motor imprecision

The digital level that I ordered has arrived (Digi-Pas DWL-200), for what it's worth. It's telling me that my "plumb" pole is something like 1.2° out. I'm assuming that the level is correctly calibrated at the factory, so I'll straighten the pole and see what results I get.

Something that I'm struggling with is the way USALS motors work. They only turn left and right, and thus elevation and declination are changed together in a fixed ratio according to the shape of the mounting pole. I understand that the long/lat setting in the receiver controls how *much* the motor turns, but elevation and declination cannot be controlled separately. Is the shape of the mounting pole optimized for a particular latitude, or is it good for any point on earth (within reason)?.
 
It's accurate within reason, when set up correctly, but towards the extreme edges of the arc, the alignment becomes ever more critical... Feel free to add declination control as some of us here have done.

For normal use, on a modest size dish, correctly set up, east/west control is all you need.
 
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