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It seems I am pretty rusty with 20 years between KU setups and having never used a motor, not getting any signal and I have one candidate cause, but I am not sure that is the culprit. I followed KE4EST's motor setup guide.

Dish: 39 inch 39 Inch KU SATELLITE DISH ANTENNA For FTA LINEAR lnb 36 X 39 For 97 95 GALAXY 19 | eBay
Receiver: Amiko MINI HD265
Cable: 70ft RG6u
Meter: GTmedia DVB-S2/S2X
Motor: MOTECK SG-2100
LNB: AMIKO L-107 0.1dB SINGLE UNIVERSAL
Local Lat: 38.5778°
Local Long: -77.7588°

The mast is within a tenth of a degree so I am confident that the foundation of alignment is right. The motor moves to the correctly indicated position with either the receiver or satellite finder connected, I have my local lat/long entered on both devices and set to USALS, I can pick SES-2 for example and it goes right to the expected heading. I bore sighted the dish to true south as indicated by Dishfinder with the motor set at dead center (the true south line passes right through a distinct landmark) then lightly secured the motor ubolt nuts so it was still able to pivot when pushed. The receiver/finder are set for a universal LNB which is set to 0 skew. The latitude on the motor bracket is set to my local latitude. I am pretty confident these aspects are correct.

What I am not sure about is the elevation. I used the chart in the motor manual to find the value and I think that is correct, however the scale on the dish does not match the instruction sheet whatsoever. The manual shows a scale with a line that indicates elevation (the line is ahead of the center-line of the bolt that rides in the scale) and there is no such line on the dish. There are two dots on the nut used to cinch it down, maybe those are intended to help indicate the center-line of the bolt and that sets the position on the scale? I am not confident in this setting since nothing matches. Can someone confirm how this model of dish indicates the elevation?

I picked SES-2 as my test case using the Florida channel and slewing 20 deg in either direction shows no signal using either the meter or receiver. I also ran a blind scan at each degree I paused at and nothing was found.

HonkyCat said:

I picked SES-2 as my test case using the Florida channel and slewing 20 deg in either direction shows no signal using either the meter or receiver. I also ran a blind scan at each degree I paused at and nothing was found.

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I don't have a motor myself, so can't help out there, but use the CNN Newsource transponder 11960 H 30000 instead of the Florida channel transponder. It is one of the strongest transponders on SES2.

HonkyCat said:

In the 90's I was very active in the SKY TV scene in Germany, then when I moved back to the about the time of the F and H cards I jumped into that scene and enjoyed it until that era ended. These days a fully stocked NAS has made all that obsolete so I haven't owned a satellite system for nearly 20 years. I miss playing around with the gear so I bought all the bits needed for a Ku FTA system just to have a system to fiddle with.

The receiver I bought was an Amiko MINI HD265, it seemed as good a choice as any to start with. The product is pretty much what I expected, low budget, simple software, global product, that is probably good enough. Are there any alternative firmwares available? The seller claims to load it with the latest firmware and N. American satellite list. The firmware is from 2022, and I have no idea how robust the satellite config list is. Is there a go to firmware or database of available sats for this unit?

I don't mind buying other gear to play with. Most of the receivers seem similar in class and features, as well as things like a port of youtube that seems old enough that it is no longer supported. Is there a receiver out there that is more supported (maybe running android) that is more full featured with current app capability?

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Welcome back to the hobby! I'm a newbie myself, and only have been going at it really since December. You'll catch the bug if, like me, you think dishes and antennas are neat to look at lol. I've got the Amiko and it's decent, I had the GT media V9 first and still prefer to use it, it's got a great blind scan and just works well. I wouldn't connect it to the internet though... it tends to "call home" if you know what I mean.

HonkyCat said:

What I am not sure about is the elevation. I used the chart in the motor manual to find the value and I think that is correct, however the scale on the dish does not match the instruction sheet whatsoever. The manual shows a scale with a line that indicates elevation (the line is ahead of the center-line of the bolt that rides in the scale) and there is no such line on the dish. There are two dots on the nut used to cinch it down, maybe those are intended to help indicate the center-line of the bolt and that sets the position on the scale? I am not confident in this setting since nothing matches. Can someone confirm how this model of dish indicates the elevation?

Click to expand...

It's easiest when you post pictures of your dish elevation bracket + scale, for us to assess what you have got.

Dish elevation scale angle in a motorized setup would for you be about: bend.angle.of.the.sg2100 - 6 degrees.
I believe the sg2100 has various tube-possibilities, with different bend angle: 30, 35 and even 40 degrees?

Greetz,
A33

It all came down to the scale on the dish, my mast/latitude was spot on and it turns out my azimuth was too. The dish bracket is made to cover elevations of 20-90 but as I said, it is as if the dish/photos/diagram were all gathered from totally different sources and the seller wasn't of any use. I have SES-2 dialed in once I scanned a range on the dish's bracket and walked it in. Turns out the reference point is about the leading edge of the bolt for the scale.

I still need to make sure my geometry of my arc matches the belt across the range and fine tune that if needed but I have a good starting point now.

HonkyCat said:

It all came down to the scale on the dish...

Click to expand...

Scales? I gave up on scales. I calculate what the dish face angle should be, also considering declination value for my latitude, then set the angles using an angle app on my smartphone. This often gets me close enough that a blind scan lets me receive at least a strong transponder which I can then use to peak the dish. This method also helps you understand more of the detail of what you're doing so it feels like more of an accomplishment when you get it right.

A motor adds difficulty compared with a fixed dish, but is worth it in the long run when you can sit in your warm home instead of being out in the weather to choose different satellites.