I nailed it today:up but lost most of the signals in the rest of the sats, in order to pick Spainsat 30WI changed the inclination a bit locking the signal at 92 and the Q at 56-62, picked most of the Spanish channels I was looking for including 6 from Cuba, I dont understand whats going on cause the mounting pole is as level as it can be, maybe the dish bracket or moter are off or something.
Valdelocc,
I wish I could send you a file for channel list from 30.0W, but the site won't allow my format. Winrar is not acceptable file type and I don't have winzip anymore. Either Winzip was a temporary perk with my new PC or when I installed Winrar, it un-installed Winzip and now I have buy it again.
If you are interested in the channel list we have for 30.0W Hispasat, you can PM me and I think that then I can send it to your email account. I will leave that up to you.
Otherwise, your situation sounds familiar. You stated that your mast was level, but did you check it in all directions?
Not meaning to discount your accuracy or your thoroughness, but I have known other installers who have checked the mast for level, but only in one direction or the other (N/S or E/W) and that really threw us off. There were also occasions where the dish and motor were installed on a rooftop mast and because of the weather, they just didn't want to risk their necks in the middle of winter to go back up on an icy roof and check it. When spring came, they found that the mast had leaned on them.
I guess I just want to say that you should be absolutely sure of the plumb of your mast. Make sure that it is perfectly level in all directions and that it is also secure so that it won't change on you.
Where I live, we get frequent winds that are 30-50 mph. Once in a while (maybe once a year) we might get some winds up to 70 mph in an oddball storm. A couple years ago, we had 120 - 140 mph straight line winds that did some major damage. It actually blew an entire pontoon boat out of a lake and off its mooring and tossed it up on a neighbors lot on the beachfront. A wind that can do this can wreak havoc on a satellite dish with a large surface area, if it catches it just right.
You cannot do much about winds like that. You are pretty much screwed no matter what and your satellite dish is going to be the least of your concerns. It would be gone. You can always replace that. When your entire roof is gone, you probably won't be sitting in the living room watching the TV.
The next thing is as you stated already, that maybe the motor latitude setting or the azimuth or the dish elevation isn't just perfect.
There are two other things that I would be careful of as I found these to be obstacles for me when installing my first motorized dish. Monitor the squareness of the dish backet where it attaches to the motor tube and also ensure that the vertical plane of the dish is perfectly aligned with the vertical axis of the motor's tube. These might not be huge errors, but they can be sufficient enough to severely affect your tracking of the arc.
If any of my information helps you or any others who might read it later, then I will be pleased. Others were kind enough to help me with some of this information, so it pleases me to pass it on and return the favor, if I can.
Gordy (AcWxRADAR)
