Need some motor install help

[Mr Tony]

Big man needs some help here

Hooked up a second motorized system and can get ALMOST everything that I want.
True South is IA6 (Minneapolis, MN)
I can get really good signal on G11, IA6, G3, IA5, AMC4 (90 on CCTV, 80 on KUIL, 50 on G11, 75 on IA6)
Dang good signal on AMC3

Really couldn’t test AMC9 since there wasn’t anything up at the time
Cannot for the life of me get SBS6
Don’t need anything W of 101…..have a fixed dish for G10

If I drop the elevation on the dish a degree I get a 50 signal on ONN, but I lose almost everything else (except for the REAL strong TP’s on other satellites)

I mainly want this 2nd setup to move around between SBS6-G11 for feeds.

According to everything I’ve worked with, elevation on motor is 45 and elevation on dish is 23ish. I figured aim at IA6 and level out the dish to the best signal.

The first one I had done was over a year ago by PSB…might have to get him over to Casa de Iceberg

SG2100 motor and a Hotdish 30”…..(yes the dish is old but it’s the only one I can put up with the current mast)

WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING WRONG??

 

[Cascade]

Ice is the pole rock-steady and plumb?
Make sure the bracket is straight too, I had a prob with a dodgy motor bracket - turns out it wasn't very straight when I measured it with the angle-o-meter.

 

[Mr Tony]

pole is plumb

how the heck would I know the bracket is striaght? it worked fine with the 24" I had up but went to a 30

 

[Cascade]

I used a Johnson angle finder (!!) a bracket that isn't straight against the pole can be worse than a pole that isn't plumb I found (after taking my dishes up and down 60000 times).

 

[Mr Tony]

I'll have to check tonight to see

 

[drhydro]

I used a Johnson angle finder (!!) a bracket that isn't straight against the pole can be worse than a pole that isn't plumb I found (after taking my dishes up and down 60000 times).

I picked up a Johnson angel finder a couple of weeks ago, both myself and my wife had quite a few laughs at the name / function ;-)

 

[Cascade]

Tom, I don't understand what you mean?
Care to elaborate for us?

 

[drhydro]

Tom, I don't understand what you mean?
Care to elaborate for us?

nah ill leave it to your imagination :-D anyways back on thread......
I found the angle finder to be a VERY usefull tool in ensuring a straight and level mast, ummm i mean plumb mast.

I had been using a 4' level to see how plumb the mast was for the my BUD, and a 1' level for making sure the polar mount was plumb on top of the mast. After checking both the mast and the polar mount, i found the mast was perfectly plumb, but the polar mount on top of the mast was off by about 2 degrees, even though it looked perfect on a level.

 

[Mr Tony]

have to try those tonight.....maybe I can spare Pete to come over to help out

 

[Mr Tony]

have a feeling something isnt plumb.....it was wokring fine until I didnt set the limits of the motor

 

[shoemaker]

I installed mine few days ago and before i put the dish on the pole was leveled, with the dish on the pole is off a bit, so it may be your case too.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Mr Tony]

its plumb forward backward...might be the side to side as that seems to be the problem

 

[shoemaker]

After the dish is on check all around the pole to make sure it's plumb, when we think everything is plumb the dish weight makes it to bend forward.

 

[sharris]

Hey Iceberg, I'd adjust the scew(spelling?) East/west, could be out a couple of degrees. Something to try anyways. I know I can turn the lnb right/left upto 5 degrees each way and it increases some of my signals by quite a bit and maintains the qual I had on others. Also if it does work, it could indicate your off plumb one way or another. I know I've struggled with my mount a few times (crappy wineguard)

 

[Mr Tony]

have to try that

I'll check tongiht and post results tomorrow...suppose to be nice tonight before we go back into the sweatbox tomorrow

 

[adwan001]

You guys are scaring me off

I am on my way to order my very first FTA system. As I am reading this thread and see ing that the slightest error can cause all that trouble, it just scares me to think about how am I going to set my system up all be myself. I consider myself a handyman and can do pretty much anything with sufficient knowledge about the subject matter. But this discussion makes me think about just bite the bullet and get a professional installer to do it for me. But the downside of that is that I will not learn anything should something goes wrong in the furture!!!

 

[Cascade]

It takes some patience and you probably won't nail it right away but you're only a mouseclick away from getting help

 

[sikma]

Take it from the worlds biggest rube (Iceberg will have heard that term before on the radio), I've self-installed 4 10' c-band's in my day, one being on top of a 30' piece of well-casing and everything always turned out right.....if I can do it, so can you!!!
p.s. you think it's hard getting a 5' pole plumb, try a 30-footer $#*&$%@^

 

[Mr Tony]

Pole was plumb
I used one of those little bubble levels that you can drop at the top of the mast and it was level

motored to SBS6 and only had a 12 signal. Dropped it maybe 1/8" or less and now I have a 50

seems like the rest are fine

 

[Mr Tony]

I am on my way to order my very first FTA system. As I am reading this thread and see ing that the slightest error can cause all that trouble, it just scares me to think about how am I going to set my system up all be myself. I consider myself a handyman and can do pretty much anything with sufficient knowledge about the subject matter. But this discussion makes me think about just bite the bullet and get a professional installer to do it for me. But the downside of that is that I will not learn anything should something goes wrong in the furture!!!

unless you absolutelly feel it necessary to hire someone, do it yourself!

My issue was idiotic...just had to drop the elevation on the dish a little bit.

Thats why we're here...to help out