Need help pointing to G10

[thisBUDsforyou]

Using Mercury II did a blind scan, got the following:
11738/V/30031
11977/V/30031
12018/V/30031
11879/H/30031
11998/H/30031
12042/H/4344
12173/H/3138
Signal 90, Quality 34-38
Anyone know where I am? Thanks in advance

 

[qwert1515]

My guess would be: 116.8°W SatMex 5 Ku

 

[Mr Tony]

sounds about right

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Boy it's extremely touchy, can't get the signal quality high enough to lock on anything. I keep losing it altogether.

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

It has CH 825,828,830,869,Latin America for TV and 20500 a bunch of times and 40000,40001 for Radio

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Then it asks if I want to save and if I say yes everything disappears

 

[Mr Tony]

that sounds like you might be on Dish 121

Have you tried to manually type in a transponder from thelist and move the dish. And yes it is VERY touchy

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Thanks I'll try that. Back in a few.

 

[qwert1515]

"Latin America" is the BYU international channel on 116.8°W SatMex 5 Ku.

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

I'm going to have to give up for tonight, but as Iafire once said, I am not admitting defeat! I was set up on the driveway in front of my garage, which sits maybe 50 or 60 feet back from the house. Assuming qwert1515 is right then I needed to pan about 6-7 degrees to the right and I think I may have been running into LOS issues with either the house or trees across the street. Will have to try from a different spot next time. Must've been beginners luck a coupla nights ago - was watching TV on two different birds. Tonight, nothing.

 

[Larry1]

Sounds as if you did not take into account the difference in magnetic (compass) and true (map) headings when using one of the satellite pointing calculators.

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Nah I have a list with both true azimuth and compass columns on it. I'm just not real good at pointing the dish exactly where the compass says to go.

 

[iafirebuff]

When you get as close as you are, remember - a nudge is just that - a nudge. I did not even think I moved the dish at all.

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Yeah, it could be that I just needed to tweak the dish a little but it just seemed like it was a whole lot touchier than when I was on 72 Tuesday night. So I'm thinking maybe my problem was attenuation of signal from a big ole oak tree directly across the street from me. My lot is maybe 160 feet deep and setting up in front of the garage I was say 40 feet from the back of the lot or 120 feet from the street. Say 30 feet for the width of the street and the oak tree ten feet back from that puts me 160 feet from the tree. G10 is at 23.1 elevation from here. So say the tree is 70 feet tall I need to be at least 164 feet back from it to see over it. If the tree is 80 feet tall I need to be back 188 feet (if dusting off my high school trig has been done correctly). So maybe I couldn't lock because I was losing half my signal to tree branches.

My next attempt (probably over the weekend) I'm planning to set up in the side yard about 40 feet north of where I was last night. That should put G10 to the right of that damn oak tree and as I pan left for sats east of G10 I gain elevation (e.g. AMC 1 at 103W at 36 degrees elevation, AMC 3 at 87W at 42 degrees) which I'm hoping will let me see over my house and the other trees to the southwest.

 

[iafirebuff]

Good luck - DON'T GIVE UP! G10 is well worth the fight! And it is VERY touchy! Get close - 127w or so and then move a nudge - 1/8" and scan (or have an active tp punched in).

 

[Tanuki]

This link really saved me when setting up my BUD and trying to find true south.
It will give you a Google Satellite Map with a line to True South or what ever bird you want.
Satellite Look Angles Satellite Heading Calculator Azimuth Elevation Skew Tilt LNBF Latitude and Longitude values
Hope it helps

 

[tvropro]

G10 can be found easy. The problem is we get anxious and do stupid stuff which causes us to move the dish right past it. It happened to me too when I was putting up my G-10 dish. I thought I knew better and wound up way off. So I reset my elevation placing a yard stick from the bottom lip of the dish to the top on the lnbf. Then I put my inclinometer on the yard stick and set my elevation angle exactly to what my satellite calculation program on my computer said. Then I slow moved the dishes azmuith and bang it was there.

The moral of the story is when you get lost... reset everything back to static and go from there. Hope this helps

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Great tip! I went to Amazon and found this angle locator:
Amazon.com: Johnson Level & Tool 700 Magnetic Angle Locator: Home Improvement


And guess who wrote the first customer review!

Excellent tool
We use this for satellite dish installation, and we are very please with its quality and durability. It is not like the cheap imported models. This is much more precise and the scale if very easy to read. We highly recommend it to all of our dish installers. For the price and quality, it is a 5 stars no doubt.Best regards
Sadoun Satellite Sales

 

[Mr Tony]

I have one of those. They work awesome

 

[dishMIKE]

It's the Greatest feeling in the world when that quality meter starts to spike!!! Mike