Seeking someone in Cincinnati to aim motorized dish

[Cincy]

Seeking someone in Cincinnati to aim motorized dish.

[lostinthewoods]

Cincy,
I am no where near you, but I recently setup my motor after doing a little reading, a little frustration, and got it working beautifully.

There is no more satisfaction than "doing it yourself"/

Just a word of encouragement.

Lost

[Cincy]

Well, I'm not totally freaked out, so to speak. Some additional info: I live on the north side of Cincy (West Chester 45069) - I-75 north of I-275 about 5 miles to exit 21 and then about 2 miles off the expressway (see: here).

I have a little 36" dish with an SG2100 rotor and an Invacom QPH-031 lnb. It's mounted on a mast and the mast is plumb. Everything is set up and I can get several sats between about 110 and about 121 but just can't get the darn arc right. I really need someone who has a meter and knows this stuff to aim it correctly and get the arc right.

Actually, when I set up this little dish about 2 or 3 years ago it was a Weingard 30" with a couple of LNBs strapped together. At that time I got the whole arc and everything was fine. I 'lucked' in there using the Pansat as my 'meter'. Then last fall / winter I got a 36" dish and the Invacom. I took off the old 30" and put on the 36" and the Invacom thinking it would be an 'easy' swap.... Well, that did the trick. Threw everything off...

I was out playing with it again today and just decided to try to see if there was someone somewhat local to me who has a meter (a good one, not the little needle jobbie) and knows how to properly aim a motorized dish. I really don't want to spring for a $400 meter so I know which bird I'm focusing on, etc. I called a couple of local sat dealers but all they want to do is install Dishnet or DirectTV dish systems. None of them seemed to know anything about motorized dishes.

BTW - I also have an old 8 foot mesh dish which is in the front yard (not mounted) that I'm willing to give to anyone who wants to pick it up. And I have an old Uniden UST-4400 Super receiver - These are from where I lived about 10 years ago before I moved here.

And I have the 30" dish I have no further need for.

If you want any info about me see http://elsmar.com/resume.html. I'm semi-retired so I'm home most of the time.

[lostinthewoods]

Cincy,
When I set mine up, I took an old monitor I had from my commodore days and ran a spare RG6 from the video out to the monitor up on the roof and used the built in meter for signal quality that way.

I rough estimated my south direction, then in USALS, set the rotation to the nearest circular bird and then rotated the whole assembly (motor and dish) until I got quality. Then I peaked the quality using the elevation of the DISH. Next, I used USALS to move to my nearest linear bird and again peaked (dish elevation only) on that one. The only problem was the intial setting of the elevation of the dish as the scale was accurate when mounted on the pole, but was off by about 5 degrees when mounted on the motor. Others have reported simular problems with dish elevation on a motor.

I can now get everything between 61.5 and 121 with good quality. I can't get a larger range due to the trees surrounding my house. Matter of fact, a friend didn't think I could get anything due to the forest:})

Hang in there, and as soon as you hit it, you will think it was too easy and wonder why it took so long to get it!

Lost

[Cincy]

I appreciate the reply. There's a guy not far away in Indiana who might help out.

I basically do (did) the same thing when I initially set this up. I have a small TV which I took out by the dish and set up a small table. I used the Pansat as the 'meter'.

If I can't get someone I'll bite the bullet and go through the motions again starting from 'scratch' so to speak. I was just looking for someone who really knows rotating dishes figuring I'd get some 'tips' and knowledge. I remember the first time I set it up I couldn't find the bird, but then I found I was on a transponder that wasn't in use. I messed with it for several hours. So.... This time I figured *maybe* there was someone in the Cincy area who could help me avoid the problems and frustration.

My dish is a Fortec. I hadn't heard the dish elevation scale issue.

I've been looking over posts in several forums and found one good thread in one about the arc radius. I get mixed up on the dish up - motor down vs. dish down - motor up to get the arc just right. And I have the HH100-HH120 manual (much better that what came with mine) - Page 10 has some good info.

Like I say - If I can't find someone I'll probably buy a cheapo 'needle' meter, bite the bullet and plan for a morning of frustration getting the arc right. This is the dish... Hopefully it won't be something like the LNB is too heavy for the dish arm or something weird like that.

[boroda1]

I also did not buy an expensive signal meter. And I agree with you, the cheap one will not work, unless(and I am not sure) your true south sat happens to be an Echostar.
If you 100% sure that your motor points to the true South, your installation is a done job. For your reference, you can use good compass, Google Maps with latitude/longitude grid, you can use a shadow at noon, see here:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/AltAz.html

[rainman]

is that a 90cm fortec.if it is my angle was about 5 degrees lower than called for. also go to www.sadoun.com
under installation for motorized system gives some great info on setup.

[Lord_Perth]

Cincy, I didn't use a meter with my setup. I worked on it for 2 and a half days before I got it set up right. The way I finally did it was to (don't laugh!) put a cheap two dollar compass on top of the LNB and turned the dish and motor as one unit slowly until the reading on the compass matched my azimuth angle which came out to be 182 degrees. I tightened it down and set the dish elevation angle to 40 although it was supposed to be 34.9. Lostinthewoods was right...with a motor, I had to adjust right at about 5 degrees more than called for. I couldn't believe it when I entered my coordinates into the USALS setup and bam! It tracked like a champ. Works perfectly.

[Cincy]

Putting a compass on the end of the dish arm on the lnb makes sense. When I first set this up with the Weingard dish I bought a cheap compass but that was a few years ago. I've been looking for it but you know how things 'migrate' in a house over a period of years. I'll probably just buy another one when I go for groceries at the local Meijers.

Originally Posted by lostinthewoods

I rough estimated my south direction, then in USALS, set the rotation to the nearest circular bird and then rotated the whole assembly (motor and dish) until I got quality. Then I peaked the quality using the elevation of the DISH.

That's essentially what I did when I set up the dish the first time some years ago. I had a compass and did a rough setting on the pole, then set USALS to a bird to the south and rotated until it came in - Then did the elevation bit.

I *know* I have to re-align the rotor/dish because when I switched dishes I came in and although I'm at 84.4 longitude, if I set the the USALS to 87 the sats I was looking at came in. So I just sorta let things go for a while. It was winter, I was busy with other things and figured I'd just sorta wait for warmer weather.

I was just looking at the setup again (Boy, am I glad I put this on a pole at eye level - So easy to 'get to'...). It looks as if the dish may be clamped to the rotor shaft a few degrees off. If I look at the 'eye' holes in the back bracket it's dead on the line on the rotor shaft, but using that as a reference one side of the back bracket could be further to one side than the other. Looking from the dish side it 'looks' like it *might* be off a few degrees, but it's hard to tell. There's a grove, but nothing to really match up.

I was out earlier looking everything over and played with the dish angle a bit. I'm now in 'thinking' mode. I brass brushed the motor bracket. The SG2100 has a cheap painted bracket which rusts where the paint chips from tightening so you can't see the markings. Not to mention cheapo u-bolts. I put white lithium grease on them when I installed it but they have still rusted to beat the band. If I hadn't coated them with lithium grease (and recoated them each year) they probably would have been rusted enugh to have broken when I loosened them. The bolts that both the Fortec and Weingard come with all look almost new. Anyway, the elevation setting looks dead on. As to the dish angle on the rotor shaft, the bracket is pretty cheapo. The bolts are a lot smaller than the holes so it's not like moving something on a solid shaft. That said, that's a guessing / estimate game.

I'm also wondering if the location on the rotor shaft is an issue. From physics, technically if the shaft was 3 times as longer it would make a big difference in the swing of the object attached if attached at the end (*I think*...) vs. at the top. The Weingard dish I had on it had a bolt on the dish bracket which went through the hole in the rotor shaft near the top. I mounted this Fortec as it shows in the rotor manual - About right in the middle of the rotor shaft. I'll have to look for some pictures of other setups to see where on the rotor shaft SG2100 folks are clamping their dishes.

Oh, well. So it goes. Like I said, I'm sorta in thinking mode trying to consider all the potential variables. I even double checked the pole and it's dead on plumb like it was when I sank it in concrete when I did the original install.