New Dish

[JFOK]

Hi Brct203 and zack,

Thanks for your responses.
The second picture shows the backside the middle plate for the dish.
See attached picture.
I figured that this would be the easiest and best way to check declination.

John

 

[Brct203]

Hi Brct203 and zack,

Thanks for your responses.
The second picture shows the backside the middle plate for the dish.
See attached picture.
I figured that this would be the easiest and best way to check declination.

John

View attachment 141998

ok now I understand. In theory, yes that should be fine, but any small inaccuracy in the geometry of that part or how it's mounted would have a big impact on the measurement. You might want to verify that what you measure there matches what you would get with a straight edge across the rim. If it's similar, then forget the straight edge for future measurements.

But i'm a bit surprised that you're not getting any signal. Have you tried aiming for a stronger satellite? Maybe 58W or 55.5W? Also are you certain that the LNB and associated cabling are all good? A quick basic test I do, is I use a cheap squeaker meter and set it to make noise, then i move my hand in front of the LNBF. If the sound changes, all good, it's detecting the "noise" from my hand. If no change, then something might not be right, either the cable is bad, the LNB is bad, or my hand is dead.

 

[JFOK]

Brct203,

I'm using a Sathero300 HD meter and it does show some signal on a signal bar "meter" when I move in the vicinity of 78W. Its just that I receive no strong signal or db reading. It really has me puzzled as I've been doing this for 28 years. Analog signals were so much easier to find.
I'm anxious to get this done before the really cold weather moves in. Today will be in the 30's with 10-15 mph winds.
Thanks for your suggestions. I'll give it another go today.

John

 

[JFOK]

Hi All,

Well I finally got a steady and strong signal on 78w (3885V 23000) of 13.1 db.
The inclinometer I was using wasn't totally accurate, making me off a few degrees with elevation and declination. Must have dropped it one too many times. Found my old reliable inclinometer and found 78W in minutes.
I'm glad I accomplished this before tomorrow's N.E. 2 day storm.
Thanks to all who helped.

John

 

[FTA4PA]

Hi All,

Well I finally got a steady and strong signal on 78w (3885V 23000) of 13.1 db.
The inclinometer I was using wasn't totally accurate, making me off a few degrees with elevation and declination. Must have dropped it one too many times. Found my old reliable inclinometer and found 78W in minutes.
I'm glad I accomplished this before tomorrow's N.E. 2 day storm.
Thanks to all who helped.

John

Great to hear! Congratulations!

 

[arlo]

Elevation seems ok, but this dish seems to have no good place check declination, but like Brct203 says a long straight edge like he says!

Zack

78W is a good starting place. Although your measured angles may be good, probably not going to snag a signal right off.
Choose a strong tp on 78 from sat charts and your footprint. What signal meter are you using? Receiver? Or hand held?
Reference where your elevation is. Try dropping it a little (looks easier than dec. from here). Just a degree or 2. Swing the dish l/r and see if you can get a signal.
I see you may have an actuator. You can take the motor off and turn the shaft with a vice grip.
Keep track of your movements. Try a little lower on elevation. Swing your dish. Go back to where it was first (elevation).
Do the reverse and raise it. Once you get a signal then it's a task tweaking it all in to get your arc tweaked perfectly.
Probably will want to have a pad and pencil handy.

 

[JFOK]

Hi Arlo,

Thanks for your response.
All is well with my dish and I'm getting a good signal on all the satellites I've landed on.
I still have some tweaking to do to fine tune some signals, but I'm very pleased with the dish's performance so far.

John