weekend of frustration

[joem919]

well i took everyones advice tryed till i was red as a lobster to work this motor.
seems i would get it to run but ,I couldnt hit the arch,went back n forth,for like 3 1/2 hours.
I even had 3 installers 1 from dish 2 from direct wondering what i was doing,
I told the 3rd 1 im standing on my feet trying to act like a bird in the sky.
was so frustrated.well this weekend im gonna try again .I keep reading old post from everyone trying to help me.im determined to get this motor working,since i cant find a good installer.any more suggestions please let me know,poles plum nice n level ,elvation is set thanks to some other post helpers. hope every 1 else has a better week .!!!!!!

 

[Lak7]

You could try using an old DirecTV / DishNet LNB and setup to the Echostar Sats first.
They are much easier to hit. The LNB settings for the receiver are a little different, the L.O. is set to 11250 vs. 10750 for FTA.

 

[Fizbi]

This may not be much help, but if you have tried everything...

1. You could try a different brand motor.
2. You could ship the motor to another FTAr and see if they can get it to work.
3. Get the motor inspected by the manufacturer.

It may be time to just take a break and try again later.

Lastly, try doing this one step at a time. Lock onto one bird with the motor.
Slew east and west and see if you can get back to the same bird. If you can't, I'd be taking a real close look at that motor and or setup.

It took me weeks and a lot of patience before I got the full arc.
I slowly worked my way across the sky starting with one bird, wait a week, then two, etc.

If you can consistently locate one bird, then you are ready to try two.
Don't expect to find the full arc of birds in one weekend especially if you are having to climb ladders.

Lastly, parking the TV next to the dish to see the results of your adjustments is the biggest time saving tool in the whole setup procedure.

 

[Radioguy41]

As someone not real familiar with motorized FTA dishes this response may not apply but in setting up a C-band dish the most important thing to do, and do first, is find true south (not magnetic south) and center your mount exactly on it (That's the azimuth). Then set your inclination and declination (or axis and zenith). This will align your dish arc with the satellite belt. This should allow you to grab some signals and tweak the dish.

Here's a site that explains it:
http://www.satellitehelp.com/installation_index.asp