Lining up a Sadoun SD180PM

[Blindowl1234]

I've got basically the same setup as i believe Wr Davis and others have recently installed. SD 180PM. Ok not sure why I'm having so much trouble getting this sucker on the arc? My location is 39.22 and 84.1.....zip 45122. I've went to several places and see different settings for elevation etc...I tried several times yesterday to get this sucker on the arc and no luck. My true south is 84West sat so I'm shooting for 87W as its the closest. If I screw around with the elevation etc I can get 87W but I'm not on the arc since no other sats come in at all. After all I've done with the fixed KU dishes and a Ku with a SG2100 this thing has me stumped. I must not have the correct settings. Yes everything else is right...pole is plumb etc....24" acuator is moving east to west...Gbox is working.....After a year at this wonderful time consuming hobby lol I feel like I'm back to the first day all over again..... any clues to the correct settings? The inclinometer was on the ring mount bracket to set the declination at about 44.9. The elevation setting was set at 51 with the inclinometer on the polar mount bracket. Thanks Blind

 

[wrdavis]

You are just over a degree north of my latitude, so your south satellite numbers should be very near mine, and they are.

My experience with the dish had signals from adjacent birds overlapping each other, so I'd think anything within a degree should at least get a signal, even if not at the peak value.

Do you have the transponder numbers & polarity set in correctly for the next birds in the belt?

 

[Blindowl1234]

Wr Davis, Yeah everything else is set correctly I believe. The dish is actually the six foot Fortec dish and I used the SD180PM hardware to mount to the Fortec dish. The old dish wasn't motorized. I had to manually move it but I had everything from 72W to 133W. I'm going to re-check the settings again tonight. I'm thinking part of my problem was that the dish needs to go a little farther east on the pole. I know where 87W is for sure. I'm going to manually move the dish closer to where I think 84W should be. I'm guessing less than 1"....So I guess the settings I posted sounded correct. Oh well thanks for the info...another busy weekend ahead. Blind

 

[guapoharry]

Not sure if this will help. But I really like this post to consider when the topic of lining up a BUD or DisEqC 1.2 (nonUSALS) motorized dish comes up.

If you are like me and have mostly done USALS motor set ups, that makes it too easy. - Get your rough True South lined up and then use the receiver to steer the dish from the reference point to where the closest TS satellite should be. Start lining up on the center of the TS bird there and you are pretty close to begin with.

But back to Anik's post... this is essentially the method I heard Mike Kohl describe on the Sat Talk radio program on 97ºW. If you want to talk to someone about this subject live on Friday nights, you have an opportunity to do so...

He made it sound so easy. It seems clear he has done this many times and is good at it...

EDIT: Found it! You can go here and download the mp3 for July 10 2009. In that recording there is a place where Mike Kohl tells Satellite Guys' Scott Greczkowski some tips about setting up a C-band dish. It starts at about 26:00

There 's a little difference in how Mike explains it, but that adds some understanding to the process...

 

[Corrado]

Blind, can we see some pics of the back of the dish and mount? I would like to see what's going on back there.

What about the skew settings on the LNBF. Is the feed focused perfectly? Perhaps it's off slightly. If it has Ku perhaps you could try AMC 9 for true south.

Maybe we're missing something and the pics would help. I find my 180 with the ground mount super easy to ghetto point due to the overlapping signal from 2 sats at once. I can always figure out what I'm near.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Well, Thanks to all for their help. Well I wasn't close to my true south as I thought! After a phone call to a veteran satellite guy I had some success. I've got 87W to 101W...Nothing past there.....more tweaking I know. I'll try and get pics today and post tomorrow. I must say I'm getting pretty good at making things look neat....no duct tape on this one lol.....Blind