Advanced USALS dish pointing

[mr3p]

I've been trying to figure this one out in my head but not sure if its possible but here goes. I have line of site from 166E - 55W. The outer limits are beyond the range of an HH motor. Is there a way to setup an HH motor so that the arc is somehow shifted E or W either by rotating the dish on the motor or somehow using different latitude? I'm not sure what Ku is even possible to receive from 166E-180E but figured I'd ask

 

[cyberham]

I suspect moving the motor to accomplish this could be tough. I'll let the experts reply. Why not just bump the dish a touch manually toward the west without using the motor? Elevation would need tweaking too.

There's always the chance you'll get exotic Tahiti Nui TV channel on 180E.

 

[a33]

I have line of site from 166E - 55W. The outer limits are beyond the range of an HH motor.

So this means a range of (360-166) - 55 = 139 degrees arc.

Outside the USALS range, you can use GotoNn diseqc 1.2 commands. Assuming the motor limit switches and the motor 'software' allow that ( I don't know how various motors handle that).
(From what I've read (if I recall right), USALS applications usually don't go further than ± 60 or ± 65 rotational degrees I believe, so a range of 120-130 rotational degrees, which alas covers even less degrees arc. However I don't know if I recall right!)

If all else fails, you might mount byrider LNBs to look beyond the motor limits. Though that might not be what you wanted, with your motorized setup.
Other possibility: I've read about setting the dish not aligned to the motor zero, to get more range at one extreme. Remember that by doing that, you might get "acceptable" reception at that side of the arc, but the dish will be rather unusable for the other side of the arc. I'm not quite sure, how you would want to tweak the dish setup for something like that; I've never thought about that, specifically.

Greetz,
A33

 

[arlo]

My thoughts exactly. I don't have a Vbox.
Why not use DISEqC go-to (ie: stored position)? Then store sats as positions rather than USALS?
Can you truly drive the dish H-H?

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

I was under the impression that these motors were horizon to horizon which would see 180 degrees of the arc or very close to that.

 

[a33]

I was under the impression that these motors were horizon to horizon which would see 180 degrees of the arc or very close to that.

Even at the equator (latitude 0), you can only see less than 163 degree arc (180 rotational degrees).
At latitude 30, less than 160 degree arc (about 174 rotational degrees).
At latitude 55, less than 150 degree arc (about 160 rotational degrees).
At latitude 80, less than 60 degrees arc (a little bit more than 60 rotational degrees).
At latitude 82: Nothing. (The earth completely blocks the line of sight...).

Greetz,
A33

 

[mr3p]

Thanks for the replies. IIRC, my current HH motor arc is ~130 degrees. Do they make HH motors with a 150 or 160 degree arc?

 

[Comptech]

I think what A33 is trying to say is it is the curvature of the earth that is your problem, not the motor. You would be so low on the horizon that the earth noise would drown out any signals.

 

[cyberham]

Not sure where you are mr3p, but 180E is receivable in Lompoc, CA as reported here. But using USALS is a different story. You should be able to electronically bump the dish using diseqc 1.2 commands from your receiver right to the physical limitation of the motor movement. I've done that to receive 3W from Halifax.