Dummy's guide to motoried dish installaton

[tseto]

Forget aout looking for true south, magnetic declination and aming for a weak sat near your true south. that is old school information, you don't needed that. if you can aim a small dish and locate one of the strong circular EchoStar satelites, you can install a motrized dish. Stop now, if you don't have a safe mean of installing a satelite dish. we don't want to loose any members here. the look angle to the clarke belt is highest due south and decreases as we go east or west due to the curvature ofthe earth. the motor shaft is bented in such way that it tits the dish lower as we go east or west away from due south. there are some informtions we needed before we start.

1 your site info, the latitude and longtude of your location.
if you don't, go to the top of this page and click on dishpointer.com
enter your city and hit go. for this discussion we will use vancouer
49.2N by 123.1W.
2. motor angle , the manufacturer will give the motor angle for your latitude.
3. the closest circular sat to your true south. o to LyngSat - Lyngemark Satellite for that
info. for vancouver, EchoStar 7/14 at 119 is the clsoest.
4. of course, an hh motor and a 30inch or larger dish

if you already have a 30" or larger dish installed, some of you might have been watchng the inernational hannels on EchoStar 21 for years until big bad nagra 3 show up. remove the dish from the pole and wait for the rest to catch up.
the rest of us will install the mast that came with the dish, make sure it is secure and plumb. install a hose clamp , the one used to secure radiator hose on the car radiator, 5 inches from the top of the pole. this will hold the motor in place and stop it from sliding down the pole as you work on the assembly.

Lets all go into the future , at a time when the motrized dish has been properly installed and tracks the clarke belt with uncany precision, motor over to our close satellte. see what the motor did. the motor has rotated ( 123-119) or 4 dgrees to the east. off the zero mark. this is the whole point in the discussion. start with the correct end and see how we could get there.

back to reality, we needed to move the motor 4 degrees off the zero mark. if your latitude is larger than 119, move east. move west if smaller. you will be using a diffrent satellite if you don't live in Vancouver.

there are two ways of doing this. if you have a satellite finder, hook it up to apply power to the motor. use the move west or move east button to index the motor off the zero mark 4 degrees. the second is hook up a coax from the motor to a fta receive and use usals to move over to 119.

set motor angle according to manufacturer for your city. assemble the dish on the motor and slide the assembly on the pole , resting on the clamp. for now install a circlar LNB on the arm and connect the LNB to a bev or dish stb , locate, peak and lock down, make sure all bolts are tight and check signal again. replace the circular lnb with a linear LNB or better still, an invacom quad. LNB to motor to stb. it is very important that there are no switches of any sort between the motor and stb. the next steps are antenna set ups I don't think needed to discuss here.

to clarify , we are placing an imaginery satellite smack due south of our site.
by aiming for 119 when motor is 4 degrees to the east , we are actually aiming for the imaginery satellite due south of our site if the motor were still at the zero index.

too much writing for a simple conept and proces. I hope this is clear eough for all.
please ask if I am not clear or complete on any point. once it is intalled, finding any satellite is breeze. have fun!

 

[Tron]

Finding a circular satellite and using it to locate the arc is a nice start, but your motorized dish will require fine tuning on multiple linear satellites to be properly aimed.

USALS is the absolute best way to set up a motorized system, no need to worry about true south or how close to Vancouver you live ...

 

[tseto]

it is properly aimed, the critera for properly aimed dish is the dish must be aimed directly at true south when the motor 's angular rotation is at zero. (the motor index mark is pointing at zero.) and with look angle intesecting the arc. another way to explain my method. please visualize another satellite EchoStar 7 prime at obital location 123 W. EcoStar 7 and EchoStar 7 prime is precisely 4 degree apart. now if the dish rotated to 4 degrees east is looking directly at Ehotar 7(119W). would it not look directly at EchoStar 7 prime (123W) (due south) if the motor rotats back to zero. perfectly aligned to true south at the proper look angle.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Have installed motorized satellite systems for about 25 years. I am VERY confused with the information presented in this thread...... Make it easy, activate USALS.

 

[tseto]

but usals will still have to know where true south is. If I point the dish with motor at home position to toby's bum, there is nothing usals can do. , the whole exercise is about not having to find true south. due to magnetic declination and the effect of metellic objects all around us, it is just about imposible to pin point true south with a compass, a gps may help, I tried and give up. but we do know how many degrees is true south from a close satellite. . this is not about experience. this is for someone with no experience, like me. this is an accurate and precise way of locating true south using the close satellite as a reference. I have done it. one system only, worked perfectly for more than 8 years now.

 

[SatelliteAV]

The beauty of USALS is that the motor does not need to be aimed exactly at true south before the receiver calculates the correct amount of rotation and the dish is rotated into the correct motor position. The customer/installer only needs to know roughly where South is (sun at noon, direction of street, 180 degrees on a compass, smart phone compass, GPS heading ... or anything). No need to start with the motor aimed perfectly at the elusive, magnetically corrected "true south".

1. Set the motor latitude scale to match the location's latitude.

2. Set the dish angle to the setting provided in the motor owners manual. Make sure the LNBF skew (rotation) is set at 0 (pointer straight up 12 o'clock position).

3. While the motor is still in the 0 position, generally direct the dish towards the south and mark the mast and motor alignment for future reference.

4. Activate USALS and select any satellite. The dish will move into calculated position.

5. Set receiver LNB LO type and frequency to match the LNB.

6. Place receiver on active transponder frequency.

7. Slowly rotate the motor on the mast East or West 15 or 20 degrees of the reference alignment mark. If no Signal Quality, increase or decrease the dish elevation angle setting in 1 degree increments and repeat the East or West slow rotation on either side of the reference mark until the satellite is found. You are now on the arc!

8. Select satellite on other side of arc with USALS and verify proper tracking. If not on arc, determine if the motor needs to be slightly rotated on the mast and/or the dish elevation angle slightly increased or decreased.

9. Repeat USALS selection on several satellite locations thoughout the entire arc, making small adjustments if necessary until all satellites are tracking and peaked.

 

[ArthurIhde]

Have installed motorized satellite systems for about 25 years. I am VERY confused with the information presented in this thread...... Make it easy, activate USALS.

what's your confuse?

 

[Jim S.]

What the OP is trying to describe, I think, is what USALS does, without using USALS. So why not just use USALS?

Plus, I would think that aiming at a DBS satellite wouldn't get you a very precise aim, due to the high power of those satellites. Yes, it can be hard to find an FTA satellite the first time if your pole isn't straight, or your local magnetic field is skewed, or your elevation scale is crap, or any number of other things, BUT, it's a skill you NEED to develop.