How Do You Fine Tune For Far East or Far West Satellites?

[jsattv]

I recently removed my Dish and Motor to fix a seized nut on my HH 120 Stab Motor stainless steel U Bolt. Now that I have reassembled everything I am receiving all Midrange and West Satellites okay, but I find when driving over to a Far East Sat: 74.0W for ONN, if I temporarily grasp the Top of the Dish and Push it Down, I can improve Q signal level from 10 to 25% to up as high as 50%!!

I've been reading an excellent 16 page paper from this great site called: "Adjusting the Polar Mount for Prime Focus Antenna" and I believe it says that if you are out on the far East Sats and you push down, then you are instructed to move the East to West travel of the Motor - AWAY from the TOP of the ARC! But this does NOT seem to help much. In fact it seemed to throw off my True South Satellite settings for 97.0W. Does this mean I have to adjust for ELEVATION on the far East Sats?? Or is this excellent Paper only for 10 Foot Dishes C Band Dishes and maybe does not apply for 1 meter Fortec Star Ku Band Dishes??

Also does all of these rearrangements mean I have to rescan in Each and Every Satellite again as stated in the article? Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jerryt]

This should help.

 

[jsattv]

How Do You Fine Tune For Far East or Far West Satellites?

This should help.

Thanks for the info jerryt. So does this mean that I have to delete, then store each Satellite again while going thru this process??

 

[mastermesh]

Have you put a level on your pole lately? Last time I had similar troubles to this, I discovered that gravity had moved the pole down the slope of the house a little bit as the weight of the dish was pushing it down via gravity just a tad... I put some anchor wires up the slope and tied it in to the pole make it all plumb again... a little copper wire coated with a bit of tar never hurt. After doing that and re-adjusting true south, I then re-adjusted for 30w and 148w and tweaked a bit for other satellites in arc... and bingo, I've got the full h to h just fine.

I can usually tell if I'm off the arc if a hand tweak adjustment on either 30w or 148w in elevation brings in the bird and the motor itself won't.

Also, I'm on my second sg2100. I think I got too rough with the first one doing hand tweaks without removing bolts. Be careful not to overtweak... you are dealing with thin metal that can easily break if you push too hard.

 

[jsattv]

Have you put a level on your pole lately? Last time I had similar troubles to this, I discovered that gravity had moved the pole down the slope of the house a little bit as the weight of the dish was pushing it down via gravity just a tad...

Thanks Mastermesh, I took a level up on the roof on Friday and the Dish and Ground Pole Mount (on the roof), are still dead level - measured in 3 directions, the bubble is well between the lines. I did notice that the Cedar Wood cut to the pitch of the roof that I used for the Motor Pole foundation was starting to fade a bit so I have repainted it twice now with brown stain wood preservative.

 

[Tron]

It is worth noting that, not only does the pole have to be within the lines level, but EXACTLY CENTERED between the lines in all directions. When a motor is in the equation, it is imperative that the mount AND motor be exactly level. You'd be surprised how much difference a hair off will make.

 

[jsattv]

How Do You Fine Tune For Far East or Far West Satellites?

It is worth noting that, not only does the pole have to be within the lines level, but EXACTLY CENTERED between the lines in all directions. When a motor is in the equation, it is imperative that the mount AND motor be exactly level. You'd be surprised how much difference a hair off will make.

Thanks for the info Tron. My recent level measurements were done on the Motor Mount, but today I picked up a "Power FIST short LEVEL CROSS CHECK UTILITY" level (about 2 inches by 2 inches), that has 2 bubbles on it for measuring both Vertically and Horizontally, but more importantly it will also allow me to check the Pole by itself, since my other Level was too long for this.