need help with 6ft dish install

[wildboys]

I am having a very hardtime installing my new fortec 6ft polar mount dish.I have install many motorized dishes without any problems but this one takes the cake.My zipcode is 72764.My long=94.1w lat=36.1n.I have the dish lineup with my true south which is telstar 5.My polar elevation is set to 36 measured with angle finder on the dish in the enclosed photos.I have a Chaparral Corotor II+ C/Ku Feed with lnb's.When i got everything assembled i pointed the dish towards G16 and checked all tp and got no picture on any tp's.I then slowly move the dish across the clarke's belt and could not get any pictures on my cband analog receiver.I then switched to my coolsat 5000 receiver to see if i had any signal.I had a signal of 94 and a quality signal of 7 on what i think is telstar 5 it is my true south and i have a motorized 1.2 meter dish so i know where to point the dish to get a signal.I first moved the whole mast very slowly to see if i would get a better quality reading on T5.The meter did not change so i raised and lowered the elevation but still no signal.I have double checked all my connections the plumbness of the pole changed lnb's but i cannot get a signal on any satellite.I am enclosing pictures of my install.If anyone see anthing i am doing wrong including my elevation settings please let me here your suggestions.

[rainman]

your true south sat would be galaxy 3 at 95 degrees or IA6 at 93 degrees both have active transponders check www.lyngsat.com for freq. also some analog on IA6 scrambled but should help you locate it. transponder are 1 and 7 vertical c band.

[Salukian]

Interesting project! How did you set your F/D on the scalar ring?

[elgemcdlf]

you start with flush to the front of the scalar ring. and once you have an active transponder adjust. Least ways that is how I do it

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by wildboys

I am having a very hardtime installing my new fortec 6ft polar mount dish.I have install many motorized dishes without any problems but this one takes the cake.My zipcode is 72764.My long=94.1w lat=36.1n.I have the dish lineup with my true south which is telstar 5.My polar elevation is set to 36 measured with angle finder on the dish in the enclosed photos.I have a Chaparral Corotor II+ C/Ku Feed with lnb's.When i got everything assembled i pointed the dish towards G16 and checked all tp and got no picture on any tp's.I then slowly move the dish across the clarke's belt and could not get any pictures on my cband analog receiver.I then switched to my coolsat 5000 receiver to see if i had any signal.I had a signal of 94 and a quality signal of 7 on what i think is telstar 5 it is my true south and i have a motorized 1.2 meter dish so i know where to point the dish to get a signal.I first moved the whole mast very slowly to see if i would get a better quality reading on T5.The meter did not change so i raised and lowered the elevation but still no signal.I have double checked all my connections the plumbness of the pole changed lnb's but i cannot get a signal on any satellite.I am enclosing pictures of my install.If anyone see anthing i am doing wrong including my elevation settings please let me here your suggestions.

Ok first you are to deep in the scalar ring. Bring your feedhorn back out till it is roughly flush with the ring. This will put you far closer to where you actually need to be. Second your lnb's are controlled by the servo motor for skew so..... unless you have the skew set properly for that tp you can very easily have no signal. These two could have easily been the problem with your original find of possible signal. I will look at the pic again but you may also have your feedhorn rotated incorrectly which would affect skew /the potential to correctly adjust skew.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by wildboys

I am having a very hardtime installing my new fortec 6ft polar mount dish.I have install many motorized dishes without any problems but this one takes the cake.My zipcode is 72764.My long=94.1w lat=36.1n.I have the dish lineup with my true south which is telstar 5.My polar elevation is set to 36 measured with angle finder on the dish in the enclosed photos.

Your dish elevation should NOT be 36 deg. It should be 90-36=54 . However, looking at the pictures, it looks like that is really what you have. Ie when I use the angle meters, I visualize whether the angle would get bigger or smaller if the dish is aimed lower towards the horizon. If the angle gets smaller, then it is elevation, but if it gets bigger, then it's latitude. I would recommend using 36.7 latitude or 53.3 elevation, but that will be fine tuned.
You didn't mention setting your declination. I'd recommend using 5.13 Set this by measuring the angle for your elevation as you have done, and also measure an angle along a staight edge layed across the big circular ring where you mount attaches to the dish. Zero declination would be if these two measurements were the same, ie parallel, but you want the dish lower toward the south horizon by 5.13 degrees. (Obviously you can't get this precision, but try to get just a hair more than 5 degrees difference between the two measurements.) I can see that you have some declination in there, but I wasn't sure whether you actually measured it.

Originally Posted by wildboys

I have a Chaparral Corotor II+ C/Ku Feed with lnb's.When i got everything assembled i pointed the dish towards G16 and checked all tp and got no picture on any tp's.I then slowly move the dish across the clarke's belt and could not get any pictures on my cband analog receiver.I then switched to my coolsat 5000 receiver to see if i had any signal.I had a signal of 94 and a quality signal of 7 on what i think is telstar 5 it is my true south and i have a motorized 1.2 meter dish so i know where to point the dish to get a signal.I first moved the whole mast very slowly to see if i would get a better quality reading on T5.The meter did not change so i raised and lowered the elevation but still no signal.I have double checked all my connections the plumbness of the pole changed lnb's but i cannot get a signal on any satellite.I am enclosing pictures of my install.If anyone see anthing i am doing wrong including my elevation settings please let me here your suggestions.

You don't say how you set your polarity. If you follow the CoRotor instructions, they tell you (via a little tool) to have the ku lnb at about 10:30 and the C-band lnb at 4:30 when looking at the dish from the front. This assumes that you can set H and V at +45 or -45 via your analog receiver. They do this in case you have a receiver that can't go past zero or 90, so that you can fine tune polarity. But it means that if you don't set the polarity, you will be half way between H and V. I can't tell from the pictures where you have the polarity, plus I'm not sure what capability your analog receiver has for adjusting it. When you have your Coolsat connected, I'm assuming that you have no way to set polarity.

I'm seeing analog on Tp-13 and 4 right now, on G3r. Not sure if either of these is permanent or if they come and go. On T6 Tp 1(s), 7(s),15 , 17, 16, 18, 22, 24 are giving analog right now.
I would concentrate on finding one of these analog channels, and set the polarity on them. I'd also recommend slaving the Coolsat via splitters and DC-blocks, unless it's able to control polarity.

[elgemcdlf]

Ok next on the list of do's I am assuming you know that the cast 90 is for the Ku lnb and the bolt on is for the C lnb. If you have this reversed fix that. Next remove the bolt on 90 and bolt the C band lnb directly to the feedhorn. Roughly a 3db gain.

[wejones]

And did the focal length come out right using the mounting arms that were designed for a different feed??? I didn't think that the CoRotor had holes in the right place for a 3-arm support. I thought that mine only worked with 4 support arms. I'll have to go look at mine.
Interesting.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by wejones

And did the focal length come out right using the mounting arms that were designed for a different feed??? I didn't think that the CoRotor had holes in the right place for a 3-arm support. I thought that mine only worked with 4 support arms. I'll have to go look at mine.
Interesting.

That is interesting. I have 3 and all have 4 leg mounts but I never actually looked at the ring as to mounting holes for anything else.

Just an addition as to removing the bolt on 90. If you plan on using a feedhorn cover on this setup you may not be able to remove the 90. With no feedhorn cover you would be fine without the 90.

Could be distortion in the pic but it does not look like the feedhorn is pointed at the center of the dish. A quick easy way to check this is when dark pull the feedhorn and put a flashlight into the scalar ring. It will point beam at what you are looking at. Adjust until pointed at center. Adjustment is done by bending the feedhorn support arms.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

That is interesting. I have 3 and all have 4 leg mounts but I never actually looked at the ring as to mounting holes for anything else.

Well I just went out to look at one of MY CoRotors ( I only have 2 :-( )
Well, I was wrong. It has holes to accomodate either 4 or 3 support arms, ie there are 6 holes, 4 are at 90 deg, and the other two are 120 degrees relative to the top hole.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by wejones

Well I just went out to look at one of MY CoRotors ( I only have 2 :-( )
Well, I was wrong. It has holes to accomodate either 4 or 3 support arms, ie there are 6 holes, 4 are at 90 deg, and the other two are 120 degrees relative to the top hole.

the co rotor i got is the same way Bill will work either way.

[Salukian]

Does Sadoun sell that polar mount with the actuator brace? I couldn't find it on the product pages.

Seeing this makes me want to buy a Fortec 8-foot dish. I didn't think you could buy a polar mount with actuator support for the Fortec 6 or 8 foot dish. That shiny, clean, pretty, white dish passes the "wife test".

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Salukian

That shiny, clean, pretty, white dish passes the "wife test".

and thats the most important thing.LOL

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Ok next on the list of do's I am assuming you know that the cast 90 is for the Ku lnb and the bolt on is for the C lnb. If you have this reversed fix that. Next remove the bolt on 90 and bolt the C band lnb directly to the feedhorn. Roughly a 3db gain.

I've read posts from people who say that you lose some signal in the waveguide, and I often discard the elbow waveguide myself, but I really find it hard to beleive that you'd lose 3db of signal there, unless it was installed wrong. I may be wrong, and don't have any scientific data, but I've used them with and without the elbow and never noticed a difference in signal strength, so I'd be really surprised if you'd lose this much signal.

I used to do research at microwave freqs, and we used wave-guides that were quite long (feet) with elbows, and we didn't lose any noticeable amount of signal. Just make sure that the connections are tight, because microwave tends to travel along the surface skin of the metal , and you get loss where there are discontinuities.

Anyway, I'd say that if it helps make the feed fit inside a cover, or even if it keeps the lnbs from sticking out and blocking incoming signal, then leave the elbow on there, however if your lnb is a shorty version, it's often more convenient to take the elbow off.

[glen4cindy]