat 5 97.0W
LNB Power: On
LNB Type: Standard
LNB Freq: 10750
22kHz: Off
Search Option: All
DisEqc: None
Motor: USALS
Legacy Sw: None

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[jerryt]

Finally got the HH120 Motor and the ViewSat to work, but cannot fine tune enough to get any channels at all on Intelsat 5 97.0W which is my South Satellite for Winnipeg. The Fortec Star 1 meter dish is set exactly for Dish Elevation of 23 degrees (22.7 is the required setting). The Latitude setting on the HH120 Motor is set exactly for 49.9 as per Stab Web site.

Took a small TV and ViewSat Rx on roof today and tried to fine tune for IA5, with no luck. Then I ran Invacom "L" Port directly to LNB In on Motor, and ran Receiver Out of Motor to ViewSat. Did notice that signal Tp levels from the motor up on roof were much higher around 55 to 60, compared to 30 to 40 in house. Moved dish and motor together to try and peak the dish, but after 1.5 hours and frozen fingers, gave up. I can see some high Tp values of "S" and "Q" for 12115 & 12122also 12090, but they are really erratic. Also even when I took OFF the Coax to Viewsat I still saw some high S and Q levels on Tp's 12115 & 12122, how is that even possible?

The Stab HH120 motor works fine, settings for motor Longitude and Lattitude are correct in USALS in the ViewSat. Back in the house, just for an experiment I manually selected sat 61.5 in USALS and went outside & saw the motor drive way over to the left, but again no satellite channels. Can anyone suggest how to fine tune this dish and motor combination to get sat channels on IA5 97.0W? I've read in the Stab Manual that once I have this South Satellite setup all the rest will be easy?

These were my Antenna Settings for ViewSat up on the Roof:
Satellite: Intelsat 5 97.0W
LNB Power: On
LNB Type: Standard
LNB Freq: 10750
22kHz: Off
Search Option: All
DisEqc: None
Motor: USALS
Legacy Sw: None

Any help would be very much appreciated.

You need two things;
A positively identified satellite and Verification that Dish is on the arc.

Start by verifing that the dish is following the arc correctly. With a cheap signal meter on either L or C ports of QPH-031, manually motor the dish through the arc and note that it keeps hitting different satellites through the arc. Adjust as need to properly track the arc.

My guess is you are not set on our Most South satellite.

 

[mrweather]

What you're describing suggests the initial setup was not quite optimum.

What is your true south satellite?

Is your mounting pole/mast perfectly plumb?

Is the dish sitting properly on the motor, i.e. with the motor at TS (0 degrees) the dish is aligned so that the dish arm and motor case are in a straight line?

In the TS position is your LNB sitting vertically, i.e. zero skew?

Is everything tightened down?

My true south is AMC-5 and once I had it zeroed in (fine-tuned using a weak TP) the motor tracked the arc just fine, even out at the extremes. BUT... I spent a lot of time making sure my mast was perfectly plumb and the dish was initially aimed as best I could.

Something to keep in mind... When you're adjusting elevation do NOT move the motor. Only adjust the dish. I found the elevation marks on my 90cm Fortec were off by quite a bit so I don't put a whole lot of faith in them.

Also, when adjusting for azimuth do NOT move the dish but move the whole motor+dish contraption.

 

[mastermesh]

You need two things;
A positively identified satellite and Verification that Dish is on the arc.

you also need a live tp that has 24/7 signals on it as that'll give you a better chance of actually finding signal and tweaking. Also need to make sure the pole is absolutely plumb, and once you do find true south and all you'll probably need to tweak on some of the far west and east birds a tad to make sure you are tracking arc as well as possible.