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Hi, folks,

I am trying to solve a problem: how to (re)point a HughesNet dish without unnecessary trips to the tripod. As will soon become obvious, I am beginning with a vast pool of ignorance, but have researched on the net. Here are some things I think are accurate, and some conclusions which might be true. I am hoping that you can help me from wasting money/energy on an approach which will not work.

Background:

I expect to be living where there are no telephone, DSL, WiFi, cable, power lines, or professional installers. Will move on occasion, by necessity.

I have learned about how RVers manage with a tripod, and have gathered all of the finding programs and pointing instructions I can find. What I need to do (by reason of health) is to automate the pointing process as much as possible.

Equipment: DW7000, .74 plastic dish, 1 watt (assumed --no markings) BUC. Feedhorn is a narrow ellipse with a vertical long axis.

Things I have found out:

Assume a polar mount rotator: STAB HH 120
Assume a plumb pole
Assume a Mercury II FTA receiver.
RE: the Mercury II, Sadoun says:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The M-II is one of the few consumer receivers that will identify the frequency, symbol rate, polarity, FEC and even the PIDS for positive lock to any KU or C-Band satellite"[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The STAB website claims that if you point the Mercury II at a satellite directly south, the USALS program will be able to find, identify, and lock on, the other geostationary sats.[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][Incidentally, the TopoZone website gives Lat/Long with 4 or 5 decimal places, AND the CURRENT magnetic declination. On the topo of my location, this is more than 3 degrees less than the printed USGS map.][/FONT]



EchoStar 9/Galaxy 23 at 121.0°W lies within 3/10ths of a degree of Due South from my longitude. I am confident that I can "plumb" the pole, and set the HH 120 local latitude, and center it dead south.



Still a little confused about the other two angles (between the HH 120 and the Hughes dish). different sites have different formulas,and none contemplate the Hughes offset dish.



I assume/hope that I can use an "Align A Site" mounted on the top of the dish to set the dish at the proper elevation of Echostar 9 as if it were on a solid pole mount.


So, assuming that the pole is plumb; the HH 120 is aimed dead south; and set to the local latitude; and that the dish is elevated to the proper degree found by using DSSatTool et al; and the skew set at zero; I think:

1. The Mercury II should see the Due South satellite

2. That it could then locate (per USALS) and lock on to the satellite to which my modem will be commisioned (presumably HZN-6K @ 127 degrees W)

[I have seen in several places that a polar HH mount causes (by its "polar" nature) the skew to be correct, for all Geostationaries.]

3 If (when the assigned satellite is located by USALS) I can successfully "peak" the dish with minor adjustments, I assume/hope that, when set up in another location, and assuming a plumb pole, and HH 120 initially pointed dead south, that the dish would maintain the above fine tuning settings, when USALS moves the dish to the assigned sat.

Do "geostationary satellites" all, and always, maintain the same elevation and and skew? Or do they wander a little?

Since the Mercury II can receive DVB signals, and HughesNet transmits in DVB (actully, DVB S2, I think) should/can I route the signal to the DW7000 IP S through the Merc II, or should I move the coax cable to the DW7000?

What I really want to know is whether this idea will not work, so that I do not waste scarce resources, but if so, why it won't work, so I can try to figure out a way which will work.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

IGGY
p.s. I am aware that Hughes does not officially approve of any set up by other than professional installers. This is a matter of actual necessity.

p.p.s. The pole clamp on the Hughes dish appears to be made for a 2 3/8" pole, and the HH 129 rotor is about 2 1/8". Any ideas how and what to insert between them which will maintain concentricity with the rotor?