dish elavation guide help

M

mapex

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
vuplus, DM500S X2,TM500 SUPER,Motorised Fracarro Penta Dish,Basic Sky Set Up, Cyrus HiFi, 3 drumkits, 1 wife.3 drumkits.Bonneville SE
My Location
Glasgow
My last dish had a great guide to set it right on 22
this new dish i'm wasting 4 hrs on seems harder to
follow.
Check this pic do you think the guide marker goes
straight upwards or straight out if you follow.
Been trying to get it on 5w but having trouble.
 

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That appears to be indicating 26.

Anyway, the scale is purely indicative: Ok for ball-park, but the final alignment is done by results.

What Dish is it?

Have you set it so the dish face is roughly vertical by eye?

Further south, we'd suggest the dish face should be slightly up from vertical, but where you are located, vertical is as good a starting point as any.
 
What are you using to test for signal?
 
Its a digisat dish and i have a cable running to a tv which
is sitting at a window 5 feet from where i have the dish, i
can see the tv and i'm moving left/right-up/down with the
TM setup in plain view.
This is how i've set it up before but this time i'm getting
nowhere fast.
Going back up to try it agin.

I'm in Glasgow
 
I've did all this before but never had this trouble.....infact i
fitted a new motor just last week and had it changed and
tuned in an hr.
Did a factory reset on my TM...
entered long and lat
the motor was alread set just a case of fitting the dish
set the dish elevation
connected motor to box-lnb to motor
used compass , due south
watched my TV for the signal on 5w to go green
moved dish from left to right.....
moved the dish elevation up
left to right
dish down a little
left to right
dish up a little

I cant figure what i'm doing wrong...i even fitted a new lnd
incase that was the problem

till tomorrow

Mark
 
Well maybe your methodology is ok but the cable/connectors are not: Have a check to see the cable hasn't somehow sustained any damge and confirm that the F connectors are properly and securely fitted.

Also recheck your LNB settings in the TM .................... eg check the power is on!

Sometimes the simplest things get overlooked.
 
Tivù said:
Sometimes the simplest things get overlooked.
Click to expand...
I went to a job the other day and the guy had assembled the dish bracket wrong so the highest the dish could be adjusted was about 2º below the arc. I don't know if you know what I mean but some dishes brackets have limited adjustment and you have to choose the correct bolt holes depending on your latitude.
 
Oh yes indeed - And so easily avoidable by including reference to the two achievable elevation ranges in the Instruction Leaflet. But that simple expedient seems to have passed manufacturers by - perhaps they assume nobody has a "first time". But, of course, everybody does.
 
I thought last night as its a new dish, last dish 80cm this 1 is 1.1m well
i thought maybe the buildings opp me were getting in the way. So i had
about 40cm left on the bottom of my pole. So 1st thing ladder out and
dish off then pushed the pole up the extra 40cm. Struggled up the ladder
with the dish and got it in place, tried tuning it again with the tv then 1
of those cheap sat finders....nothing not a blip on my tv or a blip on
my little scanner that was left to right and up and down.
The box is moving the dish when i change sats so all i can think of now
is the cable from the lnb to the motor maybe broken so going to go get
one and try that...apart from that...scratching my head.
All the setting in the box are ok, lnb on ect.
 
Post up some pics and maybe we can spot any howlers.
 
Mapex, forget going left to right. Send the motor to zero and bolt the dish to the stub completely straight. Once you have entered your co-ordinates in the receiver tell it to send the motor to 5ºW. Now unplug the receiver cable from the motor and plug it directly into the LNB. Tune the receiver to a known high power transponder. Note: a squawker only does the band and polarity the receiver is tuned to, so if you are on low-band vertical for example and the only high power transponder is high-band horizontal you will never find the satellite.

Now you have it all bolted together and the dish facing the right way turn the knob on the squawker up until it starts making a noise. If it doesn't make a noise when turned right up something is broken. Once it is making a noise put your hand in front of the LNB so you are blocking the dish. The tone should change. If it doesn't something is broken. If it does now it is time to find a satellite. Turn up the knob on the meter so it is just barely squeaking. Now move the dish up and down (not left or right). The arc is full of satellites so doing this anywhere around the arc should cause a response. Once you have the elevation cracked it's just a matter of swinging a few degrees in either direction to get on the right satellite. And for your location the arc is pretty flat so even if you are 10º to the left or right of 5ºW your elevation will still be with 0.5º of spot on.
 
Got some result.....5w and 1w are giving me signals but when i scanned
1w it never picked up all the channels, i'm thinking the dish may need to
go higher up. Read of this before but cant remember the solution...maybe
i'm not picking up the full arc.
Set my motor to 0 and plugged the LNB straight to the box then got a signal,
swapped it all over into the motor and scanned all TV and radio.
Putting the dish higher up.......heights.....scare me a little and at the side
of my house i cant get the ladder back far enough because of a fence...
but i'll try....
Before i do....not picking up full arc.....maybe thats my problem.

All advice greatly appreciated.

thanks

Mark
 
Mark,

Unless you have a line of sight issue at the top of the arc (e.g. trees, buildings) there will be nothing to gain by raising the dish. The last thing you want to do if you have a problem with working at height (and I do) is to make the dish less easy to access and take you even further out of your comfort zone. If you are getting some channels from 5°W I think you only need a small adjustment in elevation on the dish.

Additionally have you made sure your mount is dead plumb? The combined weight of a dish and motor can bend what can appear to be a substantial mount. I'm sure if you persist and follow Huevos's excellent advice you will get there in the end. If you are still struggling post some pics as Tivù suggested. Good Luck.
 
My ladders still set up i'll go try and tweak that a little.....getting a few sat around 5w but nothing
from others......christ it was heavy enough getting it up to where it was...lol
I'll check the plum again but i'm sure its ok as i had the spirit level with me when i was setting it up.
 
Check that the dish bracket is clamped square on, so to speak, to the motor stub: Heavy dishes can "skew" (Tip slightly to one side) as you tighten the clamps and that will mess up your tracking for sure.
 
Now getting a 95% reading on 5w, 1w is now stronger than it was before
7w nothing, 12w-31 channels, 15w 37 channels 85% signal, 18w nothing,
22w channels 3 channels 94% signal, 24w 1 channel 82% signal, 27.5w
4 channels 98% signal, 30w 298 channels 97% signal, 31w nothing, 34w
nothing,, 37w nothing...4e 37 channels 86% signal, 9e 144 channels 75%
signal, 13e 1297 channels 70% signal, 19e 731 channels 64% signal, 21.6e
nothing, 23.5e nothing ...
28e... 142 channels 65% signal....now this is weak and mising plenty channels
any ideas....this was strong signal before. It has great F1 on a friday practice
ect.
Sending the dish east seems weaker than sending it west could this be me
not getting enough of the arc.....enough for today.
30e arabsat, no channels

Mark
 
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