STAB HH90 - OK to use the mount included with my 90cm dish?

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mattopia

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 3, 2005
409
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Parma, OH
Hi guys!

Some may recall I'm currently using a GeoSatPRO 90cm mounted to a PA speaker tripod. It's working great! But I'm getting tired of re-aiming to try different satellites, so I ordered an HH90 motor.

I'll probably mount the whole thing temporarily to the same tripod I'm using now, but I'm planning a more permanent mounting solution. I haven't decided on location yet, but I've got it narrowed down to a few places - one of which would be to mount it to the side of my house, near the roofline. I suspect this is the place that will give me the widest view of the arc. What I'm wondering is if the roof/wall mount that came with my GeoSatPRO dish is sufficient enough to mount the dish/motor combo, or do I need to acquire a more substantial mounting configuration?
 
If it is properly braced it will work. I would look to see if there is a place to mount a pole in the ground for a permanent solution.

Also note: When using a motor everything has to be perfectly level/plumb and very stationary. Mounting a motor on a temp. pole will just give you a major headache. Not saying it can't be done, just be prepared for it not to work perfectly.
Now is the time to get a pole cemented into the ground while waiting on the motor to arrive and skip the temporary mount. :)
 
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I also have a Geosat 90 cm dish and HH90 motor. I mounted it semi-permanently on a 1 5/8" fencepost in a 3' hole with quick concrete. Works great, and the HH90 is very repeatable, always goes to the correct place. I would recommend such a solution for any installation that's not temporary.

Good luck,
Alan
 
I just learned that the motor arrived 4 days early! :) BUT I'm not at home to do anything with it yet and won't be until the weekend.

I have my neighbor's 100' foot tree to deal with in my back yard. If I cement in a post there, I will see all the way to 125 west (PBS!), but it's looking like I would miss out on anything east of 78W - I don't think I'd get the NBC feeds on AMC 6. I'd also have to trench a lot of cable. :\ I'm still weighing the options, but ease of installation is certainly a consideration. On the flip side, most of the house mounting locations limit my west view - so I might not pick up 125. There's one spot that I think will catch everything (possibly even 30W), but it's the one that would require me on a ladder and using the wall mount, so it's my least favorite option.

The temporary mount is actually plumb (thanks to a few coasters) and pretty darn stable. I've got 100lbs of sand holding it down, and the tripod is a professional DJ speaker stand designed to hold some heavy speakers 6-8 feet in the air. You can see a pic in my other thread. It's not permanent and doesn't get me the far east or west birds, but it's really helped me figure out how to set things up without drilling holes or pouring concrete.
 
This is a bit 'out there' but maybe you need 2 dishes and motors.(?)
One for the eastern birds and another for the west?

Unless you can erect a platform, to work on the dish, I'd shy away from a wall mount that requires getting off the ground. A ladder won't hold you, a receiver, a TV and the tools required to align the dish/motor.

I'd give up 72W in favor of 125W if limited to one dish/motor.
 
Unless you can erect a platform, to work on the dish, I'd shy away from a wall mount that requires getting off the ground. A ladder won't hold you, a receiver, a TV and the tools required to align the dish/motor.

I'd give up 72W in favor of 125W if limited to one dish/motor.

I *think* the only spot I can get 72W (and anything east of roughly 85W) would be mounted somewhere other than on the ground - either high up on one side of the house (the wall mount), or on my deck where the temporary rig is (but I'm trying to avoid having anything permanent on the deck...) Any ground mount location either has a big tree to the East, so I'd miss anything east of roughly 78. Would I be missing anything interesting besides NBC at 72W?

My front yard would actually be pretty perfect to the East and West both, but I promised the wife no nerd stuff up front. For what she lets me get away with, it's only fair. :)
 
Not missing much if you lose east of 78W. 125W is worth having.
How about posting the overhead view from maps.google.com
(you can cut out any exact location info if you must)
Someone may see something worth investigating for placement.
Plz indicate due south on it.
Another IDEA! Get your motor/dish tracking* on your temporary stand.
The transplant it to the wall mount(??)
*take your time, get it perfect.
 
I *think* the only spot I can get 72W (and anything east of roughly 85W) would be mounted somewhere other than on the ground - either high up on one side of the house (the wall mount), or on my deck where the temporary rig is (but I'm trying to avoid having anything permanent on the deck...) Any ground mount location either has a big tree to the East, so I'd miss anything east of roughly 78. Would I be missing anything interesting besides NBC at 72W?

My front yard would actually be pretty perfect to the East and West both, but I promised the wife no nerd stuff up front. For what she lets me get away with, it's only fair. :)

Not much that I recall. I have seen some chatter about the mux from 72 appearing on 103 also. Now, that may just be temporary for sun outages, or they could be consolidating to 103. Time will tell. I would third or fourth or whatever I am now, with the giving up 72 for 125.

I would also suggest setting a pole in concrete. It makes for a far easier installation and easier to maintain. Besides, you will probably want to tweak on it several times after you get it set up. Much easier to stand on the ground to play with it.
 
Here's a sat view of intergalactic HQ... Sorry for the quality - Google's imagery of the area is... worse than it used to be for some reason. Due south is straight down.

6hixs3.jpg


Zip code is 44129

- The green dot on the red deck is there my temporary setup is currently.
- The red dot in the backyard is the best backyard candidate (the best I can tell) for a pole/ground installation.
- The two yellow dots are possible wall mount locations. The leftern-most one is mostly reachable from the ground (would just need a step ladder), while the right most one is at the peak of my garage roof (about 15' or so up), so I'd need to drag a ladder out.

The right-most yellow spot I think has the best view of the sky, but is probably the most challenging to install. I'm currently leaning towards the pole mount, which as mentioned previously should get me nearly everything west of 85-ish. On dishpointer it looks like I might actually get 74, but when I'm standing outside with my compass it really looks iffy. That huge tree to the East has grown some since the satellite photo I believe.

I stopped by the hardware store and picked up a 8' galvanized fence post and 250lb of fast curing quick-rete. I'll probably start digging in the morning unless you guys find something seriously wrong with the plan!
 
Besides getting the hole below the frost line - Before putting your fence post in the concrete, don't forget to add something to keep it from spinning in the hole... This can be a piece of rebar inserted into a hole drilled through the pipe or an automotive exhaust pipe clamp or tabs welded to the bottom of the pipe.
 
Post is up, dish is mounted. I was hoping to get to 4' but I sort of gave up once I got past 3'3" or so, which *should* be enough to clear the frost line. I hope. I did put some bolts through to keep the post from twisting. Other than a rotor issue mentioned in my other thread, it went pretty smoothly. And, as expected, I get everything BUT 72W. The PBS stuff at 125W comes in beautifully. :)

Still have some tweaking to do and need to bury the cable, but all in all a successful day. I'll take some pics tomorrow if anyone is interested.
 
Wrapped things up (mostly) today - just have a bit of wire cleanup/organization to do and probably a little landscaping in the spring. Here are the pics as promised!

Plumity-plum-plum:

20ixaia.jpg

jsogo6.jpg


My cable-trenching method - Use a garden spade to cut down to below the sod, lift up, tuck the wire under the sod, and step down on it to push it back down. I only need one RG6 run but I ran a second RG6 and a Cat5 run just in case. I've used this method a few times before using standard indoor cat5 and it's still working perfectly after several years, so I decided to do it again.

6jm5qh.jpg


Annnd here is the final result:

1zp1gxz.jpg

js1w12.jpg

261kmtu.jpg

2my90cw.jpg
 
Looks great! Might consider placing the cables in a 1-2' length of PVC where it enters/exits the ground. Weed eaters can be brutal on cable jackets.

Thank you! I've learned that lesson before. My trick has been to mulch around the post/cable a bit - makes it look a little nicer too. I'll do PVC instead if I'm feeling too lazy to 'landscape' in the Spring.

EDIT: The more I think about it, I should do both! I'd hate to have to run all of that line again...
 
How did you go about setting the altitude on your motor, and also the Geosatpro dish? When I go to dishpointer.com, here are the settings I get when choosing my motor. Do I just set the motor to the latitude listed and dish to the elevation listed? And I noticed there is also a setting on my dual lnb. Does that need changed at all?

dishpointer.jpg
 
Exactly - I set the motor to the "motor latitude" listed (my latitude), and I set the dish elevation to the elevation # provided. It was almost spot on. Set the skew on your LNBF to zero!
 
Exactly - I set the motor to the "motor latitude" listed (my latitude), and I set the dish elevation to the elevation # provided. It was almost spot on. Set the skew on your LNBF to zero!
Thanks! Since the motor doesn't have marks on the latitude precise enough to the .7 degree, would I just round up to 40 degrees, or will I just have to try to get it in between 39 and 40 and fiddle around with it until the receiver says exactly where it is? And is this similar to how I would align my dish elevation?
 
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