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Combine,

Cruzin has done an excellent piece of information for you already, but I want to expound on that just a little.

The most critical aspect (and Cruzin stated this point) is the plumb of the mast that you attach your motor clamp to. This cannot be stressed enough. With a single, fixed point dish you can fudge on this to some degree if you understand what you are doing, but not with a motorized setup! Get that mast or pole perfectly vertical before you ever begin anything! Double and triple and quadruple check this! It is hard enough setting all the other angles properly, don't let this foundation be crooked as all the other angles depend upon it highly!

Also, as Cruzin has already stated, set your motor elevation (actually the latitude) to your location's latitude. Most motors have two scales, one states the latitude and one states "elevation". Ignore the elevation scale for now and only concern yourself with the latitude scale. The difference between the two is relatively simplistic. 90 degrees minus latitude equals elevaltion and vice versa. Maybe someone can explain why the two different scales are there on most motors. But you needn't worry about why now, just use the latitude scale, only. Once you set this angle, you should not change it unless you have reason to suspect that it is wrong. However, please trust me, the motor you have is going to be accurate.

The last two angles (dish elevation and motor azimuth) are going to prove to be the most difficult settings to make.

The azimuth is fairly straight forward. The MANUAL won't tell you the specific azimuth degree to set, you have to determine that on your own based upon your site longitude and the satellite that has an orbital location (position degree) closest to your site longitude degree. A few degrees off won't be too much bother, you are going to fine tune this angle using the satellite signal anyway. You just want to point (aim) the dish as near as you can to start. The azimuth angle should be set to aim at the satellite which is nearest to true south for your location (site longitude). When you know your site's longitude, find a satellite which is closest to that degree for an orbital position. i.e. Longitude = 96.3 W, use 97.0 W for true south satellite, longitude = 71.2 W use 72.0W as the the true south satellite. This is the setup where your dish will have the least skew or your LNBF will have the least polarization angle and the dish will be pointed (elevated) at its highest degree.

The dish elevation setting should be explained within your manual for your dish antenna that you purchase. This may vary from model to model or brand to brand, but the instruction sheet / manual for the dish will tell you what you need to know.

Keep in mind that none of these angles are absolute (they are all guidelines for you to start to follow) and you still have to make fine adjustments to set them properly using the signal (quality) strength from the satellite as your final measurement.

Now, what you originally requested was the settings in the menu of your receiver. This is highly subjective as you did not iterate the specific LNBFor switch that you were going to use by type or model or brand.

You elluded to a quad polar LNBF, so I might assume that this is an Invacom QPH-031???? In that case, the LNBF TYPE will be SINGLE or STANDARD (depending upon how your receiver might refer to it in the menu). The LNBF's L.O. frequency for such an animal would be 10.750 GHz. If the LNBF is a Universal, then you must select LNBF TYPE as UNIVERSAL and the L.O. frequency will have two parameters (9.750/10.600 GHz). For the circular portion of a QPH-031 LNBF, the L.O. frequency would be 11.250 and you would still refer to it as "SINGLE" or "STANDARD" for the type. You are probably not going to use this side of the LNBF for FTA since most if not all satellites which are FTA are linear transmission, but it is often handy to assist in aligning your dish for the first time. The circular polarity signals are higher power, do not require the LNBF to be skewed or polarized and therefore are easier to detect, thus it makes it easier to get started and find a signal. I think that only Bell Express and Dish Network have circular polarized transmissions - there may be a few others, but the FTA signals are considered linear in the majority.

The information above is entirely dependant upon what your LNBF type actually is. I merely assume what type of an LNBF you have by your general description, but you should always include the precise model and part number if you can, in all discussions. There are so many variations that no one could honestly give you proper feedback and instructions without knowing for certain.

The same rules are going to apply to your switch assembly. We do not know if it is a DiSEqC switch or a SW21 or a multiswitch or who knows what.

Please reply with specifics about ALL your equipment and the folks here will be better able to help you define your menu settings.

If this all sounds a bit overwhelming, don't pay any mind to it. It boils down pretty easily and everyone here will lend a hand or advice and helpful tips along the way to get you set up and runing soon!

I do wish you well on your setup! Go get'em!

RADAR

Thanks ALOT guys...i have a better understanding now...and i'm gonna try it out tomorrow
Thanks again!
And I'll give the rest of the info tomorrow

Nicely done Cruzin and RADAR!

AcWxRadar did u get my PM?

Combine17 said:

AcWxRadar did u get my PM?

Click to expand...

Combine,

Yeppers, got it this afternoon. Sorry, I was away and replied a bit late. Hope the information is helpful.

RADAR