Quote:
Originally Posted by brianz
Thanks for the tip, I was wondering about that but with that one I'm back to 2-3% signal everywhere I adjust it.
A couple general questions if you don't mind.
Do you expect to see almost nothing and then a sudden spike as you are making adjustments to get a satellite? I was more expecting to see some slight changes that would give me some indication that I was moving in the right direction but I see no change no matter how many small adjustments I make.
On the motor (SG2100) I had initially assumed that the latitude setting was done based on the small nitch on the side of the washer but now am wondering (and tried with no better results) setting it based on the nice flat bottom edge or the washer. Which way is the correct way to set it?
Thanks,
Brian
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Re the sudden vs gradual changes, you may see somewhat gradual changes in signal strength, however signal strength isn't all that meaningful, since it is a measure of other sats and noise, not just the sat you're looking for. The quality indication however tends to be sudden. With most receivers, it will be pretty much zero until you are on the sat, then it jumps up to 50 or something suddenly when you get a lock. Basically, you don't get quality until you have a lock.
Re the latitude setting and the washer, what I found was :
However, make sure that you are entering latitude on the "Latitude" scale, not the Elevation scale. It will be 90-lat on the Elevation scale. You might find some additional info at
http://eskerridge.com/bj/FC90-sg2100.html where I have some pictures of the 90cm/SG2100. I have the pole mount for the dish, and it was fairly accurate re angles, however if you have the U-bolt mount, many have found it to be off by the 5 deg that was mentioned.
The key, when looking for your south sat is to make very slow adjustments. Have your tv showing the S/Q meter out at the dish, and with the dish aimed true south, make slow adjustments and WAIT several seconds for the meters to respond, because sometimes it takes 5 or 10 seconds to get a response. If you don't find the signal +/- 5 deg from your initial setting, your south azimuth is probably off. You can find this quite accurately using the sun. If you use a hand held meter, it will probably lead you to one of the strong Echostar or Nimiq sats, and you'll probably have to look for your lock between the strong sats it finds.