If the rain stops here on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, then I'm going to try and pull the 500 I have on my roof and move it out into my yard where I think I should have a better view of the bird. Right now it's trying to shoot through some trees in my front yard, and even with two attempts by dish installers to get a decent signal, right now I can barely get 50 on any tp and it's unwatchable. I think that from the back of my yard, I will get over any tree problems just by removing some low hanging branches of the trees back there. My question is that right now it's skewed to what looks like the normal skew for 110/119 with a 500. The bracket on holding the lnb is a twin with the lnb in the 119 slot. I have an I bracket for the 500 now and I want to switch to that. Should I get rid of all the skew since I'm setting up in the middle of the dish now?
Skew needed when pointing a 500 at 129?
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I'm sure you have the correct settings for 119/110, but for Slidell and/or Lacombe:
Azimuth = 219
Elevation = 45
Skew = 124
Same locations, the Dish 500 with I-Bracket for 129 is approximately:
Azimuth = 236
Elevation = 35
Skew = 90
Like myself, you probably don't have a super scientific way of determining azimuth, but if you did, using the 119 slot the azimuth would be about 231.5. The skew set at 90 (0 degrees) should work very well. However, some would use a skew of about 137. If you adjust one, then the other setting would need re-adjusting, but you should try the 90, especially with the I-bracket.
Sounds like you are planning to go under the back-yard trees, over the top of the house, and then over the front-yard trees. The dish receives a signal from higher than where it looks like it is receiving from, I believe someone said it is offset about 20 degrees. So you might even be able to mount it on the back of your house and clear the front trees, depending on the house elevation.
Good luck.
Azimuth = 219
Elevation = 45
Skew = 124
Same locations, the Dish 500 with I-Bracket for 129 is approximately:
Azimuth = 236
Elevation = 35
Skew = 90
Like myself, you probably don't have a super scientific way of determining azimuth, but if you did, using the 119 slot the azimuth would be about 231.5. The skew set at 90 (0 degrees) should work very well. However, some would use a skew of about 137. If you adjust one, then the other setting would need re-adjusting, but you should try the 90, especially with the I-bracket.
Sounds like you are planning to go under the back-yard trees, over the top of the house, and then over the front-yard trees. The dish receives a signal from higher than where it looks like it is receiving from, I believe someone said it is offset about 20 degrees. So you might even be able to mount it on the back of your house and clear the front trees, depending on the house elevation.
Good luck.
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SmityWhity said:
I'm over in Covington, so my azimuth should be about 238 minus 2-3 degreess of declination. I've got a compass to get my azimuth in the general area, so I'm not that worried about that. I didn't know enough about how all of this worked when they installed the 129 dish, and came back out to repoint it, so I wasn't comfortable arguing about whether or not you could get a good look at the bird where they put it. To me, it looks like they have it trying to shoot through a hole in the trees, but they come together at the top, so because it comes in higher than it's pointed, it's getting blocked. I think from about 10 feet behind my superdish (which is in the yard already and going through that hole) I will be completely clear of those trees. I just know that it can't get worse. Right now watching any HD on 129 either goes into searching for satellite after 30 seconds or so, or breakes up every few seconds.
You're on track, the further back you go, the higher it will clear.
Someone posted this link the other day, I've never used it, but it may be of value to you.
http://www.bjupress.com/services/bjhomesat/tech_support/obstacle.html
Also, you probably have read about the signal problems many have with 129, so that doesn't help either.
Have fun and good luck.
PS. If you have too many issues with 129, you might be able to get a clear shot at 61.5.
Someone posted this link the other day, I've never used it, but it may be of value to you.
http://www.bjupress.com/services/bjhomesat/tech_support/obstacle.html
Also, you probably have read about the signal problems many have with 129, so that doesn't help either.
Have fun and good luck.
PS. If you have too many issues with 129, you might be able to get a clear shot at 61.5.
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Well I'm happy to say for right now it all looks good. Planted the fence pole in a spot I thought I would get good signal, and did a test run and got 50's on 129. Cleaned up the hole and planted the pole in concrete, and then after that dried dialed it in as best as I could. I'm getting mostly mid to upper 80's on voom channels. Rave was a 46 before I moved it and is an 83 right now. This should be at least watchable. Now I need to see if I might can knock some of the rain fade out of my other one. It's a superdish 121. As I understand it, I don't need 121 anymore because they moved my SD locals off of it. If that is the case. I wonder if I can either move or peak that one and get a better 110/119 signal. It's usually in the upper 80 to lower 90 range right now, and I lose at least a few minutes everytime a front comes through. Plus, I think it's hitting the same trees that the 129 one was, and the pole isn't in concrete. I'd at least like to get that firmed up. I'll start my research, and post any questions/progress on that project.
Shame is that Dish basically tried three times to get this set up, and I ended up doing it. The inital installer never could find the bird, so they sent out a supervisor. Hes the one that put it on my roof. It worked ok but pixelated very 10 minutes or so. They sent someone out to repeak it, and he said I didn't have a view for the bird, and it actually got worse. Once I knew what to look for to find a spot, I realized I had a ton of spots to put it, and one was just 10 feet from the other dish. Moved it there and voila - I now have real HD.
Shame is that Dish basically tried three times to get this set up, and I ended up doing it. The inital installer never could find the bird, so they sent out a supervisor. Hes the one that put it on my roof. It worked ok but pixelated very 10 minutes or so. They sent someone out to repeak it, and he said I didn't have a view for the bird, and it actually got worse. Once I knew what to look for to find a spot, I realized I had a ton of spots to put it, and one was just 10 feet from the other dish. Moved it there and voila - I now have real HD.
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Glad it working out.
On the SuperDish 121, yes you can peak it just for 110 and 119 and it should be stronger. This can be done even without changing the skew given for 110/119/121.
Slightly adjusting the skew may be better, I don't know, but I'll see if I can compute one. I'll edit this post and post it later, then when you are playing, you can try it if you like, but remember whenever you adjust the skew, you need to readjust the azimuth and the elevation again.
In the meantime, I'll be waiting for LA W&F to set the opening date for the August Shrimp season, maybe they'll do it at the Thursday meeting.
On the SuperDish 121, yes you can peak it just for 110 and 119 and it should be stronger. This can be done even without changing the skew given for 110/119/121.
Slightly adjusting the skew may be better, I don't know, but I'll see if I can compute one. I'll edit this post and post it later, then when you are playing, you can try it if you like, but remember whenever you adjust the skew, you need to readjust the azimuth and the elevation again.
In the meantime, I'll be waiting for LA W&F to set the opening date for the August Shrimp season, maybe they'll do it at the Thursday meeting.
