Was getting the east/west feeds of RTV on AMC9, 11735H, 4444, 3/4. But three days ago lost the signal. All other sats seem fine. Has RTV dropped the Ku feed, or moved to a different sat?
Lost AMC9-RTV
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Was getting the east/west feeds of RTV on AMC9, 11735H, 4444, 3/4. But three days ago lost the signal. All other sats seem fine. Has RTV dropped the Ku feed, or moved to a different sat?
Hello Phoxx,
Welcome to SatelliteGuys forum. I see you have been here for a few months and I haven't said hello or welcome to you. Lots of new faces around here, so excuse me for missing you.
As for RTV it is still fine. So, you may have tuned in when your weather was poor or the weather at the uplink station was poor. If you have had bad weather (with wind) you might want to double check your dish to ensure that it didn't get pushed out of alignment by the wind.
Personally, my dish got moved somehow since yesterday. We had a lot of stiff winds over the past few days (fairly calm now). But, when I came home last night I couldn't get a signal on any satellite and my satellite internet (WildBlue) was down as well.
For my TV satellite (using USALS) I had to adjust my longitude setting from 96.4°W (which is what it is supposed to be) to 97.2°W in order to bring my dish back into alignment with the arc. Therefore, the wind blew my dish off course by 0.8°.
I could not tell which part of the dish/motor/mast moved. I checked it in the dark and couldn't find anything loose, but something obviously moved that much to kill my signals.
If you also experienced some strong and sustained winds recently, I would check your dish and motor alignment.
It is funny, my dish made it through all of last summer's and winter's extremes and never missed a beat. Yesterday's winds were so minor in comparison that I didn't even give my dish alignment a thought. It must have just been that the wind came from a unique direction this time.
Everything on my assembly is as tight and secured as it can possibly be, but it moved anyway. I will have to get out there and make it perfect, but for now, I just altered my longitude in the USALS menu. That took care of it so at least it is only off in the azimuth and not the elevation.
I would check this first if I were you. Adjust you longitude by +/- 0.5° and see if that helps. Find out what direction the dish is offset and then when done, change your longitude back to normal and adjust your dish / motor to correct it.
RADAR
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Noted you different settings, tried them, no luck. Must be something I did to the receiver settings. I'll put some thought to it. Thanks for your help ynnedibanez. We have has some wind issues the past few days, AcWxRadar, I'll check the dish alignment. Thanks.
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Phoxx, I've lost RTV/RTN a couple of times here in SW Ohio. Sometimes it's fine for days then disappears. Are you able to get the other test channel NBC 3/9F or whatever it is on 83w.? That usually is the one I use to line it up with. Blind
Thanks for your help, guys. It was a combination of overcast sky and high wind. The wind blew the dish off the proper setting, had to reposition the dish on pole so it would track the arc properly, it was a bit off.
Thanks for your help, guys. It was a combination of overcast sky and high wind. The wind blew the dish off the proper setting, had to reposition the dish on pole so it would track the arc properly, it was a bit off.
Phoxx,
Good to hear that you found and corrected the problem.
I thought that might have been the case since it happened to mine as well, about the same day/night. We must have had some really forceful winds, as my dish has never moved in over a year. I know that it is secured since I can grab it anywhere and try to turn it ot tilt it and it won't go without bending something, but the wind found the way to move it 0.8°!
RADAR
glad you got RTV back. they are great channels aren't they?
Radar what motor do you have on the dish that moved? My stab HH120 seemed loose one day ( i could move shaft 1/4" ) but when i moved motor all the way west and back to the reference it was tight again.
Radar what motor do you have on the dish that moved? My stab HH120 seemed loose one day ( i could move shaft 1/4" ) but when i moved motor all the way west and back to the reference it was tight again.
Beavs,
I have a PowerTech DG-380 motor and a GeoSAT pro 1.2M dish.
My motor has no play internally (gear mesh is good) nor where the shaft and the motor tube attach. However, I suspect that the movement came from where the dish assembly clamps to the motor tube.
The motor tube has a very slick finish and the dish clamp can only get so snug on it. When I first assembled my dish an attached it to the motor, I was skeptical about this connection and thought it might slip on me. The dish came with two U-bolts to attach it to the motor tube, but it had the capability to install three U-bolts, so I obtained an extra one to help secure it.
There is a small cutout (or window) in the metal of the dish bracket where the seam of the vertical axis of the motor tube can be seen. I had this seam centered within that window originally. With everything fully assembled, it is difficult to see this window and the seam of the tube without a parallax error. I will either have to use a mirror or drive the motor to an extreme east or west position so that I can see it better. This is the first place that I am going to investigate as it is the most suspicious.
If this is where my error is coming from, I will have to provide a better means to secure it.
One thing about it, the winds that we had were not just the result of a quickie storm, it was sustained and gusty winds for a couple of days and nights from 25 to 40+ mph.
Oh, and definitely, RTV is great!
RADAR
If that's where your error is coming from, it means that your declination is changing as well as the apparent sat longitude. Any rotation on that tube will (if my mind is awake yet) increase your declination. This is somewhat similar to the darn "spinclination" on my Orbitron/Atlas BUD, ie you turn the whole dish on an angled hub to change declination, but that also changes the position along the arc AND the polarity. I liked it at first, but the older my dish gets, the more I hate it.
Anyway, that's one reason I decided to get a pole mount instead of a U-bolt mount when I bought my Fortec dish, because the pole mount uses the holes in the tube, so the holes keep it centered pretty well.
B.J.
My mind is about to go "beddy bye", but I think I understand your description sufficiently. When I get my dish back to "normal" alignment I am pondering some means of "pinning" it there. I hate doing that, but if I get the alignment perfect, I might just lock it in at that position and call it good.
RAdar
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