setting up motorized starchoice

[ctechguy]

I'm in the process of setting up my motorized starchoice 75e. I can't find any satellite. Is my skew on the dish suppost to be on 0. My LO is 10750 and is hooked to the sweet spot lnb on my beer can lnb. Could my lnb be broken?

 

[Mr Tony]

skew is 0 (or 90)...the motor will skew the LNB
LNB lo is 10750

Any switches attached?

 

[ctechguy]

No switches, ya 90 looks better. My latitude is 45.9 and my longitude is 66 here in New Brunswick Canada. What would be the strongest or easiest satellite to go for. I was using Starchoice 107. Yesterday I had my circular lnb on and was able to go between bell and dishnet satellites. I find linear a lot harder to find. Probably because extra angle.

 

[Mr Tony]

oof....closest linear satellite is AMC6 at 72W

 

[ctechguy]

Ok, I have spent all weekend trying to set this dish up. My pole is perfectly level. And my elevation on my dish and on my motor is set correctly. Next time I go out I want to get it working. So I’m going to try AMC 6. The °Azimuth (Geographic) from http://www.sadoun.com/ is 188.3. Do I have to add my magnetic deviation factor? I believe my magnetic deviation factor here is 18.4°. So do I look for 206.7 on compass?

 

[mrweather]

Doesn't Amazonas (61w) still have active transponders? I know there isn't any active programming on it (BlackBelt TV R.I.P.) but if you can get a signal regardless it will assist in aiming.

There are a number of satellite aiming utilities out there that will automagically take into account magnetic deviation. Google may be your best bet.

 

[Mr Tony]

mrweather

Havent seen anything on Amazonas in a while. When I scan that satellite, there are no active transponders

 

[mrweather]

Too bad. I haven't watched it in a while (well, since buddy in NY got busted) but I figured there'd be at least something being transmitted from that satellite!

 

[Anole]

magnetic correction

You need to take the magnetic correction into consideration.
My program shows -19.7º magnetic error for your location
Don't assume anyone is right - experiment a little.

Here is a small portion of a report for your area.
Sorry the satellite data base isn't up to date.

Az (t) is true heading, and Az(m) is magnetic heading.

           Latitude 45° 54.000'N Longitude 66° 0.000'W

                         Sat Name Sat Lng Az(t) Az(m)   El  Skew
----------------------------------------------------------------

                     Intelsat 705   50.0W 158.2 178.0 34.9 -15.0
                     Intelsat 707   53.0W 162.2 182.0 35.6 -12.3
                     Intelsat 805   55.5W 165.5 185.3 36.2 -10.0
                            PAS 9   58.0W 168.9 188.7 36.6  -7.7
                         Amazonas   61.0W 173.1 192.8 36.9  -4.8                       
           EchoStar 3 / Rainbow 1   61.5W 173.7 193.5 37.0  -4.3
                 Estrela do Sul 1   63.0W 175.8 195.6 37.1  -2.9
                     Brasilsat B2   65.0W 178.6 198.4 37.2  -1.0
                     Brasilsat B1   70.0W 185.6 205.3 37.0   3.9
                         Nahuel 1   71.8W 188.1 207.8 36.9   5.6
                            AMC 6   72.0W 188.3 208.1 36.8   5.8
                        DirecTV 1   72.5W 189.0 208.8 36.8   6.3
                            SBS 6   74.0W 191.1 210.8 36.6   7.7
                       EchoStar 4   77.0W 195.1 214.9 36.1  10.5
                            AMC 5   79.0W 197.8 217.6 35.6  12.3
                          Nimiq 2   82.0W 201.8 221.5 34.9  15.0
                            AMC 9   83.0W 203.1 222.8 34.6  15.8

        Satellite Finder is (c) Copyright 2004, P. Lutus

 

[ctechguy]

ok thanks everyone, i'll let you know how i make out