Thread: need help.....getting a quality but not much

okay. i posted before and have had great help from everyone here. my problem is i switched to a universal ku lnb to make things simpler. my l.o.s. was crap so tonight the dish went to the roof where direct once was. i plumbed and mounted dish just fine. here comes my inexperience. i still couldnt lock 97w with no avail. everything was set properly for my location. i did notice from moving the dish slowly from right to left a signal strength of 30 percent for 107 and 111 anik. i tried moving the lat to get it better but no good. i moved the lnb slowly but still at 30 percent. how close would you guys think i am getting to locking onto a real sat? is it better to just get a motor and find the true south and let the motor do the rest? in maine my window is closing for good weather on the roof. so i want to go with the best poss outcome in the shortest time until spring comes. again thanks for all the help in the past and in the future.

Originally Posted by outbackjack

okay. i posted before and have had great help from everyone here. my problem is i switched to a universal ku lnb to make things simpler.

What is the dish elevation setting? What is the dish azimuth (compass) setting? What is the LNBF skew setting (standing in front oof the dish looking into the reflector + is counter clockwise and - is clockwise). Have you set the receiver's LNB LO frequency to match your new Universal type 9750/10600 and placed the 22KHz either on 22Hz ON or Auto? Selected a strong active transponder like 12177 or 11836? Make sure taht you have a small TV up near the dish so you can continually monitor the Signal Quality readings.

I would not recommend installing a motor until you have installed the dish for a fixed satellite. Motors will only add one more level of difficulty.

Outback, once you set your info in the sat receiver, like satAV said, and set the "skew" of your lnbf you should be able to find 97W. Also, you didn't mention how you're doing this, if you have help or if you brought the receiver/tv up on the roof so you can see results as you search. The elevation scale on your dish may or may not be very accurate so remember to adjust the dish up and down a few degrees from what is shown on the dishpointer sites for your location. I found that on one dish I have, the elevation scale was off by nearly 10degrees! Takes patience to find that first signal but once you do, it'll all fall into place.

thanks SatAv and turbosat for the info. i will wait on the motor. my settings are 31.5 skew, 234.3 azimuth (magnetic) and lnb skew is +25.6. i set the skew behind the lnb (counterclockwise). i set the azimuth by compass at 234 and the the skew at 31.5. the pole is plumb the settings for the lnb were at 9750/10600 with 22khz on auto. i tried 12177 and 11836 and both i couldnt get any better than 0-31 percent. i moved the skew very slowly up and down all the way and nothing better and also moved the dish horizontally and it dropped to the 0-7 percent range. i was on the roof with a tv and the receiver to see everything while i adjusted but nothing. i'm not sure what else to do. i tried for 2 hours and nothing i tried anik 111 and 107 and nothing better either. any other ideas because i'm lost.

Possible Warped Dish?
"Eyeball" the Rim of the Dish, or give it the String Test.

Sometimes it takes a while to hit that first satellite. It might be easier if you haven't done this before, to pick a satellite closest to your longitude, where you can just aim the dish toward the south, trying to find that satellite. Set skew to zero when the dish is pointed south. You can use the List , here, top of page, to find your true south sat, and enter an active transponder for it. Might be easier to find, for your first time, and give you an idea of what you have to do to hit it.
It does take patience.

Not sure about your WSI dish, but the elevation marks on my Fortec dish were a few degrees off, so don't forget to adjust up and down also. Make small changes left/right and up/down, pausing a few seconds between moves. I found that having an inline meter helped to find the sat. Be patient. Good luck.

thanks guys for the help. turbosat i never even thought of the true south alignment. i will give that a shot. in the next couple days. we have rain coming once again i will let you guys know how it goes. thanks again.

i thought i would add that i just got a sf95kl meter from sadoun so that might help a bit. and my true south is 68.8w. is this a strong bird for the meter to get?