Satellitedxer,
That is a really good capture so far!
When you refer to "locking onto the arc" I take that with a different notion.
I consider "locking onto" or tracking the arc as a function of the motor and dish alignment, of course. However, I don't always judge it via the signal or quality strength levels that I detect, just as long as it is above the threshold of my tuner.
Rather, I judge it by how many degrees of the arc (or how many satellites) I can actually receive a valid (above the threshold of the tuner) signal from across my usable horizon - without making any adjustments to dish / motor elevation or azimuth.
The more satellites I can pick up a signal from using USALS, the better, regardless if the signal is encrypted or not or has the maximum indication of quality on my receiver's meter. As long as I know the signal is safely above the threshold for the tuner in the IRD and I can identify that the signal is coming from the intended satellite, then that means that I aligned to that sat.
For instance, due to my geographic location (longitude and latitude coordinates) satellites which are beyond 77 degrees east or west of me would be below my horizon, and therefore I would have no LOS to them. So the theoretical usable horizon for my latitude and longitude is roughly 154 degrees total.
I have confirmed (scanned in) at least one channel on each of the following satellites: 30.0, 37.6, 43.0, 61.5, 63.0, 72.0, 72.7, 74.0, 77.0, 79.0, 83.0, 85.0, 87.0, 89.0, 91.0, 93.0, 95.0, 97.0, 99.0, 101.0, 103.0, 105.0, 110.0, 111.1, 113.0, 116.8, 119.0, 121.0, 123.0, 125.0, 127.0, 129.0 and 148.0 (before 148 went AWOL).
This works out to 118.0 degrees or 76.6% of my theoretical horizon. The remaining 23.4% is as yet, unknown or uncertain, there either isn't any satellite for me to test outside that range or I have not been able to detect them.
You are covering 47 degrees of your usable horizon with exceptional quality levels on at least one TP from each sat, we just don't know what your usable horizon is, degree-wise. Your site's latitude coordinate will change your theoretical usable horizon, but so will your local landscape. You may have buidings, trees, mountains or other obstructions to contend with.
I relocated my dish a couple of times in order to improve my LOS and usable horizon. I think I have now found the most optimum location for my motorized dish. I have a clear LOS now for every satellite in my "theoretical" horizon and it is only about 300 feet from the house.
I used a solar outage calculator (online) and went outside on the dates and times they calculated where the sun would be in line with each satellite. That is how I picked the optimum location for the dish, based upon the closest location to the house that had a full, unobstructed view of the sky and was the most sheltered and a few other amenities.
I consider myself really lucky at my location here in the middle of the country (near Omaha), because of how well it worked out. Theoretically, I should be able to test satellites from 19.5W to 173.5W. Since I have tracked the majority of this horizon or arc, (I am missing 10 degrees on the east and 25 degrees on the west), I feel I am doing very well.
RADAR