Have a 6' special dish, true south alingment question

[avenger]

Have read so many answers to the initial setting up of the dish to it's true south alignment.

Have just read another answer in which it states:
1,"Make sure that you dish is point at TRUE south by swinging the entire mount around the pole" then it proceeds and states
2, "Move the dish with the motor to the VERY top of the arc".

I, me, myself, and a whole group of people/members have a 6' bargain dish.

My dish got moved by a mini tornado about a month or so ago. I have worked on this dish on and off for about three weeks. It seems that I will have to start from square one in setting up the dish.

Pointed the dish to the truest South as I can. Now in refference to the first statement above, there is a circle on the back of the dish that have a bar across the midlle of it, at the end of the bar is where the end of the actuator/motor ram attaches to move the dish across the satellite arc .

Does this bar has to be perfectly horizontal to the pole in order for the dish to be indicating TRUE south. If the motor ram has to be pecfect and extended in alingnment with the cross bar to acomplish the dish being TRUE south, will this greatly limit and affect the stroke of the ram when searching the arc.

I hope that I have not confused anyone.

Thank You

 

[Inno]

"True South" is likely referring to your true south satellite which varies by location. The dish should be at it's highest point of travel when aimed at your true south satellite. There are numerous resources which will tell you what your true south sat. should be although I can't find any right now as I type this. Dishpointer.com will show you a view of your location on Google maps and for each satellite it will draw a line to where it is from your location. That would be one way to determine it.

So once you find your true south satellite and are able to get signal from it, the actuator arm (ram as you called it) should be about half way out of the tube. Move the dish with the actuator to the highest point of travel then rotate your mount on the post to find your true south satellite.

Hope this isn't too confusing.......sometimes I can't find the way to write things so they sound as simple as they are.

 

[BrettBardi]

I have the same dish and even with it pointed true south, the horizontal support is not not level due to the position of the dish bolt pattern on the polar ring. I set mine up without the motor attached and locked it in place once I set it to true south. My closest true south sat is 118.7. True south is 118.1 or 167.3 on the compass at my address and the back of my house faces almost true south. I marked the mount where it was at and then I attached my actuator after I ran it out about halfway. Couple of clicks to set it back to the 0 point and it was all good. I replaced the actuator last week and it was just a matter of attaching the new one and making sure I had enough travel between each extreme position and locked the limits, then found my furthest west Sat and recalculated everything from there. It's working fine.

 

[avenger]

Thanks Inno,

Somehow your explanation is clearer and makes more sense that some of the ones I have come across. So once my true south satellite is found and good signal is received, then drive the dish with the actuator to it's highest spoint. So far so good, so when the dish is at it's highest point, should the cross bar where the actuator arm connects to be at a perfect 90 degrees to the dish pole?.

The dish as it stand is not tracking the arc too well, and only is able to locate a few satellites. Later on I will try again to see if the dish tracking can be improved.

Thank You

 

[Inno]

Not quite. Drive your dish with the actuator to it's highest point, THEN find your true south satellite and get a good signal.
To get the dish to track properly you also need to set your declination angle properly for your location.............location location location.

The information on this page Footprints by Dish Size - Adjusting the Polar Mount for Prime Focus Antenna - C/Ku-Band Satellite Systems - Tuning, Tracking, Azimuth, Elevation, Declination Angles, F/D Ratio, Focal Distance, Inclinometer, LNB/Feedhorn Assembly, Actuator Assembly, C is what I used when I was setting up my last C-Band dish. Take some time to read and more importantly understand what is being shown there. The diagrams are great. It now tracks the arc from 55°W all the way to 139°W with great signal strength across the whole range. It takes some time and patience but it is a VERY satisfactory feeling when you get it right.

Being as how I don't have the same dish you are speaking of, I don't know where the cross bar should end up...........it would seem to make sense that it is at 90° when at the highest point but without seeing the mount I can't say for sure.

 

[RT-Cat]

The information on this page Footprints by Dish Size - Adjusting the Polar Mount for Prime Focus Antenna - C/Ku-Band Satellite Systems - Tuning, Tracking, Azimuth, Elevation, Declination Angles, F/D Ratio, Focal Distance, Inclinometer, LNB/Feedhorn Assembly, Actuator Assembly, C is what I used when I was setting up my last C-Band dish.

Inno,
Great amount of info there. May be very useful someday.

RT.