[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Read it Bill and disagree. If you can "bump" it into position you most likely have a problem with declination/elevation. While this "bump" may work for people looking at small sectors of the arc see what a "bump" does when you are 60 degrees from center.

Doesn't matter at all how far off center. I'm getting all sats from center thru about 53 deg off center, and could go further if my garage wasn't in the way. USALS is off on all sats. Pull up/pull down techniques show I'm on the arc on all sats {as well as you can tell with the signal meters I have}, ie no improvement.

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

If you would happen to be off by x degrees when the motor thought it was at center it would be irrelevant with USALS as your system would be adjusted to true south with the difference factored and USALS moves in relation to what it perceives as 0.

Well, I admit that you have a point there, and my brain is starting to overwork trying to visualize all this stuff again. However if you find your true south sat with the dish not at the top of it's arc, then you won't be in alignment. If you then go through whatever method you choose to get the system into alignment, then your dish will be centered when aiming south, however USALS will think that south is off center, and we'll be back to the out of sync situation. I'm going to have to think about this a bit more, but I'm still convinced that in this situation, that once you bring the system into alignment, you'll be out of sync. One way to think about it is to consider an EXTREME situation, ie say the motor is off by 30 deg to the east. If you find your true south using what the motor perceives as true south, then turn to the next sat to the west say, the dish will move higher in the sky, even though the true south sat is always highest. Ie the system is WAY out of alignment because you've had to use incorrect dish or motor elevations to reach that south sat. USALS may be correcting for the 30 degrees at this point, however after you have aligned the system properly, which will mean finding that true south sat when the dish is centered. Once aligned properly, you'll be following the arc properly, but you'll be seeing your true south sat some 30 deg west of where USALS thinks south is. {Not sure that was said clearly.} Basically, what I'm saying is that for proper alignment, your true south sat needs to have been found with the motor centered on it's true zero, however USALS will be calculating vs what the motor perceives as zero, and once properly aligned to the arc, will be sending the dish to a south sat that it perceives say as being 30 deg to the east, in my extreme example. {This hurts my head.}

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

EDIT: Any offensive inaccuracies with center on 0 would reflect the same with USALS as would without.

I don't think so. With DiseqC-1.2, once you have the mount aligned to the arc, you can save sat positions wherever you want, and they don't need to be relative to due south. USALS MUST be relative to due south, and if that is off, I think USALS will be off.

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Instead of all this "bump makes it right" mentality how about simply raising the dish elevation 1/4 degree or perhaps lowering the same amount. If one maps their path along the arc they can easily come to a conclusion as to what needs adjusted.

If you can bump to make it right, then you are aligned properly. Period.
Of course, being out of alignment is always a possibility for why USALS gives incorrect positions, and if after peaking by bumping, you can still improve signal by lifting/pulling down, the you do need additional alignment. However if you bump to peak the signal, and then you can't improve the signal by pulling down, or lifting up, then it's more likely a case of being out of sync.