Vert. T'sponders on 5e

[chuckles]

I'm on the west coast Scotland and would like to know if I'm wastin my time trying to pull in the vertical t'ponders from 5E?
Occasionally I get a weak signal but not strong enough to clear when its windy, suggesting that a tweak might pull it in.
I'm using a 1.2m CM dish and signal strength on the Horizontals is about 65pc.

Part of my problem, I think, is not knowing the precise magnetic variation for my locale.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Its not so much the knowledge of the magnetic variation, as the dish alignment on one satellite is not determined by the pole alignment to true South

Best thing would be to align the dish on a strong horizontal transponder on the satellite, by decreasing the gain by small amounts using a wet towel, and when it cannot be improved any further, have a look at the opposite polarity.

Skew adjustment on the LNB will also play an important part

 

[chuckles]

Wow! ,that's a quick reply!

Not quite sure why I would need to reduce the signal with a wet towel?
I have a Digisat Pro meter, but of course that only looks at the broad signal, I don't think I can get it to just look at one t'ponder.
I'm using a universal LNB so I presume skew adjustment is irrelevant?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Skew adjustment is critical on weak transmissions, owing to the need to eliminate as much incoming noise from the opposite polarities, ncreasing the signal to noise ratio which is far more important than maximum gain.

The tea towel method is used to verify the dish is working effectively on all parts of the reflector, and would be of best use for someone without a meter, however reducing the signal in this way allows the meter to operate at a far improved sensitivity, better than having a great signal coming down the cable and having to use the onboard attenuator.