dish and motor settings

[Pullet_Surprise]

I have a motorised setup (1m dish, stab 100) which has drifted out of alignment. Its wall mounted so Im guessing the wall mount is fine and only the motor latitude and motor/dish elevation need adjusting. Ive read the tutorials by echelon and dave (very good they are too).

I know my lat, long and elevation so from this I can check the setting for the motor longitude. How do I determine the arc angle settings for the motor and dish. I downloaded SMW and tried antenna alignment, is this used to determine the above two settings?

I keep going up and looking at the thing but cant work out how to get started?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Do you have any signal strength meter on the receiver ?

You can use this to find whether the arc is out (azimuth) or if the elevation /declination are out

 

[Pullet_Surprise]

No signal whatsoever. The dish seems to be pointing down. I guess something slipped?

 

[rolfw]

With the Stab, I seem to remember that there is a fairly straightforward lattitude setting on the motor body, if you set this to your lattitude and tighten the bolts on the motor body, providing it han't moved on the pole, you should be back to where you were.

 

[Pullet_Surprise]

Thanks fellas,

Ok so the angle of elevation for the motor is my latitude North i.e 54. To find the elevation value of the dish its:

Degrees of dish elevation = P -(60 - latitude)

Where P = degrees of dish elevation given by manufacturer (whats all this about?). Im reading from the stab motor guide here

 

[rolfw]

Forget that Pete, useful on bigger dishes, but with smaller dishes, I set the lattitude setting, then with the meter (or Receiver) rotate the motor on the pole for azimuth and the elevation only of the dish until I get 1W.

Chances are that the dish may not have moved, only the motor mount, you should be able to tell by looking which has moved.

 

[Pullet_Surprise]

Did have me scratching my head a bit that 'P' malarky. Just out of curiousity, why would you use this on a bigger dish.

 

[rolfw]

On a bigger dish, it isn't quite as easy to manipulate both settings, in fact near impossible, so you need to get it close to correct before you start tweaking.

 

[Pullet_Surprise]

Don't know why they mentioned it in the guide. The stab rotor sat only takes upto a 1.2m dish I understand?

 

[rolfw]

Probably for those who wish to set up without a meter, it is possible to get it close to exact using measurements only, never tried it though.