My frustration with this thing is off the scale.
I very, very seriously do not get it.
So I called my dad and asked him if he had one of those gauges.
He did have an old one and a digital one and said I could borrow either one. I asked to borrow the old one because the digital stuff might give me a problem. And because all the pictures you guys have shown are of the non digital kind.
So, my dad brought the old gauge / meter / whatever over when he was out on errands today.
Two things I see that are a problem with this thing is that unlike my iPhone, you can't change the zero position on it. This thing was made to be used on horizontal surfaces it appears. So when you stick it on different angles the zero isn't straight up and you get the wrong reading on it..
In respect to that, there is only one magnet on one of the two edges on it so that makes it tough to stick it different ways to different things.
I guess it will work though not as easy as a more expensive one would. I guess I need to locate and purchase a more versatile model. But for now this is all I can get. It's also missing the clear cover and the little needle was bent a tiny bit. It's plastic though so I tried to straighten it out a little bit, it's pretty close to straight now.
So I went out back and tried to stick the thing to the dish. At first there was no way to attach it to any of the tilt brackets. So one of the bolts that tip it up, I adjusted to tip it up as far as it would go and I was then able to get the thing on one of the brackets in the center. But the zero was not up, at the 12'oclock position and that made the needle point to the wrong numbers. So do you like add or subtract 90 because the zero is not up? Right? That makes sense to me. Or, maybe not. I don't know. On this one you can only stick it along one edge with the magnet, the other edge doesn't have one.
On my iPhone I can press a button and it will reorient itself and put the zero straight up to 12'oclock no matter which edge you put it.
As for the angle to point these big dishes, someone said they should point up higher than the little ku dishes.
I looked at them and they are all marked with elevation marks and skew marks. I can deal with that. They are MARKED. Anyway, so most of them are at elevations like 50 or more.
Dishpointer has been telling me the dish should be on elevation of 30. WUT???
Can not be right....
When I select 95w Galaxy 3C which is extremely close to true south from where I am, off by only 2 degrees I think, dishpointer says the elevation is 55 degrees. That does NOT jive with the 30 degrees it has been telling me when I tell it I have a motorized dish. I'm thinking that it's giving me the settings for motorized ku dishes.
The big dish is not offset like the ku's so it has to point directly at the satellite, as someone mentioned earlier. So the information dishpointer is giving me is all wrong.
I don't know what to use as a basis for setting these stupid things!
I need an idiot meter. One that just sits there waiting for you to aim at ANYTHING. When you aim at something, anything, it figures out what you are one, beeps to let you know to STOP HERE AND NOW and then it says "Hey stupid! You just found Galaxy 19!"
The birddog meter, you have to preselect a satellite and it doesn't alert you at all unless you are dead on it. Useful huh? You may be on the satellite just one spot over from the one you want but it won't tell you ANYTHING, not even that you are on the wrong satellite much less on any satellite.
It's like pin the tail on the donkey. I find the birddog meter very unfriendly and difficult to use. I've had better luck just using it to power the squealy meter and combined with dumb luck I have managed to find most of the ku satellites. But then with those you preset the elevation and skew to known values then it's a simple matter of pointing in the general direction then slowly moving until the squealy gives the highest reading. Tighten it down and go inside to check and usually I've got it.
I took a picture of all the dishes and you can see that with the big dish set to the 30 degrees that dishpointer says to use, it's at about the same angle as the little ku dishes. WAIT! That can NOT be right! The satellites are at a higher angle than the dish appears to be pointing! It bounces in on an angle. And the big dish, does not. So it has to be aimed much higher in the sky than the ku's appear to be aimed. Right??
Is there a computer program for aiming these stupid things? Everything I've found on the internet is just about little ku dishes. I can't figure out how to aim the stupid things through math. I stink at math. BADLY... I can not do geometry, at all. I have to use a calculator to do even the most basic math.
The other thing I can not understand, at all, is why there are TWO angle settings! WHY??????
Why not just have ONE setting on the angle? That's as stupid as stupid can be!
OH, I found a photo of the mounting stuff for the big ten foot dish when I but it out of the weeds last year. I took photos of the stuff before I sent it off with my dad who took it apart, cleaned it all up, took the rust off and painted it for me. Now that he took it apart all the bolts are moved now. It WAS set by the last person that owned it. I can tell from looking at the before photos that it aparently was aimed very much higher in the sky than I've been aiming this 6 foot dish. I can't say that for sure because I never saw that dish and don't even know where it came from originally.
Also, the 10 foot dish, doesn't seem to have two elevation angle settings on it! MAKES SENSE TO ME!
If it doesn't need two settings, why does the little one?? Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!
Ok, here some photos of what I've got now..
Oh, and someone asked about the motor. No, the motor is not at all connected to anything yet. Eventually it will be. For the immediate future I do not care a flip about the motor, I want to park this thing on 87 AMC 3 and leave it there until mid summer. I do have a Gbox but I want to use it on the BIG ten foot dish. I'll get another Gbox this summer. Hopefully I can catch a sale on em.
Thanks....
edit: I found the following information on the WS website about this dish.
Model WS1870P
Type Prime
Diameter 180 cm
Panels (sections) 6
Aperture Efficiency 70% min.
C – Band Gain @4.0 GHz 35.89 dB
KU – Band Gain @12.5 GHz 45.54 dB
F/D Ratio 0.38
Focus Length 682 mm
I know this is important about how to set the bleepin LNB to the right place, it rotates in the mount and it moves in and out towards/away from the dish.
OMG this thing has me a nervous wreck! My nerves are on the raw edge so bad that my hair is falling out. If I can't get this thing figured out like really, really soon I'm scrapping it all. I can't afford this stress and frustration..