OK, WHere Am I going Wrong..

[pmb1010]

Originally Posted by wejones

I think the 2 scales on that motor are for use with the high latitude and low latitude holes in the mount, and I think he's using the right scale.
.

Yep bill, I did notice that after I posted the response, and was too lazy go go back and fix it.
I left it in because of the postioining of the bolt holes from side to side is important.

[Bibbler]

I'm up and working, but quite sure it is not tracking correctly. In my case, it does appear the problem is the dish elevation. My mast is level and I am lined up with the compass at 189 - motor ele is set to 41 deg (my zip is 15012)....

The 38.8 dish ele (31" with HH90) gives me no results... Currently I have it at 56-58 and get part of the band.. if I lower it to 45 I get another part..... and somewhere else, I get another part...

I tried here (I have lots of trees) and at my Dad's house (no Trees), same result. So I am trying it on the roof of a friend's old garage (same prob). I'm sure it is an alignment prob now (I did have a bad receiver that through me a loop but I replaced it and all is well)....

In an earlier post, Some suggested I have the thing put together wrong (Maybe).. Here are a few pics taken yesterday from the garage. Notice the high elevation setting. At the moment these pics were taken, we were watching KUIL on AMC4 at 58% signal (which is about the BESt I ever got!)

http://web.mac.com/afterhours227/iWeb/Site/Photos.html

[rainman]

the best way to get it tracking is to make all of your adjustments in the begining on you true south sat the one closest to your longitude.

[Bibbler]

Does the dish look to be set up right??? As mentioned, notice the elevation is about 56-58... As Bill pointed out, it shouldn't work there, but it does get 2 sat IA5, and AMC4... When I drop it to where it's "supposed to be", I get nothing..

Thanks in Advance..

http://web.mac.com/afterhours227/iWeb/Site/Photos.html

[elgemcdlf]

Doesn't the HH90 point upward? I will go check. Sadoun's photos show the shaft pointing upward. This is most likely why your dish elevation is off so much. I would almost bet if you flipped the motor your dish elevation would come into line. You will probably get more of the arc also.

Ok other pics show it pointing down.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Doesn't the HH90 point upward? I will go check.

no the hh 90 points down just the 100 and 120 from stab points up.

[rainman]

Bibbler the dish does look like its pointed to high by the pictures.

[Bibbler]

Never did this before

But it's the dish elevation at 58 that makes no sense.. It should only be 38 or something...

If you note the line on there (make I made).. I once had it at 46 and got a few other birds...

Totally confused..

[pmb1010]

there are 2 scales on the HH90 motor (either side)

did you set the side that as "LAT" on it to 40.1 (your latitude setting)?

38.8 is right for the dish elevation, according to my calculations.

You should:
set the settings on motor LAT side scale to 40.1
set the dish to 38.8
set the motor at "reference" or zero
make sure your LNB is straight up and down (now skew) and is pulled as far away from the dish in the holder as possible.
put in your LAT & LONG in the receiver's USALS settings
Point the whole thing while motor is at zero to about 191 degrees on a good compass.
Select AMC5 as your south satellite, and have the motor drive there. It should not move much.
Make sure you are on 11720 for Utah Education network trasponder.

Try to get a signal by adjusting the whole contraption on the pole, and by adjusting dish elevation. You might have to move your dish elevation up +5 as has been reported here, but that should put you on the arc.

Even though you are "off the arc", when you did hit KUIL should come in at 80 or 90. It is a very strong signal. But, I must mention that some receivers signal indicators are quite stingy, so 58% isnt surprizing, but would seem a bit low to me.

look at these directions, number 5 left hand picture is how it should be for 40.1
also notice bolt mouting holes are different between left and right pic.
http://www.stab-italia.com/eng-hh90.pdf

[Bibbler]

I'm going out to give it a shot.. But it sounds like the highest I should ever have to raise the dish is about 44 or something.... and obviously the 58 is screwed up (although thats where the strongest signals are..

I'm going to play and will recheck the motor setting...

Thanks so much everyone!@

[wejones]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

there are 2 scales on the HH90 motor (either side)

did you set the side that as "LAT" on it to 40.1 (your latitude setting)?

38.8 is right for the dish elevation, according to my calculations.

I think the 2 scales on that motor are for use with the high latitude and low latitude holes in the mount, and I think he's using the right scale.

The thing that looks a bit strange to me, is it looks like maybe where the dish mount attaches to the motor shaft, that he might not be centered right. I seem to remember a post, or looking at a picture of one of those motors, which seemed to show that some of the shafts had the hole in the shaft off center or something. The mount he's using needs to have it's bolt go through a hole that is centered and perpendicular to the alignment marks on the shaft, but the picture seems to make it look like this might not be the case, but it's hard to tell for sure. It's also possible that he had the motor rotated when he tried lining up his due south sat. The lower elevation from the rotated motor would require more dish elevation to get the due south sat, and then the other sats would be way out of alignment. You can do things like that when you start trying to find sats by all methods (motor,motor mount,dish elevation) randomly, instead of step by step in the right order.

[Bibbler]

By the way, I NEVER got a signal of over 60% on ANY transponder... I know It should be higher, but its the best I ever got... I know the Lifetime Classic NA is the cheapest receiver offered, but I kinda just went with the basic package to "See how I would like this hobby"...

I'll keep ya informed..

Thanks Again!

Al

[wejones]

BTW, I see the Monongahela river in one of your pictures. Neat. About 40 years ago I used to water ski in the Monongahela, although up around Pittsburgh. Back then there were more steel mills on the river and it was considerably warmer than the Allegheny, so it actually flowed up stream around the point on the surface, while the Allegheny's water went underneath, which meant that sticks and logs and other debris collected on the surface at the interface. I assume the river is much cooler now.

[Bibbler]

My friends garage (where I was testing) is in Allenport, PA (not far from Charleroi).... The "Mon" does look kinda cool!

The clean up effort in recent years has came a long long way... I own a small outboard (15' with a 115 HP Merc)... Don't do much skiing, but like to cruise up and down in our pool from Charleroi up past Brownsville on my weekends durning the summer!!

You're right, most of the industry is gone, but the water is still warm enough to take a dip from mid June through the beginning of Sept!!!

Al

[Bibbler]

Well, I'm about ready to throw in the towel. If there was a local installer, I'd gladly pay him/her.. Been at this since summer and it is not going well at all..

Here are today's pics:

http://web.mac.com/afterhours227/iWe...03/Photos.html

I tore the entire assembly apart and reassembled it by the book. I set dish elevation to 38-39 and it does absolutely nothing. It gets NO Sats at all until I raise dish to over 50 and will only track 2 at a time near 60...

Something is wrong. I have 2 LNB's, 2 Reveivers, and 300' of coax (that I keep switching thinking in error one of these must be bad)...

In the pics, the dish elevation is set (as u can see) at about 39 degrees. Does the dish look low???? The protractor I am holding only reads 15-16 degrees. Not sure I'm even using it correctly..

I'm open to any and all ideas. The dish is the only thing I don't have 2 of. Should I order another one of them??????

[elgemcdlf]

tracking the arc is a combination of dish elevation and motor elevation. Are you certain you have your motor set correctly? While I do not have a HH90 my motor shaft does not point straight down and yours looks like it is pointing back some.