Set up questions with my 1.2 m FTA dish

[AcWxRadar]

Radar I truly appreciate your ideas, time and encouragement!
Well after work today my neighbor and I spent about 90 mins working on things and are a bit frustrated at a couple of issues that have become evident.
Firstly, my once nicely vertical pole is now off by about 3 deg., we estimate. Caused most likely by the weight of the 48" dish/motor. As a result my neighbor dropped my motor elevation from 41 to about 36 deg. - his theory to compensate for the pole leaning slightly. He's got my dish set to about 27 deg. My concern is that i have heard that regardless of any adjustments made, if the pole isn't 100% straight, the set up will always be off. Does anyone have any viewpoints or anecdotal experiences to share.

When installing a motor, your mast MUST be absolutely and perfectly vertically plumb all the way around. If it is offset even just a sliver, you will throw all your other alignments out of whack. All of the other angles (motor latitude, dish elevation and even the whole assembly's azimuth angle) rely upon the mast being perfectly set.

If you were installing a single, fixed point dish to aim at one (or even two or three satellites) only, you can fudge this to a point because it would be a one time correction. However, with a positioner or motor, you would need to correct the angle for the entire arc at every point on the arc. It is enough trouble and frustration to get the arc to track properly when things are all correct, so you don't want to add a stick of dynamite to the equation. My advice is to reset your mast so that it is plumb and vertical and sturdy enough to never change even if an elephant rubs his butt on it!

Also, I bought a brand new powertech SG380 motor for up to a 1.2m dish from Sadoun and it does not appear to be functioning correctly. It won't move the dish to sats beyond 97w and makes a loud clicking and sometimes whining sound as if it's struggling to move the dish. It's response to my commands through the receiver are unreliable and erratic. These 2 issues are now preventing us from progressing with this project! I will call Sadoun tomorrow and perhaps try my old SG2100 smaller motor which always performed well in the past. And take a look at the pole while I have the motor off. Still going slow as far as fine tuning signals to best get the clark belt sats...

That does not sound good for a DG-380 motor. They are generally so quiet and smooth that you cannot tell that they are moving even when standing close by. It will be best to contact Jamal Sadoun and get that taken care of.

RADAR

 

[Mikey11]

As a result my neighbor dropped my motor elevation from 41 to about 36 deg. - his theory to compensate for the pole leaning slightly. He's got my dish set to about 27 deg. My concern is that i have heard that regardless of any adjustments made, if the pole isn't 100% straight, the set up will always be off.

you are correct and your neighbour is WRONG!

your motors latitude scale must ALWAYS be set to YOUR LATITUDE.....NEVER change this adjustment for any reason whatsoever....

i will re-quote MYSELF from a previous statement i made in this thread....you seem to want advice but then you dont want to follow it....

"your mounting post and motor assembly must be 100% level at ALL TIMES.....you can not compensate for this with dish or motor adjustments....if they are not 100% level then anything you do past this point will just be a big huge waste of time....trust me ive been there and done that....and i do mean 100% level and not one degree off....

a well mounted post should easily be able to support your entire body weight without moving....it is not just the weight of the dish and motor.....the post is also supporting against wind resistance.....and with a dish that size the wind force can be very strong....."

 

[dfecarter]

Well I haven't had much time lately to play around with the aforementioned project but today my neighbor and I did spend a good 5 hours on it. We froze and got pretty frustrated Well to make a long story, full of back and forths as far as progress goes...we pretty much manage to get the KU band in on most fo my available sats from 61w-123w. We seemed to have gotten the dish motor (on the sides) level and most of the available transponders were coming in at from 30-60% sig quality.
Then as it was ge3tting dark and mightly cold...we removed the kU LNB and replaced it with a CK1LNBF with a switch, powered by a Fortec Mercury rec. and moved by a BDG380 Powertwch motor, installed on a 1.2M off set dish.
Well after putting on the LNB KU/B Band combo...can only get 1 C'Band ch. and that was STO on 121W!
Can someone please tell me the following settings for my equipment...In my FOrtec Mercury rec. to scan for KU and C LNB...
what LNB type? (had been using LNB 10750 for my KU Band LNC)
Do I keep the 0/22Khz on or off?
Switch? (choices are DiSEqC 1.0 and 1.1
Input LMB1,2,3 or4?
Port?
Thanks very much! Any help will be appreciated!