Magnetic Deviation adjustment

[soltan]

Please help. Going crazy with this issue.
The azimuth Calculator for Telstar5 in Los Angeles area is 145.2, and it says we are 13-14 degrees west of true Zero.

Now do I add the 14 to 145.2 to get the compass reading or subtract it?
I have tried both with no luck. There is no trees or buildings in front of me, and the max Signal I get is 40, and no Quality at all.
I have a SatCruiser 100 Plus.

Thanks for any help.

Soltan

[ctg101]

in LA, you would subtract it

[soltan]

Thanks,

I will try it today. Sooner or later, I will get it right.

[ctg101]

good luck, it took me all day(literally) to get mine aligned up, but once i figured out how i got it, it gets alot easier if you ever have to move it

[jackpeas1]

Hi Guys,I am new to this site.But I have a10'ft solid dish.This is my 3rd dish . Ihave to get someone to align it for me. Igot the info from the dish mfg. I have put them all together myself, But I don't get the alignment part.I have got Skyvision alignment video,Shun Kinney(the sat-guy that fell of the roof)video. I have books on alignment. I have equipment like Canary,buzzi meter,satset,sat finder. But I am close.It just don't click with me. So I need help with this Thank Guys jackp N Chicago

[wejones]

> I have put them all together
> myself, But I don't get the
> alignment part.....
> .... So I need help

First, read:

http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/tuningp2.html

Short version:
1) Aim mount to true south (consider magnetic deviation).
2) Set mount declination per instructions for your dish. Use about 5.75 deg for Chicago. Don't touch this again.
3) Set your latitude adjustment (inclination) of your mount to tilt the mount back to 90 minus your latitude.
4) Find a satellite near due south of you, and fine tune the signal by either on screen or hand held signal meter. Fine tune using both the latitude (inclination) adjustment and by running the actuator motor through the signal.
5) Run the actuator motor to the furthest sat east or west of you that you can find a signal for. Fine tune this signal by rotating the mount on the pole by VERY SMALL amounts. Usually the signal will get worse, but you must run the actuator motor back and forth through the signal to peak it after each adjustment to see if you have made it better or worse.
6) Once you have peaked the furthest west/east sat possible in this way, you should be done, unless your pole is not vertical. If the pole is tilted, you may need to repeat steps 4 and 5 .

Note, it is best to use a KU sat for fine tuning signals, however if you do, make sure you don't tune in on a side-lobe rather than the center signal, so it may be best to first tune on C-band, then repeat the process on KU.

Good Luck.

[dtsexpert]

guys,
I need help to set up my fixed 5.3 solid dish aiming at PAS9.
My question is that if the dish is fixed, do I need to set the declination angles correctly?
The mount is polar type. Yesterday, I put the dish up and could only lock on 1 xponder which is NHK. I used a fixed length bar to use it as fixed dish.
I did not pay attention to the declination at all since I thought I might not important since the dish is fixed.
I tried my best to tune the dish, played with skew but still no luck.
Here is a weird thing. Using a spectrum analyzer, it shows that the NHK is not the strongest xponder on PAS9. So why I can lock on NHK but not the stronger xponders?
Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Michael

Originally Posted by wejones

> I have put them all together
> myself, But I don't get the
> alignment part.....
> .... So I need help

First, read:

http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/tuningp2.html

Short version:
1) Aim mount to true south (consider magnetic deviation).
2) Set mount declination per instructions for your dish. Use about 5.75 deg for Chicago. Don't touch this again.
3) Set your latitude adjustment (inclination) of your mount to tilt the mount back to 90 minus your latitude.
4) Find a satellite near due south of you, and fine tune the signal by either on screen or hand held signal meter. Fine tune using both the latitude (inclination) adjustment and by running the actuator motor through the signal.
5) Run the actuator motor to the furthest sat east or west of you that you can find a signal for. Fine tune this signal by rotating the mount on the pole by VERY SMALL amounts. Usually the signal will get worse, but you must run the actuator motor back and forth through the signal to peak it after each adjustment to see if you have made it better or worse.
6) Once you have peaked the furthest west/east sat possible in this way, you should be done, unless your pole is not vertical. If the pole is tilted, you may need to repeat steps 4 and 5 .

Note, it is best to use a KU sat for fine tuning signals, however if you do, make sure you don't tune in on a side-lobe rather than the center signal, so it may be best to first tune on C-band, then repeat the process on KU.

Good Luck.

[wejones]

> I need help to set up my fixed
> 5.3 solid dish aiming at PAS9.
> My question is that if the dish
> is fixed, do I need to set the
> declination angles correctly?

No, shouldn't matter. If you peak the dish using the inclination (latitude) adjustment it won't matter, although if you ever want to aim at another sat it would make things easier later..

> The mount is polar type.
> Yesterday, I put the dish up
> and could only lock on 1 xponder
> which is NHK.

I don't know what other signals you tried. I just went to PAS9 and easily locked in both NHK and the APTN signal on 3915. There were a couple more signals that seemed to lock but I didn't try to save them.
If you can't get 3915, then I'd guess you must have a problem with the polarity, even though you said you adjusted the skew. If the feedhorn is mounted at the wrong angle, it is possible that you might not have enough adjustment range to reach the proper polarity, but APTN should be the opposite polarity of the NHK signal.
I don't have any other ideas. This is just my second week at this MPEG stuff.
good luck.


[/quote]

[dtsexpert]

Thanks for your reply. Although I have played with DVB for few years, this is my first fixed C-band dish. I use a Eagle Aspen V4000 C/Ku lnbf with this dish, and I think my lnbf might be a bad one since its polarities can be switch using voltage.
I had to rotate the lnbf 90 deg to get the opposite polarity.
I did tried to adjust the F/D but did not make any differences.
Michael

Originally Posted by wejones

> I need help to set up my fixed
> 5.3 solid dish aiming at PAS9.
> My question is that if the dish
> is fixed, do I need to set the
> declination angles correctly?

No, shouldn't matter. If you peak the dish using the inclination (latitude) adjustment it won't matter, although if you ever want to aim at another sat it would make things easier later..

> The mount is polar type.
> Yesterday, I put the dish up
> and could only lock on 1 xponder
> which is NHK.

I don't know what other signals you tried. I just went to PAS9 and easily locked in both NHK and the APTN signal on 3915. There were a couple more signals that seemed to lock but I didn't try to save them.
If you can't get 3915, then I'd guess you must have a problem with the polarity, even though you said you adjusted the skew. If the feedhorn is mounted at the wrong angle, it is possible that you might not have enough adjustment range to reach the proper polarity, but APTN should be the opposite polarity of the NHK signal.
I don't have any other ideas. This is just my second week at this MPEG stuff.
good luck.

[/quote]

[jackpeas1]

Hi wejones, Thank for your help.This north south orintation with the square.When I had my 10'ft wineguard dish(that baby was sweet)I had a sat-tech (someone who knows more than I) to align it. He did and I Drill a hole in the pole to put it back if something happen.My dish is 15' of the ground.Thank big guy jackp N Chicago