Problem with my T90 (toroidal) dish

[Labgate]

Hello everyone

Last year I installed one T90 and one T55 and things worked very well.

Since then I decided to buy another T90 and tyring to align it.

I want to catch sats from 85 to 123. I went to satlex digital calculator and it gives me those infos :

Skey 66.25 and elevation 26.92. I also asked config settings from Wavefrontier and got a different answer.

So I tried those settings and still I can not get a strong lock on satellites at each extremeties. (it was better last year).

So I made sure that the pole is perfectly plumb and tried playing with elevation and skew. I've been able to improve the quality but not enough.

So my question is : When you set the elevation, do you do it with the antenna skew or unskewd (at 90 degrees). Whe do you place the elevation scale ?. When you guys compare your settings to satlex, do they fit.

How could I verify if my dish is warped?

Any help would be appreciated.

Greetings

Labgate

 

[jerryt]

So my question is : When you set the elevation, do you do it with the antenna skew or unskewd (at 90 degrees).

Magnetic Incline meter on the flat metal above the skew plate with the dish at zero skew.

Whe do you place the elevation scale ?. When you guys compare your settings to satlex, do they fit.

The two have never agreed, but are close to each other. The actual setting also never agree with either site.

How could I verify if my dish is warped?

Just a visual inspection.

My simple set up instructions for a toroidal from 85 to 125.
Mount a Linear LNB at the center of rail. with skew at zero (no skew), adjust azimuth and elevation until you can verify with a scan the 105 satellite (use a cheap signal meter, but remove the meter during scans). Once 105 is dead on, lock the azimuth and elevation adjustment and start skewing the dish until you get your two most outboard circular satellites (119 & 91) to scan in. Move the 105 lnb on the center rail so that it will scan again after you skewed the dish. That completes the coarse adjustment. Fine tune with outboard linears and the skew adjustment, be aware that the skew is a compromise of the best signal for the two outboard satellites. IE both outboards may deliever a 9 on the signal meter, one at a skew of 30 and the other at a skew of 32, the compromise is a 8 on both satellites with a skew of 31.

Good luck !

 

[Labgate]

Hello

Thank you for your help. I really wanted someone to shed some light because I was having a problem remembering some of the small things to align.

Will try it again tomorrow or wednesday.

Greetings

Labgate

 

[Mr Tony]

Labgate
I know I'm kinda late here but when I set up mine I adjusted elevation and azimuth first then skew.

I guess I luck out now because my centre LNB is also my true south (93W) so the skew is zero

 

[Labgate]

Thanks Iceberg

I really was not remembering if you set up the elevation before of after skew.

So I will begin with adjusting the elevation with 105 at 0. Then play with the skew.

Let's hope I will have better luck next time. Yesterday was very frustating. And I'm not able to send my reports to Satcodx.

Labgate

 

[Likvid]

Doesn't matter.

Maximize the signal for the satellite on your "0", after you have done that lock the nuts and check the signal is the same.

Now, adjust the skew of the dish for the satellite at the far end by examning your signal meter SNR and BER readings, also peak the LNB position on the rail.

And last, adjust the skew for all LNBs for best signal by rotating the LNBs.

So remember, dish skew for the satellite you have on the edge, azimuth/elevation for your central satellite, and then adjust skew on all your LNBs(not dish skew)

 

[Labgate]

Thanks for the refresh guys.

I'm all pumped up. Will try it wednesday afternoon and get back,hopefully with good news.

Labgate

 

[Mr Tony]

I want to get mine put back up but its been raining here since Friday night

 

[VinceT3]

I can't wait to get mine back up and running.. moved it to 79w - 103w for the feeds