Elevation settings on wingard dish

[drhydro]

Hey Folks,
I recieved my wingard dish yesterday and am installing it today. I am trying to hit g10, which from my notes is at 258 degrees, elevation of 18.8 and skew of 38. The problem is the elevation marks on the winegard only go down to 20 degrees, and i can't even set it that far down as the mount wont let me (binding). Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Drhydro

 

[maddawg]

First question, where are you located?

 

[drhydro]

my zip code is 05492

 

[carload]

The numbers look good for that Zip Code.

I can't think of any good solutions, but off the top of my head:

* Change the mount. If you could somehow get it to hang down plumb, then attach the Wynegard to the bottom, I think it could go below 20 degrees.

* Tilt the mount. If this is to be permanent (you don't plan to point at other satellites with this dish), you could line up the mount arm to the azimuth angle then tilt it back 5 degrees or so off plumb. It'll make finding the satellite a little trickier, but it could work.

* Go West, young man!

 

[drhydro]

yeah i had though about tilting / shimming the mount. Currently it is pouring outside, as soon as i get a break in the storm im off to give it a shot. Will keep you all posted.

 

[PSB]

I would keep the mount plumb and level if you don't it will just mix you up with other satellites(IMO) all you can do is change or rotate the mount to give you the needed clearance, the Winegard will go slightly lower than the markings, I have came across this problem before myself and had to change the mount position, another alternative is to mount it on a pole but of course this is not always possible or desirable another trick is to turn the mounting tube upside down and drill some new holes, good luck, any pictures?

 

[drhydro]

I agree with you PSB, but unfortunately this particular mount will only allow me to get to approx 23 degrees of elevation. Luckily i only need get g10 off this dish for now, but i will want to motorize it. Will the sg2100 allow me to get the needed elevation, ie: are any of you folks with a winegard / sg2100 combo able to get sats as low as 18 degrees of elevation?

 

[PSB]

I think it will as the SG2100 pushes the dish around 10" further away from the mast, but it also drops the dish down in height from its current position, I came across this just this morning on a motorized installation I have just returned from ( yes I work thanksgiving as I come from the UK and don't have much to be thankful about!) I had to make sure the dish was mounted on a downward sloping roof to make sure there was enough clearance for the dish against the roof! The elevation (or declination) around here is 24 deg. so I think 18 should work, where there is a will there is a way!

 

[drhydro]

Howdy folks,
I thought i wouild update you on my progress. Friday I was able to find the D* network sat at 121w. Not much there for fta, tho i was able to see a japanese channel in the clear, but it did let me know i was in the general area i was looking for.

So saturday I got back on the roof to see what I could do (fun as the roof is now covered with 2 inches of snow on top of ice). I found that the bottom bolt that holds the feedarm to the back of the dish was too long and was hitting the pole when i tried for the lowest elevation i wanted, which was 18.8 dgrees. So i changed the 1" long bolt that was there to a 3/4" long bolt and that allowed me to lower my elevation some more.

Since i already had 121 dialed in, i only had to move the dish a fraction of a millimeter west and down slightly to hit g10. With my trusty satellite finder it took me under 5 minutes to find g10, i was hitting signal quality of 33% on my first try What i did was set the gain on the sat finder all the way up at first, just to get on the bird, then kept turning down the gain and making VERY minor adjustments to improve signal strength. Then i took my 5" portable tv up on the roof with me and was able to peak signal quality up to 51% by playing with skew and focal length.

Currently we are able to get all the channels listed for g10, tho i had to manually input all the audio channels as blind scan did not find them. I also found that my satworks 3618 is finding these channels at slightly different settings than are listed, i have to change the transponder setting by +2, and symbol rate by +31 to manually enter a station. Luckily i knew that frequencys varied (according to discrepencies in the internal clock in each receiver) from previous postings here, so it did not take me by surprise.

So i would like to thank all of you for the help you have given me, my wife no longer thinks i am nuts and my kid is ecstatic. I am also very happy with the type of prime time programming we found on g10, last night i was able to watch Harrison Bergeron ( a movie based on a short story by Kurt Vonegut) which i have NEVER seen listed on any of our dtv channels.

Once again, thanks to all of you who have posted here, you input has been invaluable in this project. Now i just have to wait until next spring to get "vader killer" (my BUD) up and running, its going to be a long wait!

 

[PSB]

Well Done!!!!!!!! : )

 

[drhydro]

thanks psb, you folks and your help made it all possible. Now my wife wants me to point our 18" dish at 119 to get all the fta music there lol. I gotta admit our house looks like a mini cable company with (from right to left) 1 18" dish at one end of the roof, one 30 dish at the other end of the roof, and a BUD on a pole in the ground about 20 feet from the 30" dish, all in a straight line. as soon as i can get a digi cam over here i will take a pic.

 

[PSB]

Pictures are good! Sounds a lot like my place without the BUD (yet) still working on that! Its great when someone tells us they have managed to get their FTA system up and running as it helps others make their mind up that they can do it too! Great story THANKS!

 

[drhydro]

I think that the main factor in being able to set up my FTA system so rapidly was the fact that i had a very strong signal (121w) to get me in the neighborhood of the weaker signal (123w) that i was seeking. That and the foresight to get a standard LNBF which allowed me to use a sat finder. Without the sat finder i probably would have spent a while hunting down any signal at all, as i found my compass pointing technique was very rusty.

 

[Mr Tony]

thanks psb, you folks and your help made it all possible. Now my wife wants me to point our 18" dish at 119 to get all the fta music there lol. I gotta admit our house looks like a mini cable company with (from right to left) 1 18" dish at one end of the roof, one 30 dish at the other end of the roof, and a BUD on a pole in the ground about 20 feet from the 30" dish, all in a straight line. as soon as i can get a digi cam over here i will take a pic.

hee hee
I really need to take pictures of my setup...lets see...looking at the roof from my deck (going left to right)
30" motorized
37x27 StarChoice
20" for Dish network
30" fixed for G10
18" for ExpressVu (for now)

bolted to my deck is a 39x23 DirecPC dish for G3 (Sioux games)

 

[drhydro]

Iceberg, sounds like all you need is a BUD . I do have a spare 10' fiberglass dish sitting around, but its in northern vt so prolly no use to you

 

[Mr Tony]

Townhouse....can't put a BUD up

But will probably be moving soon so that could change