Newbie Here New member from s.africa

[Analoguesat]

String testing seems unorthodoxbut is indeed an established method for checking the alignment of larger dishes.

 

[Man on the steps]

The dish is 6 petals and its v well made. Mis-alignment is not really possible ( I hope) , due to the number of screws that have to
be fitted etc. The strings are equal in length, so hope its ok.

Looking at Lyngsat maps, it's interesting the beams go out on different frequencies to different locations.

Taking 68.5 for instance. There is a landmass beam (C-Band) that goes out over a wide area.
The Ku band seems to go out over a smaller area.

It will be fun locating signals.

I should have been aware that a lot of the european signals are not transmitted in Africa. Maybe I will find other feeds etc.

 

[moonbase]

...I should have been aware that a lot of the european signals are not transmitted in Africa. Maybe I will find other feeds etc.

That is the point I was making previously about checking the online sites for the 10.0 East Ku-Band beam footprints they can be favourable in some locations and not others.

 

[Man on the steps]

Yes, your help has v been useful - I feel I owe u a few beers.

Looking for a C band sat that looks promising, 51.5E seems to have a channel that I should be able to locate.

Maybe I will try this after 68.5E

 

[moonbase]

Yes, your help has v been useful - I feel I owe u a few beers.
Looking for a C band sat that looks promising, 51.5E seems to have a channel that I should be able to locate.

Maybe I will try this after 68.5E

You should not have any issues to get the 51.5 East C-Band signals from your location with the Winegard 3.0m dish. They are quite strong and I was able to lock onto one of the Africa beam signals here in the UK with a smaller dish (2.0m).

Another point to remember is that some signals can vary in strength depending on the time of the day and the location. If you do not lock onto a signal in the morning or afternoon, don't give up on it, try it again in the evening. I have attached a picture below that illustrates how the 3645 R frequency from the Africa beam of 51.5 East varies thoughout the day from a UK location.

.

 

[Channel Hopper]

The dish is 6 petals and its v well made.

You forgot to collect two of them

Why is it purple ?

 

[moonbase]

Why is it purple ?

Heavy metal !

 

[Channel Hopper]

Heavy metal !

Man that's deep

 

[Man on the steps]

Ok .. forgive me .. but this is a blind man being led by whatsapp.

I got this far :

See pics; I suspect it will give u chuckles.

The dish is directed roughly at target. But can find a big enough spanner to tilt grey thing at back.

Shops closed now .. will try when they open.

 

[Man on the steps]

I appreciate not many style points.

I attached the other end of cable to sat finder : Its saying 'no or bad signal'

 

[Man on the steps]

I apparently can discard the white/greyscalar ring.

Am trying to check angle of tilt of grey thing at back (on top of pole)

 

[Man on the steps]

Found a protractor from kids' school box.

It is 60 degrees. So that's not it. I suspect I attached LNB wrong, but the wife shouting at me.

Later.

 

[Man on the steps]

There is definitely a gap in the market for sat vides on youtube in English.

Unless your Farsi is up to scratch, u can struggle.

The supermax lnb website does show the VH-444 model .. but the manual link is not working.

 

[Analoguesat]

I apparently can discard the white/greyscalar ring.

Am trying to check angle of tilt of grey thing at back (on top of pole)

Never throw anything like that away - put it in your junk box because you never know when it might come in useful!

 

[moonbase]

I apparently can discard the white/greyscalar ring.

Two points before you even get to adjusting the elevation angle.

1. 68.5 East is a linear polarity satellite in C-Band. You need to have the orientation of the two small probes inside the LNB throat aligned correctly at the correct polarity angle for the satellite. This angle is defined by your location, it is the polarisation skew angle, not to be confused with the elevation angle.

2. Personally, I would fit the scalar to the LNB, it will reduce the background noise and enhance the signal.

In addition, the LNBF should have the throat aperture at a few millimetres less than the focal length of the dish. However, the feed support arms and LNBF clamping arrangement should get it to within a reasonable tolerance of that distance.

 

[moonbase]

These are the important angles to use for your location:

1. Elevation Angle = 30.85 degrees

2. Dish Face Angle = 59.15 degrees.
If you had a long enough piece of straight wood and placed it running from top to bottom on the dish it should be at 59.15 degrees as indicated by an inclinometer placed on the piece of wood.

3. Polarisation Skew Angle = 45.05 degrees

.

 

[moonbase]

At the top of the pole you have the square metal frame that the dish is bolted onto at 4 anchorage points. I would try to set the dish to the correct elevation by using one of the two vertical struts of this square frame. Place a digital inclinometer halfway up on one of these two vertical struts and adjust the mount elevation until the digital inclinometer reading is 59.15 degrees.

This should get you close to the precise angle required assuming the dish is symetrically mounted onto the square frame. I would not use the large elvation bolt as a measuring point as it is held in a pivoting saddle and there is a chance that the angle from the large elvation bolt might not be accurate?

 

[Man on the steps]

Thx for all your input .. and Happy New Year.

I am not really winning .. but its early.

I attached the cables etc, but am getting these readings. The C/N of 0 cant be good. I have read that's Carrier to noise ratio .. is 0
indicative of something broken? Is the level 70 dBuV something to be hopeful about.

Am slightly worried I may need to cut back some bushes (not a problem .. and can check if the basic setup is working by finding
a sat higher on the horizon.

 

[Man on the steps]

A few things worry me ..

The small ku band dish is locked onto 68.5 to give us the local dstv. Its worked for years, so, must be correct etc.

The apps think 68.5 is a few degrees left .. so, am not really sure where to point the dish.

The LNB skew suggested above is 45 degrees .. is that the number on the bottom of the pic which shows 30 - 0 -30 ?

I was told to have the bottom piece of the LNB level with the ground.

 

[Man on the steps]

2. Personally, I would fit the scalar to the LNB, it will reduce the background noise and enhance the signal.

I never gave u a pic of the inside of the dish. There is a scaler ring already attached.