Need a little help with new motor system

[i4tas]

Okay i got my motor and 90 cm dish this week and need some help getting the motor set up.

My zip code is 53022.

What should the dish elevation be set to?
What should the motor elevation be set to?

What is my southern most satellite? Is this satellite good for finding south? If not how to i find tune south?


Currently i have the dish up found some signal and scanned. found 5 channels all same programming, one had 1/2 screen guide, others in different languages. MFA, MTA, NFA, NTA its one of thoses (small little radio shack tv can't tell).

 

[Mr Tony]

You’re on AMC3 with the MTA stuff

Your at 43.2N 88.1W so the motor gets set to 43 latitude (the motor should have a latitude scale)

You’re ½ way between AMC3 (where you are now) and IA8. So what I would do is hook up the motor and do USALS (put your latitude & longitude in) to move the motor to where AMC3 is ont he motor, then aim the dish/motor assembly. That 1 degree can make a big difference when you are on the ends (AMC6 at 72W or G10)

 

[i4tas]

Thanks Iceburg, i just got in from outside and am going to see what i can do with USALS and DiSEqC 1.2, From what i could tell outside the motor was tracking the satellite belt. I play with the motor and do some fine tuning outside later (if needed).


From what i can tell USALS and DiSEqC 1.2 are awesome! so easy to move the dish and check signal at same time and one remote. This is soo much easier than c-band where i had to use old analogue receiver to move the dish, with no way to store locations.

 

[i4tas]

Okay i got usals on the ark. I have good signals on g10, then i go to amc 3 and got around 40% (pansat meter) on the ac3 sd pbs channels. What should i get for signal on pbs

 

[mrweather]

For PBS my 90cm dish gets me 87-88% quality or so on my Coolsat 5000.

Keep in mind that figure will be different with each receiver.

 

[mastermesh]

You are probably on the arc, but are just a smidgen off (assuming there isn't a tree branch in the way or something?)... I had a similar problem not long ago. I solved the problem for my dish by going to G10 and just slowly tweaking and tweaking, and tweaking while on the weak tps with the tv outside.

Ice suggested this and it helped enormously. I got one of the weaker tps, (think it was 11720?) to go from something like 2-10% to 40-60%! Once I did that it brought all of the arc in better. The tricky part is holding the dish or motor just right as you tighten your bolts... Also, another thing that will help, if you have an invacom (or any other really) lnb is to figure out the sweetest spot and wire tie the lnb down. That will help with your skew a little too if you adjust it just right. Sometimes you can move the lnb in and out just a mm or two and that will make a difference.

I have an invacom quad lnb and it had a tendency to move a little (when motoring? or maybe it was birds may have helped out on that?)... so I tied it down, tweaked a lot and got it right on... If you have an sg2100 there's a place where the dish and motor meet where you can put about a thumb or finger to help hold as you adjust... tricky adjusting the bolts. I think I was out there almost 2-3 hours getting signal good, adjusting this bolt... tweak the next bolt... tweak the next bolt, adjust skew, adjust another bolt, etc. For skew, if you have a motor, the lnb should be perfect 90 degrees up/down... You should be able to put your head below the dish, look up the arm and eye it to see if it's off a little too much to the left or right while you are on g10... It won't be 90 degrees from ground, but from the dish's arm if you are on g10 while tweaking since g10 isn't your true south...

 

[i4tas]

Well pbs was low, ONN on the east side is 75, kuil is a booming 99, wngs is 30, fox Marquette is 58.


So i have good signals from east to west. WNGS and PBS are so far disappointing, but i feel i can tweak it. The motor is definitely on the clark belt.

 

[i4tas]

The tricky part is holding the dish or motor just right as you tighten your bolts...

The bolts can be the hardest part!


Back to the roof!

Thanks for the input

 

[Mr Tony]

Well pbs was low, ONN on the east side is 75, kuil is a booming 99, wngs is 30, fox Marquette is 58.


So i have good signals from east to west. WNGS and PBS are so far disappointing, but i feel i can tweak it. The motor is definitely on the clark belt.

WNGS will be low. Reason is Dish 121 has a TP that is stronger. When you have a smaller dish that is normal (sadly). Its interference.

I get about a 60 on my 30” for WMQF. KUIL is BOOMING (I can pick it up really good with a Phase II 24x20 dish). ONN is about right too.

So it sounds like you’re tracking the arc pretty good. What about IA7 (129?)