Question for pole mounts

[gettaclue]

Just curious, why is it necessary to plumb the pole when you can make minor adjustments later when aligning the dish. Say the pole is off slightly, will it still cause issues when installing the dish?

I am trying to do a pole mount on my balcony...problem is, the ground is uneven and I don't want to mount the pole at an angle to the bucket so I am leveling against the top of the bucket in case I ever have to move it later.

Any insight is appreciated.

 

[Stargazer]

Whenever you have a dish that has a skew (such as Dish 500, SuperDish, or a DirecTv oval dish with three lnbfs - in other words dishes with more than one lnbf's) then it is important to have the pole plumb to make the skew correct. This is also the case for dishes with just one lnbf as it would effect the elevation as well but not as important for the dishes with multiple lnbf's that have a skew that also could be affected. Having a pole that is not plumb would cause your numbers not to be true on the elevation and skew causing the signal to be a bit harder to tune in.

 

[walkerjs]

When I did my pole-in-a-bucket installation, I was so concerned with getting the thing plumb and level based on what I was told by everything I read, I ended up making the thing far more level than nearly everything else in my apartment. The balcony was determined later to be off by about a degree, so I just marked the position of the bucket which was the "front" so that when I moved it to where it ultimately ended up living the pole was still level. It didn't necessarily assist with the pointing, which was actually fairly easy considering other problems with my site, but at least I had the satisfaction that it was absolutely true!

Plus the satellites were actually where I thought they were, rather than where the installer guy told me they were supposed to be. So the dish ended up being where I originally figured it would go, rather than the ackward place the installer guy said he was going to put it. That it was level just made it more of an accomplishment for a n00b-to-dbs guy like me.