Please help very frustrated!

[ozifer]

Hi Everyone,

First this is my equipment:
Mercury II reciever
[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/tom/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/tom/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/tom/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/tom/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.jpg[/IMG]Fortec Star 36" 90cm dish
Stab HH100 motor
LNBF SNH-031

My location is:Latitude = 42.4101, Longitude = -88.6169
Harvard, IL
I have sunk the pole in concrete, its as plumb as can be with 2 different levels. I put the assembly on the pole and everything is aligned.
The motor is set in between 42 and 43 (set to my latitude) as best I could. I then have the dish set as close to 23.5, the setting according to sadouns Stab installation page for HH100 . The LNBF is centered as best I can tell in the holder on the arm with 0 being at the top. Now according to the azimuth setting it should be 180 and then it looks like I should be adding 2 degrees to it for Magnetic Declination according to my location, so I am then pointing the entire assembly at 182 degrees with my compass.

Now the closest bird to me should be Galaxy 28 at 89 degrees.
I have gone into antenna setup in the reciever and chosen USALS, set the LNB to universal, and have added active transponders listed on ftalist there were only two for this bird listed but that's what is closes to me for south.
After all that I then set it to go to the satellite, the motor moves and all that. Now is the frustrating part for me. I have set the motor back to zero and repointed the entire assembly back to 182 degrees about ten times. I have read a lot of the boards and have tried to do what they say. I have moved this thing VERY small movements left, right, up, down and I still cannot get solid signals. I get a high blip every once in a while but nothing that stays steady at all.

Can anybody please give any advice on what I could be doing wrong, this is going on my fourth day? Are my settings off with the dish or motor? Am I pointing to the wrong azimuth I am going from what the sadoun site says I also sent info to usals.info too, but their settings are similiar to sadoun's hh100 install page.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Tom

[rainman]

try dropping your dish to 19 degrees then try moving the whole assembly east and west to see if you receive a lock the 36" dish with the u bolt mount can be off by5 degrees mine was.

[bill190]

See the topic here called...
"You *must* use signal meter to set-up dish!"

This seems to be a common problem, so I made a separate topic on this subject.

Use one of these gizmos along with a dish pointing calculator to set your elevation, then you should be able to move your dish back and forth and get something.

Note that along with using a dish pointing calculator, you need to enter your latitude, longitude, elevation (or zip code with some) AND the offset of the dish. Different dishes have a different offset. Some 15 degrees, some 19, some 22. And of course they do not tell you the offset of your dish along with the paperwork included with many dishes! But I have found this information on the internet - usually at the dish manufacturer's web site.

Then an "inclinometer" can help get the correct dish elevation if there are no markings on the dish for this. Here is one...
Tandem Inclinometer 10-COMAF

So get a device/gizmo which will tell you if you have found a satellite (any satellite) like above signal meter, then set dish at correct elevation either by markings on the positioner/dish or by using a dish pointing calculator along with entering the correct information about your location and dish offset value and using an inclinometer.

You are pointing at something 22,000 miles away in space. Accuracy and accurate instruments are a big help...

[csmith704]

As bill190 stated, use a meter. Using a cheaper analog meter (SF-95 DSS DBS DVB Satellite Signal Finder Meter SF-99 SF99 SF95) will help alot. Also, have a small tv and receiver at the dish will make things easier. I have the 80cm dish (with a different LNB). My actual elevation was 43 degrees vs the calculated 39 degrees. When moving the dish (whether left-right/up-down), wait 10 seconds, move again, etc till you get Quality.

[wejones]

You don't need a hand held meter, and often they can be misleading. I've been aligning dishes for about 20 years, and never got a meter until about 3 or 4 years ago. They are handy though, but not necessary. I have one of the little ones, and a bigger slightly more sensitive one, but you can get by just fine without one if you take your TV out to the dish, plus the fact that you can set your receiver on a transponder specific to the sat you're looking for, there are big advantages to using your receiver's meter. However the receiver's meters are SLOW responding, so you have to make small adjustments, then wait to see a response. The big advantage of a handheld meter is that you don't need to carry all the equipment out to the dish. HOWEVER, whichever route you use, you should be able to see the meter while moving the dish. Ie don't expect to go out to the dish, make an adjustment and come back inside and see programming. You have to see the results of your adjustments as you make them.

A couple other things though. First, add 0.6 deg to you latitude setting, ie 43 in your case. It will save you time, as that is where your final alignment will end up if done right.

Re searching for channels on G28, I assume you are looking at Lyngsat, and if so, be careful not to choose a transponder aimed at South America (look in the beam column near the right).
The other thing is that you don't need a FTA transponder or one with programming in order to align your dish. The Hughesnet internet signals work just fine. Also, transponders listed as "feeds" are not 24/7, so they may not be there. I'd really advise using one of the Hughesnet signals since they are broad enough to pick up even if your freq is off a bit.

After setting up the antenna section, make sure you have it set on the right transponder, either there or in a transponder scan window. The antenna window defaults to the first transponder in it's list, which may not be active.

[ozifer]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all the replies, I reset everything back to zero. And dropped my dish to 19 degrees and set to south and I had a signal. I have been able to get channels on every satellite east to west the farthest west one my signals seem to drop a little, so now my question is how fine tuned can I get the signals. If I point to Galaxy 28 89.0* TP 11953/v/19546 my signal level is bouncing between 75-77 signal quality is around 66-70. Can I get a lot higher? I think I need to do some more tuning so the farthest sats come in better. I do have one of the little sat signal meters, but I have mostly been going by the reciever meter just takes a little longer.

One thing I would like to say is I am hooked! This is some neat stuff. I have scanned so far over 500 channels from all over, including some live feeds.

Once again thanks for the help!

Oz (tom)