Triax TD110 with polar mount / 12' actuator

[carpy]

Hi everyone, this is my first post after much reading and searching on here.

I currently install domestic and commerical TV aerial systems, and have never ventured into satellite territory except to realign Sky dishes if moved etc.

I have purchased the above items so I can attempt installing them myself at home, but am having a few problems.

I have the wall mounts in place, steel mast in place 100% vertical, and now comes the setting up part.

I've ascertained that I need to use the following for my current location (NW London) 39.5 elevation, 7.42 declination, but cannot for the life of me find out where these should be set.

I have some angle markings on the polar mount which go from 10 to 65, and I also have some markings on the piece of metal which fixes directly to the dish and these go from 20 to 62.

I don't have a clue what to set where. I've even got a Promax MC377+ which has a spectrum analyser facility, but I wouldn't know what the satellite pattern of 1W looks like if I found it.

I have downloaded all the guides in the stickies but I couldn't really make head nor tail of them, except to work out my elevation and declination angles.

Can anyone run me through the process step by step.

I see it says in the guides to install the polar mount first then install the dish. It's going to be pretty much impossible doing that here. The dish really needs a lot of force to slide into the bracket, and I really don't fancy trying to do that 30' up a ladder whilst trying to support the weight of the dish.

Any ideas?

 

[Topper]

carpy :-Welcome1 to the forum
I have a polar mount but have never started from scratch with it. Basically you are trying to get the lnb to describe an arc in the sky that corresponds with the arc of the Clarke Belt. The top of the arc for you will be 1deg W so your lnb should be at its max rise at that point and drop down either side of that point. The picture may help you but ideally if you follow the sticky you shouldn't have too many problems. Regarding your setting on the mount perhaps you should post photographs of the adjustors as some are different to others. Mine is very old (20 years) and so rusty I cannot make out the readings on it

 

[carpy]

Well I had a good play with it yesterday, and it's working to an extent.

I can pull in 28.2E no problem and I can get all the way through to 1W. I can go round to 30W just about but the signal is quite low.

The thing is, when the dish is on 1W it looks great, the dish is nice and straight and not leaning over to one side. When I go to 28.2 the dish leans right over at a funny angle. I expected it to turn left obviously, but not to lean over a great deal.

Is this normal? It doesn't "look" right.

Also, assuming I want to change the declination angle (on the dish I presume) then this would involve moving the dish on it's fixing to the mount, which would surely mean I would have to change the elevation?

 

[rolfw]

If your dish leans over more on 28.2 E than it does on 30W, then your arc is wrong, they should be a mirror image of each other.

 

[carpy]

Thanks for the replies but I need to know how to setup my elevation and declination on my TRIAX polar mount and TD110 dish.

My "elevation" angle should be 38.5
My "declination" angle should be 7.42

There are 2 places I can see angle markings. One is on the POLAR MOUNT which clamps to the mast. The other is on the back of the dish. They both go from about 20 to about 60. I don't know which to set where. How on earth I set one of them to 7.42 when they start at 20 I don't know.

I now understand that all the figures in the guides aren't very helpful because apparantly they are for a "prime focus" dish whilst mine is an "offset" dish.

So what do I do?

I thought there would be plenty of people on here with a Triax TD dish and a polar mount. It seems everyone is using DISEQC motors and not actuators?

I've been through the dish setup guides about 4 times now and they aren't any help. I understand exactly what I am doing but without knowing which angle to set where i'm just pissing in the wind.

 

[closetosoton]

I thought there would be plenty of people on here with a Triax TD dish and a polar mount. It seems everyone is using DISEQC motors and not actuators?

I've got a TD110, polar mount + actuator. Trouble is the dish is under the bed the mount in the loft and the actuator in the garage. I must dig it out sometime!

I've always had the feeling it should be easier to set up than a diseqc solution, because you've got the luxury of being able to shift it (the dish) around manually (dettach the actuator!) to make sure your're reaching both edges of the arc with good signal strength. Dunno haven't tried it!!!

For dish playing around I find it useful to use old analogue receivers - there's still the odd channel on 42E (TRT1) , 19E (Numerous german), 13E (TV5), 5W (French Secam TF1 etc), 30W (Canal+ spain). In your line of business you should have some of these lying around or be able to pick one up for nout.

-cts