First, I would like to thank all those who have posted on this forum and the instructions from
Sadoun. It made my
installation much easier!
I purchased a
M-1 system:
Fortec Star Lifetime
Classic NA
FS80P Dish
HH90 motor
Universal
FSKUv LNBF
I thought I could easily install this system and align it without a problem. I was half right. It installed easily with help from the instructions on this site and the tips from forum members. Aligning was a little harder than I expected. After about 4 hours I did get it aligned. I did a lot of reading, tried a few different things and a couple of choice words and I was able to receive a signal.
Lessons learned:
1. I installed the dish on a 1 5/8" galvanized steel pipe anchored 2' in the ground and secured by concrete. I made sure it was perfectly straight. I used a Angle Locater purchased from Sadoun.
2. Use the scales on both the motor and the dish. The motor of course is set to the latitude and the dish is set by using this calculator.
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installati...ion-Angles.htm . This will only give a rough setting! I found that the dish had to be tilted up another 5 degrees but the motor was accurate.
3. When using your compass stand in front of the dish and look toward true south. I was able to line it up with a vent pipe on the neighbors roof. If you get to close to the metal in the dish it will give you a false reading on your compass. (duh ... it didn't take me long to figure that one out!). Once you get the dish roughly set, mark the pole and the scale on the dish so you can see how much you move it later.
4. Use your receiver and a small TV by the dish. My south satellite was AMC5. I ordered a meter but it was out of stock so I had to use the receiver which worked great! As far as I'm concerned you don't need a meter when using this receiver.
5. On the Classic go to antenna setup and select the due south satellite (mine was AMC 5). Next, select positioner and select USALS. Let the dish move. I left it on the positioner setup screen since this samples the freq. more often. I rotated through the preprogrammed TP's until I had one that started to show a level. It would blink from 0 - 6%. This means your close. Once you get one that is blinking then it's time to move the dish. I started to move the dish up slowly. Make sure the nuts are slightly snug so the dish won't come down on it's own weight. Move it slow while watching the level bar. It will start to flash faster (maybe, if not go down with the dish). Move it up and down until it flashes the fastest. SLOWLY tightened the dish bolts and watch the level meter. If you crank too hard on one side of the dish, it will throw it off. Next loosened the bracket clamps and moved the dish left and right. SLOWLY again. I mean 1/32" at a time while keeping your eye on the meter. 1/8" could blow by the satellite. Again set it so it is blinking the fastest. Tighten the clamp nuts slowly. 1/4 turn on each nut at a time and watch the meter. Go back to moving the dish up and down again. You will see the bar getting longer after a few moves of "up and down" and "left and right". If it looks like the signal isn't getting stronger, cycle through the TP's again and you may find on that will lock on. Once you get a lock, move the dish "up and down" and "left and right" again (one direction at a time!) to get the strongest signal. Once you get the strongest signal possible, slowly tightened the nuts on the dish brackets. Alternating one side at a time one nut at a time while watching the meter. If starts to drop, tighten the other side. Very slowly! and watching the meter! Once it's set mark the pole and dish again, so you can get it close again if you have to move it.
6. I moved the dish to G10R and it tract perfectly! I'm able to hit all satellites. Realize that the TP's on the same satellite will not come in with the same signal strength.
7. Anytime you try to fine tune the dish, expect to knock it of alignment. Just the nature of the beast. (I was sure glad I had mine on the ground!). Now it takes me only about 10 mins. to realign. The worse part was figuring out how the receiver works. I love the Classic! Works great!
The last couple of weeks we've had some big storms come through and the dish is still aligned! (I was a bit surprised).
Anchor it properly and it will stay. Again, thanks goes to Sadoun and all those posted here in this forum!
Ray
Linear Mode
