HH120 Installation question

[lostinthewoods]

Hello,
I have just ordered a HH120 and in planning the installation, I have a question.
I now have my coax running from my receiver to a grounding block on the mast and then to the LNB.

When I install the motor:
1. Should I still install a grounding block?

2. If the answer to #1 is yes, should it be mounted between the receiver and the motor or between the motor and the LNB??

Thanks in advance.

Lost

[Sadoun]

Thank you for ordering the hh120 motor. We appreciate your business.

I am glad to hear that you are using a grounding block. It is prefered that the grounding block be between the receiver and the motor. It should be on the outside wall just before the coax enters the house.

Read more about grounding here: http://sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Grounding.htm

[lostinthewoods]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, where I live is in a lightning prone area and I am on the end of the electrical service so grounding is a priority for me

Hopefully, I will have the motor setup this weekend.

Lost

[lostinthewoods]

Ok, have spent the afternoon trying to get my motor setup! Yes, I have read the FAQ and the manual but I seem to be missing "something"! Looking for any ideas of what I have done wrong.

Motor- HH120
Latitiude 85.17
Longitude 33.03 Like I can split hairs on the scales on these thing:})
Dish "Prime Star"
Calculated dish elevation of AMC3 (87W my closest active bird) 51.5 or 51.6 for AMC9 (85W).

OK, I setup the dish for 87 on the pole (no motor yet) and get a signal and can see some TV (not much, but I have signal)!

Set the dish on the motor and set the motor to 33 degrees as best I can on the scale. Point the motor to the south based on previous marks on the pole. Put the dish on the motor and set the elevation of the dish to 24.62 (high degree of accuracy yeh right). This setting agrees with both the manual and the page on this web site for calculating the angle.
Have my motor loose on the pole and try swinging back and forth trying to get a signal. NO luck! Tried moving the dish to a circular bird (have an Invacom Qph) still no luck getting a signal!


As previously stated, If I remove the dish from the motor and reset the elevation and point in the correct direction, I can get a signal (done this a couple of times). so obviously, I am missing something and any help will be appreciated.

Lost

[Reinhold]

You need to start off with your dish at "0" scew and pointing true south.
After that you let your motor run you to 87W(very little movement.
Then you move the whole thing very slightly left or right ,giving the system time to catch up between movements,and look for some improvement.at the same time you raise or lower your dish very slightly,till you get some quality.If you had the true south setting right you should need very little if any rotation.
Reinhold.

[lostinthewoods]

Reinhold,
Thanks for the response, but after I posted, it was time for a bourbon and the fact it was to darn hot on the roof

While I was sitting here thinking, my poor lost brain said....."Hey stoopid" the elevation must be off cause you have moved +/-40 degrees and couldn't lock!
So I took my trusty machinist protractor up on the roof and once again resest it to the mast and got a signal. Measured the angle of the MOUNT on the dish and then broke everything down again. Mounted it on the motor, approximated the azmuth to the south, set the angle according to the calculations and measured it. Way OFF Raised the elevation until the angle of the mount was again what it should be for the mast mount and immediately got a beep on the TV! Made the angle exactly what it was and played with the azmuth until I got a signal. The dish is indicating an angle of 30 degrees +/- so the scale is messed up Locked it down and came into the house and sure enough, I have signal (not good enough yet to get audio on 87, but got picuture on a couple of channels) Moved the dish a few degrees and can get signal on G-11 45% Quality.

Tomorrow, will get out there and try to fine toon everything. Obvioulsy with 4 joints to play with, this will take some time.

Thanks for you help.

Lost


Obviously, I am close now

[rainman]

sounds like you are very close. remember pbs on amc3 is ac3 sound you will need a decoder and may have to input the audio pids manualy. good luck on your install.

[lostinthewoods]

Rainman,
Well sat here last evening scanning birds! Thought I would get an initial database of quality on the arc. So far, I have 15 birds starting at 61.5 and have gotten to 110 and so far the quality is fairly consistant over the range

I feel real luck to get this many so far as I truly live in the woods and when I started this whole thing, was concerned that I would be able to "anything" due to the trees. My linear birds are consitantly in in the 40-60% area across the spectrum and the circular are in the 90% area. This tells me that I must be close to the arc, but still have a few more to scan to get the complete pattern. A last minute check of 129 last night before quitting showed it is problably in the trees so I won't be able to get that one (unless I am off arc) and only time will tell on that one.

The big problem was with the scale on the dish being in-accurate. Here we are trying to hit x.x degrees and the stupid scale is off by about 5 degrees. Maybe somebody else can benifit from my exercise

Lost

[rainman]

yeah the scale on my fortec 90cm was off also suppose to be 24 degrees ended up at 19 dgrees on the scale.

[lostinthewoods]

HMM, two different dishes and both off approximately 5 degrees! Wonder if possibly the formula is wrong???

Just a thought.

Lost