dieselnutjob
Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2009
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
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- Age
- 54
- My Satellite Setup
- Maplin motorised dish kit (Fortec Star). 90cm dish.
- My Location
- Ruislip, West London, UK
I'm trying to set up a Maplin motorised kit (SD) and not having any luck so far. Part of the problem might be that I'm trying to use the receiver itself as a strength meter, it might well be that I've been trying to tune to a signal that isn't there... Anyway I'll explain.
Luckily I have a house with a south facing rear wall, and a single story extension with a flat roof. Therefore I can easily mess about with the thing standing on the flat roof having climbed out of a bedroom window.
It also means that I can put the receiver box and a small LCD screen on the roof too and look at the picture etc as I tweak the dish. So far I've got nothing.
I live in London, so my proceedure was.
Get bracket perfectly vertical (it is).
Bolt motor pointing true south (1.5 deg clockwise of mag south).
Set motor bolts to 51.5 deg latitude.
Attach dish and set to 31 deg elevation (I mean absolute elevation, so down a bit compared with motor tube).
Confirm using google maps that dish points to corner of house over the road which is due south according to google.
Hook up receiver and configure to point at convenient satellite that's near south, like Thor. (also configured lat/long in receiver)
Observer that dish moves a bit on motor.
Try tweaking dish a bit in desparate attempt to get some signal
There is one thing that confuses me on this. The dish documentation appears to be saying that when the L bracket that goes from the back of the dish to the LNB is exactly vertical, that this will be 30 degrees elevation. Have I understood this correctly? So I have been setting the dish with the back of the L bracket leaning back 1 degree.
Things I've read today
1. I need to try some frequencies that are known to work, such as Intelsat 10-02 1 deg west on 12687H.
2. The skew on my fortec star LNB might not be correct with cable exiting vertical.
But if someone can confirm that a vertical L bracket means 30 degree inclination on a Fortec Star 90cm dish then that would be much appreciated.
And anything else I'm doing wrong...
thanks
Luckily I have a house with a south facing rear wall, and a single story extension with a flat roof. Therefore I can easily mess about with the thing standing on the flat roof having climbed out of a bedroom window.
It also means that I can put the receiver box and a small LCD screen on the roof too and look at the picture etc as I tweak the dish. So far I've got nothing.
I live in London, so my proceedure was.
Get bracket perfectly vertical (it is).
Bolt motor pointing true south (1.5 deg clockwise of mag south).
Set motor bolts to 51.5 deg latitude.
Attach dish and set to 31 deg elevation (I mean absolute elevation, so down a bit compared with motor tube).
Confirm using google maps that dish points to corner of house over the road which is due south according to google.
Hook up receiver and configure to point at convenient satellite that's near south, like Thor. (also configured lat/long in receiver)
Observer that dish moves a bit on motor.
Try tweaking dish a bit in desparate attempt to get some signal
There is one thing that confuses me on this. The dish documentation appears to be saying that when the L bracket that goes from the back of the dish to the LNB is exactly vertical, that this will be 30 degrees elevation. Have I understood this correctly? So I have been setting the dish with the back of the L bracket leaning back 1 degree.
Things I've read today
1. I need to try some frequencies that are known to work, such as Intelsat 10-02 1 deg west on 12687H.
2. The skew on my fortec star LNB might not be correct with cable exiting vertical.
But if someone can confirm that a vertical L bracket means 30 degree inclination on a Fortec Star 90cm dish then that would be much appreciated.
And anything else I'm doing wrong...
thanks