Question about wind and digital KU signal

[linuxman]

Thanks Pete.

The one good thing about making costly mistakes, in this case just time. You usually don't ever make the same mistakes again.

 

[gabshere]

yes Fred thats great and the photos are great too... mine still needs work but want to rig up a second primestar dish which looks like that one.. what did you sleeve that one with pvc pipe ?? thats a neat idea.. and the non pen mount is great ... i need one of those lol guess my bucket mount is ok for now lol lol

did you guesstomate the elevation on the dish with the mount being inverted & what is the plug in the top of the pole ??

 

[linuxman]

Hi George,

I used 2" PVC pipe, and I bought the 50MM tube when I ordered the motor, so it all fit very nicely. You do have to cut the angle on the place where the bolts tighten up or it won't tighten up properly. I got all the ideas from the big long thread about mounting a Primestar on an SG2100 motor. The plug in the top of the pole came with the non-penetrating mount.

I replaced the original pole with a good heavy galvanized shedule 40 steel pipe, and beefed up the support arms with angle brackets. I want to tell you, it is not easy drilling holes through that kind of a pipe without a drill press, but it is possible. I fixed it so that the pole is adjustable to make sure that you can get it verticle even if it's not setting on a level surface. As you can see, I have it 42" tall. The original mast was 26". Fine for this dish if not on a motor, but not long enough when motorized.

I used this formula, I don't know whether it is right or not, but it got me close. The elevation is 52 degrees, - 22 degrees because of the offset dish, - 6 degrees for declination which gave me 24 degrees. I used the inclinometer on the face of the dish in the middle to get me close. It worked even when my latitude was set incorrectly.

The tech types here can tell you if that is correct or not.

Fred

 

[BKP]

Looks like a PRO JOB to me... I knew you'd figure it out..

Nice photos..

But, tell me Fred - why is your house so much different then the other houses around.. It seems your flat roof is a little out of place there..

 

[linuxman]

Hey BK,

I live in an old grocery store, built in 1956 by a local construction company that believed in building a solid commercial building.

The commercial part of our town is 4 blocks long and one block wide. I am on the West side of the commercial district and the pictures overlook the 3 blocks of residential area.

The whole town is about 5 blocks by 5 blocks.

Thanks, but I am not a professional by any stretch of the imagination.

Was still peaking and tweaking this afternoon. I picked up a TP on one of the sats East of pas9 tonight Intelsat 705 I think. Nothing to watch, but a live tp on the far East side. I am getting close to Nirvana (Hispasat 1C).

Fred

 

[BKP]

Aaaahhh, I was kinda thinkin' in that direction.. Cool...

Well, my town is even smaller..

 

[linuxman]

I am going to continue in this thread for a couple of more posts becuase I have discovered some things that may be helpful to some people.

First, DO NOT TRUST AN INCLINOMETER!
I have been relying on mine to tell me whether my mast was vertical or not. I stopped by Lowes, and picked up a 9" torpedo level today because the only other bubble level I had was too long to use with motor, box, and everything hooked up. The bubble level showed my N-S axis to be off by a quarter of a bubble, and the E-W axis off by half a bubble. I am glad I made the mast adjustable on the mount. I made the correction, and what a difference on the East side of the arc. The TP that I was having trouble with on AMC6 (12052) is now coming in at 60-65%.

Secondly, the USALS now work pretty darn good. So much so that on most of the Sats, I get the best signal using USALS.

Thirdly, a couple of days ago, I ran the motor to my TS, and switched to diseqc 1.2 in the Pansat menu, and ran the motor as far East as I could, and set the limit in the menu. Then I ran it as far West as I could, and set the limit in the menu. I believe this helped me in a couple of things.

I was able to run to the East using USLALS to 31.5 W (Intelsat 801) using USALS. I ran some scans on those birds from there West, and didn't pick up a thing until 43.1 W (PAS-3R) where I picked up a couple of TP's at 60-65% SQ. So I knew I was tracking the arc pretty well by now from 129W - 43.1W.

I have been trying to hit Hispasat at 30W, and just couldn't seem to find it. USALS would run the dish to the TS when I would move to Hispasat in the satellite setup menu. So I have been trying to do it with Diseqc from 31.5W. So I got the bright idea today to go into the USALS setup menu on Hispasat, and change it from 30.0 to 30.1, then arrowed down to move to whatever, and stored it. It moved it over to a position East of 31.5W, so I can only assume it moved it to the right spot.

I still can't get anything from Hispasat, so I might have a LOS issue that I didn't think I would have.

The only questions I have are:

Where does the signal come into the dish with it laid over on it side almost vertical end to end when pointing to Hispasat? I think it is a 12 something degree of elevation for me in 63369 zip code.

I would like to construct something out of cardboard, paper or whatever to tape in the center of the dish or wherever the signal comes in, at the right angle towards the satellite that I can sight down, and see what is the obstruction. I think it might be a single branch of my neighbors tree on my East, and it is one of those trees that the leaves won't finish falling off for another month. I am sure that if I can find the branch, he will let me cut it off. He is a very nice guy, and lives alone, almost a hermit type.

If any of you can explain to me where the signal hits the dish and the height, and angle, or maybe give me an idea how to construct something that will allow me to see the obstruction, I think I can nail this bird.

Thanks, Fred

 

[PSB]

                   Old Monroe, MO 63369
         Latitude 38° 56.076'N Longitude 90° 46.692'W

                       Sat Name Sat Lng Az(t) Az(m)   El  Skew
--------------------------------------------------------------
                               

                               
                  Hispasat 1C/D   30.0W 109.4 109.4 13.9 -47.2
                               


       Satellite Finder is (c) Copyright 2004, P. Lutus

14º elevation for you, here in MN. its like 10º no problems here with 30ºw

Have look below for ideas on how to make your own clearance view finder!

I used to have 3-4 made up for the popular satellites before I got a professional satellite angle finder.........

 

[linuxman]

Thanks Pete,

I think I can come up with something like you have for the elevation.

The next question is where do I point it when looking towards the East sitting in front of the dish? I guess I don't know what compass heading to use for the pointer to set on. Your figures above show an AZ of 109.4, my problem is that I don't understand where the AZ is calculated from.

Sorry for being so dense.

Fred

 

[PSB]

No denser than I

Its calculated from a compass facing North / 0º, so south would be 180º all the way round to 360º/0º

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuth

 

[linuxman]

Thanks Pete,

I never really understood that part of all this. It is finally starting to make some sense.

Now I think I can figure out which branch to cut off.

You Da Man!!!!

 

[linuxman]

After doing some checking this morning on the branch, while I could ask the neighbor to cut it off, for it to be long a long term fix, it would require a substantial loss to his tree on it's North side.

I think I have a simpler solution.

You have all looked at my DirecPC dish that I found. If not, here are some of the pics.


Since this dish has a nice skewable mount that will fit right onto one of my extra non-penetrating mounts, why don't I just put up a separate dish for Hispasat?

1. Does anyone know if the above LNB is standard, or universal? I think I read somewhere that they were standard.

2. This is both a sending/receiving unit. Do I just hook up to the input on the LNB only?

3. Can I remove the sending part hanging under the support arm?

4. Since there is only one output from the LNB, can I assume that it is voltage switching for the polarity through this one hook-up?

5. If number 4 is true, I should be able to just hook it into port 2 of my 4-way diseqc switch. Correct?

I think this might be an easier solution than cutting my neighbor's tree, or moving the motorized dish since I have it almost completely tuned in. Plus, it will give me some experience at dialing in a single satellite with a single dish.

Thanks for your help, Fred

 

[PSB]

1/ DirecPC LNB's are Standard (L.O. 10750)

2/ Right just the LNB

3/ Yes!

4/ Yes!

5/ yes you can use a switch (Only after you are all set up)

 

[linuxman]

Very cool!!!!

I will start putting it up this afternoon.

Thanks Pete!!!!

 

[linuxman]

I got sidetracked yesterday. Had to actually go out and make some money.

I also had to prep the dish, put together the mount, go get some concrete blocks etc. Took the mount and blocks to the roof late yesterday afternoon. Didn't feel well so waited until this morning to take up the dish and set it up. Drizzled until about 11:00 AM.

Took the dish up and actually started the setup. This is for Hispasat 1/3C at 30 degrees W.

This was actually easier to find and tune in than a motorized setup. Course now I have some other tools to help in all this setup business. Also the DPC dish has skew and elevation scales to work with.

So I set the elevation at about 14, the charts say 13.9, set the skew at 48, charts say 47.2, and pointed the dish where I knew about where it should be. The DPC dish also has a bolt that runs through the mounting bracket that sits right on top of the mast making it real easy to move back and forth. Then it was just a matter of fishing up and down, then move over a bit.

I just took some readings, some of which were a little better earlier when I was on the roof. It was drizzling before that and some that is now East of me. This is SQ readings on 4 TP's that are listed on Lyngsat.

12131 - H is at 44-50%
12172 - H is at 45-50%
12052 - V is at 28-32% (this one was at 45-50% and bouncing to 60% when I set the dish up, and was the TP I used to home it in. Don't know what happened except maybe the weather.
12175 - V is at 15-25% but still has a picture.
Another TP that isn't listed am getting it at 55-60%.

I need to fine tune it some more, but I got cold, and with not feeling well last night, I did't want to push it today. It is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, so maybe tomorrow afternoon I will try and super-fine tune it, and finish the super-fine tune on my motorized.

Here are some pics, and some of the tools I made.


Any suggestions on how I might fine tune this sat further?

Thanks for all your help, Fred

 

[voomvoom]

Fred you've become a regular expert in all aspects of satellite tv. Congratulations on all your recent adventures.

Al

 

[linuxman]

Hey Al,

I wouldn't say an expert yet, but I try to learn.

Congrats on your Sadoun giveaway win.

I still need to fine tune just a little more. 12052 was much stronger when I set it up. Course now it is coming through the diseqc switch too, and something might have moved when I tightened everything up. That's what tomorrow is for.

 

[linuxman]

After spending over 3 hours on the roof today, I haven't gotten any better signal out of Hispsat 30.0 W. I quit after considering myself fortunate to have gotten back to the SQ that I had. They are no better than the above figures

I sprayed the DPC dish with Rain Shield, and finally gave it up for another day.

I also spent a little more time with the motorized Primestar dish, and now have it humming from one end of the arc to the other. Great SQ, and I am very happy with the P* OEM LNB, and the P* dish itself. The SG2100 is working flawlessly. Am ready to start scanning in all the sats on this dish.

I put in the coordinates for 148.0W just to see if USALS would move it into position. Doubt if I can get anything there since it is circular, but just to see if USALS would move it that far west. It moved it to that position. Will have to try it out later.

I need some advice on what to do with the DirecPC Dish. The fine adjustment screw on the side is kind of screwy. It seems to cock the dish E-W when trying to move it up and down. The angle brackets which are part of the adjusting screw mechanism seem to bend towards each other and you have to turn the locking screw on the inside of the brackets on the left to make it move up. It is very difficult to maneuver for adjustment.

PSB and Ice, please take a look at it and tell me if the original installer put it on correctly.
.
I would like to get just a tad bit better SQ out of a couple of the TP's on this satellite, but don't know what else to do.

Thanks, Fred

 

[PSB]

I used to install DirecPC, I hate those elevation screws!

I used to just remove them, manually point the dish then put them back on just for some extra support!

 

[linuxman]

I tried to take the screw loose, but couldn't hold/move/adjust and tighten down all at the same time. That thing is a pain in the butt!!!

Any other suggestions about how to get a better SQ out of this bird?

I could put up my 36x26" 75E Primestar dish, but it doesn't have dish skew, only LNB skew, and that only goes to + or - 30.0. May have to do it though to get a better signal.

Are the mounting bolt patterns the same dimensions for the 75E and the DirecPC dish?

I could put the 75E on this mount.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have. Fred