motorized Offset antenna adjustments

[ZetaMale]

It's been awhile so I need to confirm the adjustments for an HH90 and WS9036 dish. The HH90 has the latitude adjustment and the WS9036 needs the elevation set? I take it that the offset dish doesn't need a declination adjustment? From what I've read, there is no declination adjustment. The declination adjustment must be for a prime focus antenna? The antenna has 2 windows with numbers in it. The numbers on each side don't match so I'm not sure of that adjustment.

 

[lamp]

I suggest you find (and tune in) your south satellite (with or without the motor). Then put an angle finder in the front center of the dish and read the angle away from vertical. Count vertical as zero. Subtract the angle on the angle finder from the elevation angle of the satellite (from dishpointer dot com). The difference is the offset angle of the dish. This might be useful to know at some later time. But to set up the motor use the angle finder on the motor tube (compensate for the crank angle) and set the rotational axis angle of the motor from horizontal to your latitude. Then put the dish on the tube and using the angle finder on the front center of the dish, set it to the exact same angle that you found when you tuned in your south satellite.

 

[ZetaMale]

I suggest you find (and tune in) your south satellite (with or without the motor). Then put an angle finder in the front center of the dish and read the angle away from vertical. Count vertical as zero. Subtract the angle on the angle finder from the elevation angle of the satellite (from dishpointer dot com). The difference is the offset angle of the dish. This might be useful to know at some later time. But to set up the motor use the angle finder on the motor tube (compensate for the crank angle) and set the rotational axis angle of the motor from horizontal to your latitude. Then put the dish on the tube and using the angle finder on the front center of the dish, set it to the exact same angle that you found when you tuned in your south satellite.

There's a related thread that explains my issue with alignment:
Elevation and/or declination on a WS9036

I found that thread when looking for clarification on setting up this dish. I thought I had explained my problem clearly but I guess I didn't. I might have to go with your suggestion or experiment in getting the dish aligned. But, if a vendor is going to provide markings for setting up dish elevation they need to make it clear as to how to set the elevation. When you have markings on both sides of the dish that aren't the same, which one do you use for the initial setup? I don't have the original dish manual and can't find a copy on the web so I'm not sure of how to get it set up. To TRY to be clear: my problem is NOT the motor adjustment.

 

[KE4EST]

Use the one that goes from about 10° to 50°. Don't have one in front of me, so don't remember exactly but you will get the idea.

 

[KE4EST]

Do you have the HH90 Manual? If not one can be download here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/3486430/

But essentially what you do is get what the elevation should be for your closest south bird, if you were making it a fixed dish.
Let's say that just happened to be 40.
Subtract your latitude from 45. So you list your Lat as 42 so 45-42 = 3.
Now subtract that from 40 to get 37. So set your dish to 37.
Then follow my directions in the other thread. You will have to adjust your dish elevation for strongest signal, so it may not end up being right on 37.

 

[Titanium]

The offset angle for a WS9036 is 24.62 degrees.

If a straight edge is placed from the top to the bottom edge of the reflector with the angle finder reading "0" degrees, the dish will be actually be aiming at 24.62 degrees elevation.

The HH90 install guide will provide the dish elevation angle setting based on your latitude. This angle includes the declination setting. For example: if the HH90 instructions provide a dish elevation angle of 35 degrees, set the angle finder to display 10.38 degrees (35 - 24.62 = 10.38). For reference, look at the elevation scales on the sides of the WS9036. One of the scales should display a setting of approximately 10 degrees. If not, notate the amount of discrepancy. It might be helpful to mark this elevation for aiming reference. Now the dish can be mounted on the HH90, aimed and optimized.

 

[ZetaMale]

I think I have everything preset now. But, the project is on hold since I discovered a missing piece of plastic (or whatever the material is) on the LNBF and I see evidence of some other cracking on the LNBF. I know I didn't rough-house the dish. Must be hail damage that I missed. Oh joy, more money to spend. Good thing Ku LNBF's are cheap.