I can work out elevation on dish, please help

[surfgeek]

Hi, I have bought a Passion + HD kit from Maplins.

I am struugling to get a signal out of my dish, I have visited dishpointer.com to find out my elevation, aszimuth & skew ( screendump hopefully attached. it seems that I need an elevation of 23.3 deg, looking on the guide on the side of my dish I cannot workout what needs to be lined up where ? I have also attached a picture of the guide. Please could somebody tell me how I line up 23.3 deg. I have bought a satellite finder and do get a reading upwards of 10, then turn down the knob, but even at the high 8's I see no picture or audio.
Thanks

 

[rolfw]

Use the Sky + box and put it into services, system setup, then signal test, the elevation you have looks close, but will probably need some adjustment.

You can then slowly sweep around until you get a strong signal reading on the meter, go in and check on the Sky+ box to see if it is giving you a signal lock. If it isn't then you are on the wrong satellite.

 

[Robbo]

Hi, without seeing the rest of the dish it is difficult to tell if the scale is about right. For 28E, I would start with the dish face vertical.

On the meter, you may have found the wrong satellite, somtimes I find it useful to have a quick scroll through the sat list, and see if any of them have a good signal quality. If there is one, do a quick scan and see if you get any channels.


To use the meter, the absolute value on the scale is unimportant, the knob is there so that you can centre the needle half scale, so that it has room to move up and down. The object is to find a peak as you adjust the dish, i.e moving the dish anywhere from its current position makes the needle drop.

I have discarded my meter, I just use my receiver connected to a portable TV, I find it easier.
Robbo

 

[surfgeek]

The dish I have is 65cm oval, came in a kit from Maplins.
Are the markings on the side of the dish degrees or your latitude ?, if so this may be where I am going wrong? Thanks

 

[portly]

Ill go with robbo71 use a portable and get you direction then tilt the dish all the way up, or the top backwards then bit by bit tilt it down, i found that mine was set all the way back at the top i also found moving the whole setup ,upto the top of the pole ? mind you mine is only 6ft off the ground if im correct if you look at your watch ,every second is 6 degrees so 4 secs = 24 degrees that will give you an idea from the horizontal

 

[Robbo]

The dish I have is 65cm oval, came in a kit from Maplins.
Are the markings on the side of the dish degrees or your latitude ?, if so this may be where I am going wrong? Thanks

No, the markings are elevation. That is, the angle upwards from horizontal that the dish is pointing. Try with the nut lined up to 23.5 degrees.

You can't always rely on the scales on dishes though, to be honest I normally completely ignore any numbers on there and just use the markings to know how far I've moved it when adjusting.

 

[surfgeek]

I think I have probably been lined up on the wrong satellite, I will buy a compass tomorrow and start again. Just realized also that I have a clear vision of my bedroom tv which has sky on it so will try aligning using the sky box instead of the satellite finder.

I really want to put on a motor also, maybe thats a job for next weekend. Would it be easier to go straight to a motor system now?

Thanks so far..

 

[compufunk]

I really want to put on a motor also, maybe thats a job for next weekend. Would it be easier to go straight to a motor system now?

I dont see why, Getting lined up now will be good practice for when you go motorized;)

 

[Robbo]

I agree, get some practise in, then when it comes to setting up the motor, you would have little difficulty, if you had already mastered the alignment process.