Weak true south Satellite

[jyfeng]

Hi guys,

I've set up my FTA satellite system with FortecStar's Lifetime Ultra and Winegard dish with SG2100 HH motor. My location is N33.9 and W118, so the tru south satellite is SatMex5, but I got very weak signal with no quality from this satellite. But I can very good reception from G3C and IA5KU. Waht might be the problem here?

Any help will be appreciated.

Jeffrey

[pmb1010]

ia5 and G3c are pretty much next to each other, so I think by chance you are getting them with the settings you have you system installed to.

You gave us your long/lat, can you give us what you set your motor bracket setting to, your compass setting that you set when motor was set to zero, and the dish elevation you used.

I think you have a setting out of kilter, and its messing up your full tracking of the clarke belt.

[jyfeng]

From the elevation and declination table of the motor manual, I set the bracket elevation to 56 degrees or N34 on the other side. The dish angle is 30 degrees (SG2100 uses 30) minus 5.5 (declination angle) which is 24.5 degrees. I also checked the plumbness of the post with an angle meter.

However, I don't think I got the compass true south right (Az 166 degrees) because it's very hard to align the dish antenna exactly with the compass reading. Is there a way to align the motor and dish to true south using the USALS from the receiver?

Thnaks for your help.

Jeffrey

[pmb1010]

I'll give the quick answer to your last question (I'll look up your numbers later... )

Yes, you can. If you have the Lat/Long input into your box, the procedure is to have the motor drive to the highest satellite on your arc (the so called "true south satellite").

From there, you adjust dish elevation and the whole motor&dish combination on the pole, to get best qualtity signal. Assuming you have the bracket of the motor set right (typically to your latitude value) you should be on the arc because USALS calculates where the motor should go based on your location.

The easiest way to set the system on zero, is to walk towards your 166 degree setting away from your dish (like 30 feet). Turn around and look at your dish. Line up the lnb arm based on that spot. Should be easy to see if you are off that way.

Bracket should be set to 34 and look like this example: