Using your lat/long, your motor angle for 55.5W is about -63.9 degrees and 25.4 degrees for 137W. With a count difference of 1770 - 140 = 1630 and a motor angle difference of 89.3 degrees, you're getting about 18.3 counts per degree.
9 foot mesh dish - Livingston, Montana
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Using your lat/long, your motor angle for 55.5W is about -63.9 degrees and 25.4 degrees for 137W. With a count difference of 1770 - 140 = 1630 and a motor angle difference of 89.3 degrees, you're getting about 18.3 counts per degree.
Interesting calculation. You worked this like a USALS computation. Most people would think to subtract 55.5 from 137 = 81.5° and divide into 1630 counts equals exactly 20 per degree. OH you said that 
Now this explains the difference I was experiencing in practice.
Now this explains the difference I was experiencing in practice.Using the motor angle approach should lead to a fairly constant rate over the entire arc and be the same for any latitude. If you do it by satellite position, neither of these will be the case. For reference I calculated 18.3 counts per degree for one of my Ajaks and 18.7 for the other. I'm not sure where the difference lies because these are both for 110+ degrees of motor angle. Perhaps there's a small difference in gearing.
So after all the fun I added up the costs of adding a complete FTA system to the house. Now I realize that this is not the way most of you would have done this, but I put this out for informational purposes. So you can see what a free satellite dish means. and what kind of associated costs are involved.
How much did I spend to put up a $50 C-Band/KU band dish?
1. Go get the dish Fuel cost $80.00
2. Pipe to mount dish 21’ 4 ½” used well casing $60.00
3. Transport pipe to house $40.00
4. Rebar $17.00
5. Metal for rafter clamp $22.00
6. U-Bolt for clamp $5.00
7. Paint 15 cans Rustoleum $70.00
8. Contractor to dig hole and concrete $1500.00
9. Pre-Mix to fill pole (3) 80lb bags $12.00
10. Top soil and seed for lawn repair $32.00
11. Conduit for pole 1” Sch 40 rigid 20’ and 1 90° elbo $15.00
12. Masonry Drill rental $32.00
13. Scaffolding rental $51.00
14. Dual Orthomode Feed $165.00
15. 4 Norsat LNBs $345.00
16. AZBox Ultra + 1Tb DVR hard drive $400.00
17. WNC SWA-48 Multi-switch $11.00
18. RG6 and compression fittings $45.00
19. GBox $70.00
20. Motor and sensor wiring $32.00
Total $3004.00
How much did I spend to put up a $50 C-Band/KU band dish?
1. Go get the dish Fuel cost $80.00
2. Pipe to mount dish 21’ 4 ½” used well casing $60.00
3. Transport pipe to house $40.00
4. Rebar $17.00
5. Metal for rafter clamp $22.00
6. U-Bolt for clamp $5.00
7. Paint 15 cans Rustoleum $70.00
8. Contractor to dig hole and concrete $1500.00
9. Pre-Mix to fill pole (3) 80lb bags $12.00
10. Top soil and seed for lawn repair $32.00
11. Conduit for pole 1” Sch 40 rigid 20’ and 1 90° elbo $15.00
12. Masonry Drill rental $32.00
13. Scaffolding rental $51.00
14. Dual Orthomode Feed $165.00
15. 4 Norsat LNBs $345.00
16. AZBox Ultra + 1Tb DVR hard drive $400.00
17. WNC SWA-48 Multi-switch $11.00
18. RG6 and compression fittings $45.00
19. GBox $70.00
20. Motor and sensor wiring $32.00
Total $3004.00
I can completely understand I have spent well over $2,000.00 on a C-Band 7.5 dish, and a 1.2m Ku dish. It was supposed to be about a $850-1000 project, LOL.
My wife will NEVER see this thread...... it is too close to reality $$$. and I would add the cost of a SuperBuddy sat meter..
Nice work. Since you are using a dual ortho on a Winegard Pinnacle, it's possible the feed is not quite matched to the f/D of the dish. A couple of years ago I was able to get a further improvement by modifying the scalar. See:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/c-band-...171565-dual-orthomode-feed-deep-dish-mod.html
Very nice work, I had to do the same
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