Need help setting up my FTA

[MAA]

Hello, thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me. My first post, hope I am doing it correctly. I am trying to set up my dish. I bought a new motor and moved my location way back so I have clear site. When I put the motor on I set the lat. at 35 (my location is lat. 34.83N and long. 95.06) and angle 39, which I think it is supposed to be according to the book that came with my motor, and pointed south.

Many years ago I bought a dish and motor. The seller set it for me before he sent it. I put it on a pole and aimed it south, turned on my traxis and it was perfect. Have not used for around 20 years and decided to use again. Traxis remote is lost, traxis won’t work without it, and none to be found, and motor is shot. Long story short, replaced motor, bought new cheap receiver from Amazon (thanks to great nephew's recommendation), replaced all the coaxial, set it all up....and something is wrong.
I wanted to post a pic, but my pic is on my computer and I don't know how to put a url to it.

Anyway, my dish with above setting does not even point to the sky. It points straight forward. When I turn on receiver it has no N. American sats. I manually put in Galaxy 3C which is directly S. from here, but when I turn on USALS it says "Out of Range" and motor does not move. No wonder there, the dish is pointing straight at my house. I am wondering if I have the motor upside down???

 

[Titanium]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys!

What brand is the equipment? Receiver? Motor? LNBF (Standard or Universal)? Dish?

"Out of Range" indicates that either the satellite longitude or your install location Latitude and Longitude are not correctly entered in the receiver. If they are entered, be sure they are formatted correctly. Some receivers use East/West longitude and others use positive/negative for these settings.

Photos of the dish, LNBF, motor, post, receiver install menu are usually helpful.

 

[FTA4PA]

I wanted to post a pic, but my pic is on my computer and I don't know how to put a url to it.

Welcome to Satellite Guys MAA! I see Titanium has already asked for the specifics of your system. To post a pic, click UPLOAD A FILE, then select the pic(s) to upload. Once transferred you will need to select THUMBNAILED or FULL IMAGE. Thumbnailed is usually best as using full image loads the image into your post at full resolution and some users have trouble displaying large images.

 

[KE4EST]

to SatelliteGuys MAA!!

Yes, lots more info about what you have and pictures.
You are not allowed to post links until you have a few posts under belt. You can post them like this though and we can decide if we want to follow it: www google com or a myriad of other ways to get a link across.

 

[spongella]

Greetings MAA, pictures are worth a thousand words, show us your work so far. Satelliteguys is the best place in the galaxy for help. Make sure you longitude is set to West.

 

[MAA]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Titanium, FTA4PA,KE4EST,and spongella for the responses and welcomes. Here’s my equipment. LMB Maverick MK1-PLL, motor HH90 STAB H to H Motorized Mount. Dish, old…I don’t see a name on it and don’t remember. It is less than 3 ft. Receiver, GTMedia V7 Plus. I have sat. W95.00 in my sat list. Don’t know where to put my lat and long into this receiver, the print is so small in the tiny manual I have to read it with a magnifying glass. they are 34.8N and 95.0619W. Well, by the time the pic loaded I found where to put in my location and it doesn't say out of range now.

 

[mc6809e]

Does that dish mount use the center of the bolt for the elevation setting? I don't know what dish that is but on the different mounts I have here that elevation would be set at about 22°.

 

[Titanium]

The motor is correctly installed and the latitude is correctly set to your install latitude. The dish elevation angle should be set to 39 degrees on the mount scale, according to the STAB HH90 manual. The photo does not show the scale for a 39 degree setting (it is on the other side of the mount), but the dish looks to be tilted back approx. 25 degrees. This would be correct for an offset dish near the top of the arc.

I would add a new satellite in your list: Galaxy 19 at 97.0W and add a new transponder: Frequency - 12152, Polarity - Horizontal, Symbol Rate - 20000.

Set the LNB type to Single (Standard) with LO 10750.

Set the LNB Power to auto (13v/18v).

Motor Type to USALS: Latitude 34.83 N, Longitude 95.06 W.

The motor should slightly rotate towards the West off of the "0" position.

Use a compass to identify a reference landmark (tree, telephone pole, etc.) that lines up with compass reading 178 (true South).

With the receiver set to satellite 97w and the TP to 12152, and a small TV set-up beside the dish so you can see the Signal Quality meter, SLOWLY pan the motor on the post approx 10 degrees East of the reference landmark and 10 degrees West of the reference landmark while watching the Signal Quality meter reading. If the SQ reading does not increase, raise or lower the motor elevation in 1 degree increments and repeat.

Once the Signal Quality meter reading is detected and optimized, perform a Blind Scan to log all active transponders and channels on this satellite.

 

[a33]

Does that dish mount use the center of the bolt for the elevation setting?

With a scale indication like this, I would expect it to be the "line" at the right of the bolt (where the 'darkness' starts).

Imagine you would like to set the dish elevation at 84*; then the bolt would be at the left end, and the "line" to the right of the bolt would be exactly at 84 (the end of the scale). That's why I think that is the proper indication line.

However this is the scale for a 76 cm dish; if the dish is 90 cm then the proper scale would most probably be at the other side, as Titanium pointed out.

greetz,
A33

 

[MAA]

Thanks, mc6809e, I came in closer on the image and circled the bolt I think you’re talking about. I think I have it right in the center. The circle above shows I can not tilt any further upward because the bolt hits the motor arm. I thought the LNB was pointing right at my house, but I read somewhere (don’t remember if I read it on this site or somewhere else, just read it recently) to look up from the bottom of dish to top of LNB to see where it points. Low and behold, it is pointed into the sky! (Well, I uploaded the pic, but the circles don't show.)

Thanks, Titanium A16US, I have set everything by your guide lines. I will look on the other side, but I think all the scales are on this one side. I am on my out to adjust the dish. What do I do about all the other sats that are pre loaded that are not North American? Will they mess up my motor funtion? Do I deleat them?

Thanks, A33. I will take my tape out and measure the dish straight across. I should probably be able to eyeball and know, but I don’t.

I so appreciate the help.

 

[FTA4PA]

What do I do about all the other sats that are pre loaded that are not North American? Will they mess up my motor funtion? Do I deleat them?

Yes, you can delete them as they can't be received here is the US and are just taking up slots where your good sats can be. I don't have that particular receiver so I can't advise of the exact procedure but there should be an option in the menus.

 

[Titanium]

Likely the center of the bolt is not the pointer on this mount's elevation bracket. The scale pointer is probably the metal plate that is visible through the elevation slot beside the bolt. In looking closely at your last photo, the dish elevation appears to be incorrectly set to 25 degrees instead of 39 degrees.

 

[Titanium]

Blast from the past! This post brought back memories of a thread I posted in back in 2006 when an owner of SatAV

www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/hh90-and-winegard-76cm.73227/#post-632853

Your dish looks like a Winegard DS-2076. If so, this dish was not compatible with the HH90 motor unless modified. The easiest fix is to drill a new hole in the motor post to allow clearance for the dish hardware.

There was a reseller back in mid 2000 who was selling this combo and we dealt with this problem many times on forums until the package was changed to include a SG2100 motor instead...

 

[comfortably_numb]

I believe raydio has successfully used that dish with an HH-90. Perhaps he can chime in on his procedure

 

[MAA]

Really? What Dish do I need?
I should have just baught a bundle deal. But then, isn't that how it works, try to stay within your budget and just end up spending more? Does this site have dishes at amazon or do I just use the link to buy from any seller and it gives credit to this site?

Oh, well, here goes, Blind Scan got “0”

I do have a button that I don’t know how to set and can’t find it in the instructions. I think whoever wrote this thing expects whoever is reading it is smarter than me.

When I am in the Installation screen there is a list of my satellites on one side and list of settings on the other. I choose a sat. and move over to the other side to set up (example LNB feq, Diseq, 22K, LNB power and then Motor Set up. When I choose USALS I have a red and green buttons below.

red button for “Set Limit”. When I go to that screen, it says

“Limit Selection” (space, but in same highlighted area) “Disable limit”.

Then below that it has a “save” button and a “Go To Reference”

I do not know what to do with this. If I click left the Disable limit turns to “West Limit” click right it goes to “East Limit” and below where it says save it has West on the right side and East on the left side. I went back to “Disable” as that was where I found it.

green button for “Set Location” click this button and I see “Motor Antenna” and it has my home lat. and Long., So I think that is what should be there and is OK.

I don’t have a little TV so I’m using a digital sat indicator. I tweaked and got as tight a signal as I could and still think I was within the sat. signal. My receiver says 60% signal intensity and 0% signal quality. Which is the same as it has been from the beginning. My husband is on the phone in front of the TV while I move it outside, but it never changes regardless of how loud this little gadget… digital sat. Indicator squeals.

 

[FTA4PA]

Really? What Dish do I need?
I should have just baught a bundle deal. But then, isn't that how it works, try to stay within your budget and just end up spending more?

Here is a dish/lnbf combo that many members here recommend.

36 Inch 90 cm Free To Air FTA Satellite Dish & HD LNBF | eBay

 

[MAA]

Thanks FTA4PA. It says Wall Roof Mount. Stupid question, can I take that off easily to put on motor and mount on a pole?

 

[FTA4PA]

Thanks FTA4PA. It says Wall Roof Mount. Stupid question, can I take that off easily to put on motor and mount on a pole?

Yes

 

[FTA4PA]

Thanks FTA4PA. It says Wall Roof Mount. Stupid question, can I take that off easily to put on motor and mount on a pole?

Here are the assembly instructions for that dish. Just assemble and mount on your motor shaft instead of using the roof/wall pole mount that is supplied.

http://satelliteav.com/portal/33/images/GEOSATpro_90cm_AssemblyDiagram.pdf

 

[a33]

Really? What Dish do I need?

So, drilling (as Titanium suggested) is not an option?

I also checked the dish upside down solution for this motor mount, but you'd have to be able to set dish elevation scale to about 26 degrees (in the upside down position) for that; so that is not an option either, given the constraints on your elevation setting possibilities. (And when there is no other hole in (the top of) the motor shaft, you'd have to drill also.)

Greetz,
A33