[wejones]

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

I have been reading and re-reading the set of instructions for a motorized dish installation and have a question.

At the point in the instructions where you point the dish to TRUE SOUTH it reads like this: "

• Now, adjust the dish elevation angle (Pictures 6 & 7) to peak the signal.Dish elevation angle is calculated based on the model of the HH motor you are using, as follows:"

What bird is the dish supposed to be pointed at in this step? Do you actually perform this particular part of the installation AFTER you have everything tightened down and are at the point where you are setting up the satellites at the receiver?

Just to add a couple things. As PMB1010 said above, peak on your south sat both by "rotating the whole contraption on the pole, and dish elevation up & down", however, when you move to other sats, you should NOT touch the "up & down" adjustment, just do the "rotating the whole contraption on the pole" thing, PLUS, I would highly recommend using the buttons on the motor to fine tune along the arc. Ie some people won't get acceptable results just using the rotating whole contraption adjustment, and are tempted to mess with the dish elevation on these sats east/west of your south sat, but it is a bad idea to do that. It is much better to leave the dish elevation alone and tweak the motor along the arc with the buttons on the motor, then repeat the whole contraption adjustment.

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

Also, for the DISH elevation, it depends upon which model of motor you are using, which for the 2100 is 30 -declination angle which for 39 latitude is 6.14. So, if I calculate this correctly, the dish elevation should be 33. I am in zip 62040.

On another post, it was recommended to a user that a slightly different declination angle should be used. Like 5.x instead of the 6.x which was supposed to track all birds a little better. Do I use the Sadoun values or the altered values that I read somewhere else here?

The Sadoun value for declination is the declination for a sat to your south. If you use this value, you will be off by about a half degree on sats to your east or west. Since the resolution of these little dishes is more than 2 degrees, for many people this half degree isn't important. By using the slightly different declination angles, you use the declination for a sat to your east/west, and then use an altered motor angle to compensate for the error on the southerly sats.
HOWEVER, you really aren't capable of setting these angles to these precisions on most systems. However my thinking is that at least if you aim for the more correct values, then if you're off a bit you will be closer to a correct value. Actually, your declination angle will be set by peaking on a sat, not by setting an angle, however the way to "set" this is by using a value .6 degrees more for your latitude setting on the motor mount (or 0.6 degrees less for the elevation setting). Then, when you peak on your south sat, you will be setting the slightly different values.

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

One (I hope last) question. On the map that is used to determine true south, St. Louis (very near 62040) lies dead in the center of lines 0 and -1. So, is my true south 181?

Yes, actually 180.5 would be the compass heading. But you probably can't read a compass that accurately.

Originally Posted by glen4cindy

If this is all there is to the installation, it seems that it is actually easier to install a motorized dish as opposed to a stationary dish mainly because there is no LNBF skew to worry about. Is this correct? Will I find this installation fairly easy as I have quite a bit of experience installing and peaking DTV and DishNet dishes?

Thanks!

I wouldn't say that motorized is easier to install, but it's definately easier to go from one sat to another after you've installed it. There are basically 3 angles you have to get right, and if either of the three is off, then things won't work right. If you are careful it can be easy. However NOTHING is easier than doing a Dishnet/DTV dish. You can hand hold a dish and lock those sats.