FTA in an Apartment Dilema

[siliconswamp]

Hello all, It has been a very long time since I have logged in. Lost everything in the move after Hurricane Katrina and I am now living in an apartment.

My Dillema is this, I currently have two dishes that I want to put up. One is already up. Which is an 18 Incher for My subscription to direc. I do have my 90cm Fortec that I want to put up at the APT and they have told me that I could. However I have trees blocking most of the ARC. No G10, but I can still get G3C and everything over that way.

The one problem that I am facing is that I cannot remember what way I needed to mount the KU LNB for focus and sku in the mounting ring. I can only get 2 satellites and they are very varied and week.

Any suggestions?

TNX,
Siliconswamp

 

[updatelee]

http://satcalculator.freehostia.com/

is an excellent sat look calc

 

[Othea]

Lnbf skew

One of the site sponsors, Sadoun, has a well-organized technical help section on their home page -- see the top of their web page, under "Technical Help". There you can find the precise skew.

You can sometimes improve signal quality by moving the lnbf a little bit forward or backward in the ring (I usually start in the middle), and by turning the lnbf somewhere between 3 to 10° counter-clockwise (if you are standing in front of the dish). But don't quote me on that skew, I'm just guessing.

You can also tug gently forwards and backwards on four opposing edges of your dish to see if the signal quality increases slightly. If the quality does increase, then you will need to loosen the bolts and reorient the dish slightly.

Good luck with the setup.

 

[siliconswamp]

Perfect!!!

Thanks! This should get me closer, and pointed out something that I had forgot to consider. (Most of my FTA setup is done at 10PM when I can put things up without onlookers asking tons of questions Like "Why is the dish so big and what is that motor thing on the back?" so I am always half Asleep anyhow).

I was having troubles finding the settings when using the motor (Microyal I think) I had searched the forum for the LNB Positioning as far as setting the Focus on the dish with little result (Eyes hurting from reading so much).

I was calculating all angles from memory for LA and not TX.... This may help fix it.

I am still arised with the dilema for setting BackFocus of the LNB to match the dish as it is hard to reach and would like to get it into the ballpark before mounting the dish as it is hanging over the balcony rail.

 

[siliconswamp]

Tugging is a good technique

Thanks! I have used the tugging technique and it has pointed out a few things that I need to address. I had the focus of the LNB all wrong and didn't sku it. I will try it with the LNB set in the middle of the mount ring and leave it loose enough to move in and out with ease for setting. Before I lived almost directly in the middle of the arc and SKU was at dead straight 0 for alignment for all the sats.

I guess this is why I got spoiled with how "Easy" to set up it was in LA.

Thanks for all your Help!

Cheers,
Siliconswamp

 

[SatelliteAV]

The LNBF skew is set at zero (0) when using a motor. The mechanics of the motor adjusts the dish skew angle.

 

[siliconswamp]

Sattelite AV,

That puts the skew into perspective, So I had that one right. I think that I may have to buy a new LNB for the dish as the horizontal and Vertical signals are very very off when pointing at my due south satellite. For the Vertical I get 89% Signal and 80% Quality at best aim. On the Horizontal I get 76% Signal and 45% Quality on my Fortec Lifetime Ultra. I was thinking about upgrading to a 0.4db vs the 0.6db that I have now. And maybe upgrade the receiver. Are there any FTA channels in HD that are worth watching? I know pbs is up on AMC3 somewhere in HD. Any recommendation on a good receiver to get for SD/HD. I see that you are a gold sponsor of Satelliteguys does your company have any deals going on a new receiver, LNB, and maybe a decent satfinder to help me aim. I see most packages include the dish, but the dish that I have is good for now. However when I get out of the Apartments in a year and get into a house I want to be able to upgrade to a C/KU band BUD system just to make the neighbors mad at me

Any guidance is appreciated as I have been out of the FTA circle since 05.

Thanks,
SiliconSwamp