There are a lot of conflicting statements around the web when it comes to setting up a motorized dish. Should you aim it to -no kidding- true south, or aim it to the closest satellite to true south for your location?
For us here, it's the difference between 167 degrees for true south, vs 169 for Satmex 6.
Flyguy,
That is quite close enough not to worry about the difference. If you are using USALS, most of your job is accomplished automatically for you by the mathematical computations that the USALS feature offers.
As Brian (SatelliteAV) stated, you just desire to be somewhat close to true south or the truest southern satellite. If you have your H-H motor latitude adjustment and your dish elevation set properly (according to the installation guidelines and instructions for your specific site location and specific motor/dish assembly) then all you need to do is select a satellite and swing the dish east to west until you HIT the signal. The rest of the arc should fall right in place for you without much additional work or effort on your part.
I may be taking a bit of liberty in my statement above to make it sound so simple, but it really isn't too far from the truth. There are a few other considerations that you must realize. First of all, what if your nearest true southern sat is blocked by trees or buildings? Maybe the only sat you can possibly obtain a good LOS signal from is actually 26° to the west of your true south? Never fear, USALS is here!
LOL! Sincerely, you might be presented with a little additional labor in such a case, but it still works the same (just maybe not quite as convenient). The most convenient scenario would be that your dish install site was precisely at 97.0°W longitude thus making Galaxy 19 @ the 97.0°W orbital your TRUE southern satellite (this is just an example). I think that you foresee that this scenario is a no-brainer for the ease of alignment.
That sat is the highest in the sky for you and dead south of you. Your motor will be at its zero degree or home position and if you set up all the angles per the book, all you have to do is pick out a HOT transponder, set that sat and TP up to monitor on your receiver and then swing the motor mount on the vertical mast back and forth until you detect a BLIP of a signal and then fine tune it in. Pretty easy and straight forward, yes?
The other scenario.... The only sat you can get a clear LOS from is 26° off from your true south position. So what! Set up everything in the same manner first. Then command USALS to drive your H-H motor to that satellite's orbital position and select a HOT TP on that sat to monitor the signal from. The USALS program will automatically drive the motor to the proper position for that specific satellite. The angle of the dish will automatically be set to follow the arc to that satellite and all you have to do is swing the motor on vertical mast back and forth from east to weat until you detect the signal from that specific TP on that sat, fine tune it and lock'er down.
NOTE: Always verify that you have hit the right TP and SAT before you lock everything down. Scan the TP to gather channels and then compare the scanned channels to the channels which are supposed to be on that TP and SAT to ensure that they match.
So, now a quiz for you...
Q: If your actual site longitude
were 113°W, can you set up your H-H motor using satellite Galaxy 19 @ 97.0°W instead of SatMex 6 @ 113.0°W?
A: You bet you can, and just as easily, provided you use USALS motor positioning.
Q: Does it matter if you aim for real true south, the true south satellite or any other satellite when using USALS?
A: I will let you answer that for yourself in your next post / reply here.
RADAR
