Advice on best way to fine tune

[William Eng]

Hi Everyone

I brought the M-1 system from Sadoun, and had no trouble setting it up. My only deviation from the instructions was that my dish elevation was set at 46 instead of 40.3 as called for from the website calculations. Then due to a problem, I had to take apart the entire satellite assembly. Now that the problem has been fixed and the dish reassembled, I am unable to locate IA5 even with the "full power scan". Currently I receive G10RK, AMC1, AMC3, AMC5, AMC9, Echo9, G11, G13, G3, IA6, SatMex5, PAS9, AMC2, and G4R. Again, my dish elevation is set at 46 which is higher than called for. My motor elevation is 28.0 W which corresponds to my present location.

My question is, what is the best to receive IA5 again? I would like to fine tune it so that I can receive IA5 along with rest and at the same time not throw the whole system out of whack. I tried slightly pushing and pulling the dish, but that just threw the dish out of alignment which resulted in no signal.

Thanks
Bill

[wejones]

Originally Posted by William Eng

Hi Everyone

I brought the M-1 system from Sadoun, and had no trouble setting it up. My only deviation from the instructions was that my dish elevation was set at 46 instead of 40.3 as called for from the website calculations. Then due to a problem, I had to take apart the entire satellite assembly. Now that the problem has been fixed and the dish reassembled, I am unable to locate IA5 even with the "full power scan". Currently I receive G10RK, AMC1, AMC3, AMC5, AMC9, Echo9, G11, G13, G3, IA6, SatMex5, PAS9, AMC2, and G4R. Again, my dish elevation is set at 46 which is higher than called for. My motor elevation is 28.0 W which corresponds to my present location.

My question is, what is the best to receive IA5 again? I would like to fine tune it so that I can receive IA5 along with rest and at the same time not throw the whole system out of whack. I tried slightly pushing and pulling the dish, but that just threw the dish out of alignment which resulted in no signal.

Thanks
Bill

The above is a bit confusing, particularly because if in fact you are receiving all the sats listed, you seem to be tracking pretty well, and it's hard to beleive that you could receive G3 and G4, which are on either side of IA5, but not IA5, however, one thing.... you don't say what your longitude is? From your latitude, you could be either in Florida or Texas or Mexico. From your symptoms, I'm guessing you might be in Texas.
First, it sounds to me like the pole you have the thing mounted on isn't rigid (because you could pull it out of alignment easily), and either isn't vertical or the lnb arm isn't mounted properly (because your dish elevation was so far off), or another possibility is that the dish elevation bracket isn't connected right?
Basically, your dish elevation shouldn't be that far off. I know the measurements on cheap dishes aren't that accurate, but I'm surprised that it would be that far off.
I don't have the specific hardware, so I'm just guessing here, but first off, I'm assuming that you have that bracket shown in http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/F...Bolt-Motor.jpg ??? I'm not familiar with this, but it looks like depending on your latitude, that it might some times be possible to mount this upside down, which might result in different settings, from those shown on the web page. Just a guess.
However, assuming your motor angle is set right for your latitude, it really shouldn't matter, provided that you are setting it on your due south satellite with the mount centered at it's south position.
I'm curious, is by chance IA5 your due south satellite (ie are you located near Corpus Christi?)? Ie possibly your arc is never getting quite high enough to get to your due south sat, which is the highest in the sky??? I find this as highly unlikely though, since you get the two sats on either side.
I'm almost thinking that somehow the satellite settings got messed up on IA5 somehow, like maybe LNB power set to off, or the sat longitude set wrong, or something like that. Anyway, re-check the settings for IA5 in your receiver setup, and see if they are correct.
Anyway, it is very strange that you can get all those sats (I assume you have identified each by specific channels found in Lyngsat, and aren't just thinking you are getting them because you get a signal indication???) but can't get IA5. It might help if you give more details re your lat/lon, and comment more on the steps you took in your alignment, ie why you had to take the thing apart, and did you first find your south sat when you put it back together the second time????

[William Eng]

Thanks to Bill in Maine

The problem turned out to be the LNB power was set to something else other than UNI. After that change, I am getting a signal lock on IA5. I didn't realize it was changed, until I compared it with the other satellite settings. I am in Tampa, 82.6N, 28.0W.

Why I had to dissassemble the satellite in the first place? My son spilled his drink into the receiver. Since nothing was working, I took apart everything and brought it to my in-laws (who brought the identical unit from Sadoun). By swapping out each component, I was able to identify the problem in the reciever. Now the reciever sits on a high shelf.

My dish is mounted on a 6 ft steel pipe I got from Lowes. 3 feet of it is underground encased in cement, so its not going anywhere even in a hurricane.

I still don't understand why the dish elevation (46) is that far off from the calculated value of 40.3 and still be able to lock on to PAS9 and watch Cubavision on one side, then swing the dish to G13 and watch PAC1 chinese shows.

Bill

[wejones]

Originally Posted by William Eng

Thanks to Bill in Maine

The problem turned out to be the LNB power was set to something else other than UNI. After that change, I am getting a signal lock on IA5. I didn't realize it was changed, until I compared it with the other satellite settings. I am in Tampa, 82.6N, 28.0W.

Why I had to dissassemble the satellite in the first place? My son spilled his drink into the receiver. Since nothing was working, I took apart everything and brought it to my in-laws (who brought the identical unit from Sadoun). By swapping out each component, I was able to identify the problem in the reciever. Now the reciever sits on a high shelf.

My dish is mounted on a 6 ft steel pipe I got from Lowes. 3 feet of it is underground encased in cement, so its not going anywhere even in a hurricane.

I still don't understand why the dish elevation (46) is that far off from the calculated value of 40.3 and still be able to lock on to PAS9 and watch Cubavision on one side, then swing the dish to G13 and watch PAC1 chinese shows.

Bill

Glad you got it working. Yeah, most electronics can often just be washed off with water or solvents after things like that. I had a similar thing happen when my wife spilled coffee on my laptop. Took it apart, and rinsed it off, but made the mistake of trying to start it up too soon, before it was completely dry, and without the battery installed, and the thing went up in smoke. :-( If I had been a little more patient, I think I could have saved it.
Re the 46 vs 40.3 thing, yes it is strange. You pretty much have to have it at the proper angle to get all those sats, so there must be something about how the dish is connected to the motor that is changing how that angle is indicated. I still think that the upside down clamp thing is possible. It's also possible that when the dish got clamped to the motor, that something got cocked slightly at an angle somehow, introducing that extra 5.7 deg, which had to be compensated for by changing the dish elevation.
Anyway, strange.

[flyfish]

Originally Posted by William Eng

Thanks to Bill in Maine

The problem turned out to be the LNB power was set to something else other than UNI. After that change, I am getting a signal lock on IA5. I didn't realize it was changed, until I compared it with the other satellite settings. I am in Tampa, 82.6N, 28.0W.

Why I had to dissassemble the satellite in the first place? My son spilled his drink into the receiver. Since nothing was working, I took apart everything and brought it to my in-laws (who brought the identical unit from Sadoun). By swapping out each component, I was able to identify the problem in the reciever. Now the reciever sits on a high shelf.

My dish is mounted on a 6 ft steel pipe I got from Lowes. 3 feet of it is underground encased in cement, so its not going anywhere even in a hurricane.

I still don't understand why the dish elevation (46) is that far off from the calculated value of 40.3 and still be able to lock on to PAS9 and watch Cubavision on one side, then swing the dish to G13 and watch PAC1 chinese shows.

Bill

I had the same problem with the dish elevation. The specs call for 40.1 but I didn't receive a signal until I hit 45.0. I'm in San Antonio, Tx and I'm hitting all of the sats in the arc also.

[elgemcdlf]

I use the markings on the dish and motor only as "get me in the area" settings. I adjust according to my arc track from there. Also I do not remember if the dish is marked as the motor is but one side of the motor is marked as actual degree elevation and the other for latitude. If the dish is marked the same way perhaps you are reading the other side

I have yet to have any setup actually work with the settings suggested. I always have something moved here or there and the Fortec dish I have in place is roughly 5 degrees off also.

Being in Tampa you should be able to track from 30 degrees or so in the east out to at least 123 in the west. You mentioned Cubavision and there are 4 channels on 30. Quite a bit of Spanish language channels on 30