WB-38 New Orleans & 1.0 m Dish

[Mark2074]

Since it is on Lyngsat I will post it in the main form. Is anyone else experiencing a low signal from WB-38 New Orleans? I get 45-55% quality. Although, I saw the Critic's Choice Awards last night and the quality hit about 88% all night.
I have a 80cm (Fortec star Model FC-75) dish, will upping it to a 1.0m help out? I really wanted to put up a 1.2m dish but the dish would then hit the soffet of the house (it just sits underneath to get height). That being said, I will install a long steel post (to give height and see all birds) away from the house and install a 1.2m Fortec star dish in the spring. But, since I have room for at least a 1.0m will it be any benefit in the meantime? My true north satellite is AMC-5 and the NYN (New York Network) comes in at 98% quality so I know that the dish is aligned properly.
Oh and will a 1m fit on a the reflector brackets of the fortec 80cm Dish or will they have to be removed and use the 1m dish brackets? Please bear in mind that the current position of the dish only allows me to see satellites from Echostar 6/8 in the west to PAS-3R in the west. I have huge pine tree that blocks anything west of Echostar 6/8.


I was thinking again about the 120 cm dish, now if I could find a way to sort of put something in between the Dish and reflector brackets so that I could clear the soffet of the house then a 120 cm dish would fit. But, if I do this will I screw up the signal? I've attached a picture of was I mean. Now this picture is over a year old and does not show the SG2100 motor and the wall side supporting rods, but they are there. The motor gave me clearance better than without. But not enough. This picture will give you an idea what I am up against, any suggested would greatly be appreciated. Since the weather is unusally warm in Toronto for the next few days I would love to get this project completed.
Thanks
Mark

 

[Mr Tony]

SBS6 vertical transponders have a really odd footprint. The farther north you go, the worse it gets (the Horizontal ones are pretty good)

I'm in Minneapolis, MN and can pull about a 60-65 on average with a 30" dish on that transponder.

But a bigger dish will help and yes the 1m dish will work on the same mast as the 80cm

 

[Mark2074]

90cm instead but need help with switch!

Thanks Iceberg,
I went to Fortec Star Communications today to pick up a 90cm dish instead. When I got home I rushed to install my new goodie. I opted in using the existing 80cm attachement to the HH120 mast. I had to use the arms and holders because they wouldn't fit on the 80cm stuff.
When I was finish. I hooked it up to the STB, powered the Pansat 2500 and nothing......I mean I could not find any signal quality. I set the HH120 motor to 0. Which is AMC-5 for me. Then I thought the angle may be different. So I fooled around with that for several hours. Still nothing. I got really frustrated night cuz I had sent the whole night in vain. Is it imperative that I use the 90cm attachements or is it ok to use the 80cm stuff?
What really sucks is the weather calls for rain tomorrow, and it will be colder on Saturday. I'm screwed. Excuse the language.

 

[Tron]

Mark, have you tried here:

http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/HH-mount-installation.htm

Sadoun has one of the best help pages for motor installation IMO It was just updated recently as well...

 

[Mr Tony]

if all you did was swap the dish, hopefully the motor was on your true south when you ripped the old dish off.

The new one should just pop right in at the same angel

 

[PSB]

If you are saying you kept all the 80cm parts and just swapped out the reflector it may not work at all.

The focal distance will be messed up. I am think if you swap out everything it will work fine.

 

[Mark2074]

Thanks again Pete and Iceberg, I took Tron's advise. I went to the Sadoun site. It says that for my Moteck SG-2100 the Dish elevation is 30 minus decination angle. For Toronto it is 6.60. So I minus 6.60 from 30 and it's 23.4. Is this the elevation I set on the dish? The SG-2100 elevation is set correctly at 43 degrees (For Toronto).

Also, pete I took your advise and change all of the brackets to what came with the 90 cm Fortec. But, I remember when I installed my 80 cm in late 2004 and I know that there was a problem with the elevation ticks. Apparently they are off on this model from Fortec Star. Will this be true for the 90 cm? The arch is not the same, it's smaller, tighter.

In 2004 I drove myself crazy for a month trying to get the perfect elevation.

Oh and Iceberg, I did screw up my TRUE South cuz I removed everything off of the mast arm. I had to see if it was plumb and it was off a bit. I tightened it back so that when I installed the heavy motor on it the it would compensate. Now it is starting from ground zero all over again.

 

[Mark2074]

Any suggestions guys?

 

[Mr Tony]

Thanks again Pete and Iceberg, I took Tron's advise. I went to the Sadoun site. It says that for my Moteck SG-2100 the Dish elevation is 30 minus decination angle. For Toronto it is 6.60. So I minus 6.60 from 30 and it's 23.4. Is this the elevation I set on the dish? The SG-2100 elevation is set correctly at 43 degrees (For Toronto).

yes that would be right. I know mine declination angle in MN is 23 (and I'm at 44.7N

Oh and Iceberg, I did screw up my TRUE South cuz I removed everything off of the mast arm. I had to see if it was plumb and it was off a bit. I tightened it back so that when I installed the heavy motor on it the it would compensate. Now it is starting from ground zero all over again.

oh ok...but you would need to switch out everything when you switch to the 90cm dish

 

[Tron]

Thanks again Pete and Iceberg, I took Tron's advise. I went to the Sadoun site. It says that for my Moteck SG-2100 the Dish elevation is 30 minus decination angle. For Toronto it is 6.60. So I minus 6.60 from 30 and it's 23.4. Is this the elevation I set on the dish? The SG-2100 elevation is set correctly at 43 degrees (For Toronto).

Correct, 23.4 would be your DISH elevation. Your motor should be set using the latitude scale (left side looking from behind the motor) at your latitude.

Remember, though, that if the engraved elevation scale on the dish mounting bracket is known to be off, you may have to tweak your dish elevation. That is the case for some (most) Winegard 2076's.

 

[PSB]

Huh!

I have installed 100's of Winegard 2076's and the elevation markings have all been CRACK on! Maybe you mean the Fortec dish!

 

[Mark2074]

Pete that must be the case. My 80 cm Fortec was a pain to install. But I just wanted more gain. 80 cm wasn't cutting it for me. With the warm weather I thought "here's my chance!". Then I got caught by the rain on Friday night, then it drop to -12 Celcius on Saturday. It was TOO COLD to do any adjusting....Now I have to wait for warm day again.......sigh.

 

[Tron]

They've probably fixed the Winegard problem by now. I have an older production run of that dish, and apparently the elevation guide is 1.5 degrees off. I first read about it here:

http://www.dvbresource.com/dishes/winegard/winegard_76_4.html

When I installed my Winegard, sure enough it had the same error. But I got a dish that had been sitting around for a year or more, so it was probably an older version.

 

[Mr Tony]

My Fortec dish (all 3 of them) were off (this was 2 90cm's and a 80cm)

Winegard was bang on...and I've had that for 2 years now

 

[Katrinasucks]

FWIF- Last night I was trying to get AMC3 for about an hour. Then I remembered Tron's advice. I lined up the dish L-R where I thought it should be and lowered it slightly. - Boom, done.

I didn't get the flashlght and see how far off it was but it was definitely off a pinch. If I had heeded his advice I would have been done an hour earlier. - Again FWIF

[And BTW- I've read it here various times and you guys were right, I went from 0 signal to 76% quality in about 3/8" - Sorta weid, like throwing a light switch. ]

 

[Tron]

I think that there are two or three different "versions" of the 2076. We were probably unlucky enough to get the off version. But its really no problem, you just have to tweak it a bit

 

[Mark2074]

I managed to finally get AMC 5 which is my TRUE SOUTH satellite. But I am still having a problem. I get satellites starting from my TRUE SOUTH satellite westward BUT not anything east of it. It seems strange. I adjusted the motor and dish together till I got full signal on NYN. The motor is on 0. I get full signals of every satellite westward all the way to AMC 1. I don't understand it. Everything is lined up. Could someone help me figure this out?

 

[digiblur]

I managed to finally get AMC 5 which is my TRUE SOUTH satellite. But I am still having a problem. I get satellites starting from my TRUE SOUTH satellite westward BUT not anything east of it. It seems strange. I adjust the motor and dish together till I got full signal on NYN. I get full signals of every satellite westward all the way to AMC 1. I don't understand it. Everything is lined up. Could someone help me figure this out?

Just keep playing. I had the same problem. I ended up pull it off the mount and redoing everything. It takes lots of patience to get the arc perfectly.

 

[Mark2074]

Well, thanks for the advise digiblur but when I was playing around with it this morning, I started to pull in feeds off of the remaining statellites to the east of my true south. I can't explain how this happened.

Anyway it was a good thing this was accomplished because we had a snow storm over night and it would have made it difficult to do anything for at least a few days. Although, with the upgrade from a 80cm to a 90cm dish I still don't pull in weaker feeds any better. Albeit, the weather has been crappy this morning.

It's amazing for me, back in 2004 I worked hard to get my system set up. When I did, I thought I could do no wrong. This upgrade has been a humbling experience to me and definitely a lession in 101 motor set-up.

 

[digiblur]

Well, thanks for the advise digiblur but when I was playing around with it this morning, I started to pull in feeds off of the remaining statellites to the east of my true south. I can't explain how this happened.
Anyway it was a good thing this was accomplished because we had a snow storm over night and it would have made it difficult to do anything for at least a few days. Although, with the upgrade from a 80cm to a 90cm dish I still don't pull in weaker feeds any better. Albeit, the weather has been crappy this morning.
It's amazing for me, back in 2004 I worked hard to get my system set up. When I did, I thought I could do no wrong. This upgrade has been a humbling experience to me and definitely a lession in 101 motor set-up.

There is a very large learning curve with a digital box and motor. It's a lot to swallow at one time which is why lots of us here recommend that someone start out without the motor they ordered first. This allows them to get a hang of the receiver's blind scans, etc. It will also open your eyes on how touchy the adjustments are on this thing. Before I had started in this FTA field I had done hundreds of other DBS installations plus a few C Band ones back in the day. I figured this would be easy. Nope.. I spent 3-4 evenings outside getting this thing perfect. I had the same problem though, when I would go from G10R to G11 I was dead on. But as soon as I passed G11 the arc would be off. I just kept toying with it and made sure everything was plumb. Eventually I got it! Trust me there was as few times I ready to just throw the whole thing in the long grass. I wouldn't let it get the best of me and was at it again the next night. Now I have this awesome system that lets me view channels I can't get anywhere else.