gabshere said:
I will give it a try on Monday and if i couldn't figure it out I'll really appreciate your help. I will compensate you for your commute and help.
I need help getting a True South on dish motor
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I will give it a try on Monday and if i couldn't figure it out I'll really appreciate your help. I will compensate you for your commute and help.
Johnson,
With the motor tube and the dish pointing due south when the motor is at its center position (I like to call it the HOME or the REFERENCE position), the dish will be aiming HIGHEST in the sky. As the motor turns, the whole assembly (motor tube and dish) will aim further to the east or west and LOWER in the sky. This is how the assembly tracks the arc.
When you aim your dish and motor at true south, there may not be a satellite right at that position, but there should be one very close by. You set everything up mechanically as if there were a satellite there (with the motor at the HOME position) and then you pick out the nearest FTA linear satellite to your due south and command the motor to move there. In the setup menus you select that satellite and tell your receiver to use USALS to locate it (then enter your coordinates in the USALS setup) and the motor will drive to the proper east / west position. The up / down angle will be automatically factored in.
Now, the only thing is that you may not have been aimed at TRUE SOUTH when you started out. You had just a general idea of where to aim, but no tangible way to measure this so you were probably just close. This is the point where you select a HOT transponder on the selected satellite and start turning the motor bracket on the mast (east to west) while monitoring your signal level and signal quality.
The signal QUALITY is most important, but you can tell a lot from the SIGNAL LEVEL. As you creep up on any satellite signal, the signal level should start to rise slightly. When you notice this, slow down with your rotational movement of the motor on the mast and start looking very closely at the SIGNAL QUALITY. You will be really close to "something", but perhaps it isn't the right satellite. You might be detecting a satellite which is adjacent to the one you selected or the satellite which is at the same elevation on the other side of the arc. Most times the transponder you selected will lead you right to the proper satellite. However, sometimes the same transponder frequency is used on many satellites, so you could lock onto the wrong sat initially. You will have to scan in some channels once you have LOCKED onto a signal and verify if those channels should be on the sat and transponder that you were seeking out. You can consult THE LIST or Lyngsat or simply just ask about them here in a post. Most everyone here can ID the channels and which sat they are coming from right off the cuff.
Wishing you much luck! Happy hunting my friend!
RADAR
I think my apartment building is blocking the Satellite from getting the due South. I am really getting frustrated. The pole is now shorter because of stability which I think might be affecting the height of elevation. I don't know what to do. My receiver stays at 45 strength and 5 quality. Whenever I unplug the cable, the strength drop to 36 and the quality is still 5. I changed Lnbs from universal back to standard and changed the settings to 10750. I will post a picture of the dish and motor elevation and latitude maybe someone can tell what I am doing wrong.
With the dish pointing in the direction of the intended satellite, sight along the lower LNBF support. If there's blue sky, up/down - left/right, shouldn't have any LOS issues. If there's a building, trees, etc, then it's an issue. Yes, pictures are worth a thousand.
Johnson114: Use dishpointer.com. Enter your exact address there. Select 83W (AMC 9). Set the elevation of your dish at 44 degrees. Set your receiver for frequency of 11735, horizontal polarity and symbol rate of 4439. Move your dish to point exactly where dishpointer.com shows by using your closest man-made object (house or apartment building) as a reference.
NOTE: The Openbox S10 is a good receiver, but I've found it not very friendly for finding satellites compared with other receivers. So don't give up. When moving dish, align it exactly as dishpoint.com shows. Then push it the smallest amount you can left. Pause 5 seconds. Push it again the smallest amount you can left. Pause. Repeat. If you don't find a signal, move dish back to where dishpointer.com says. Push the dish right the smallest amount you can move it then pause 5 seconds. Repeat.
Once you receive your first signal, all frustration will disappear. This is why you must focus only on receiving that first signal without worrying about all the associated detail.
NOTE: The Openbox S10 is a good receiver, but I've found it not very friendly for finding satellites compared with other receivers. So don't give up. When moving dish, align it exactly as dishpoint.com shows. Then push it the smallest amount you can left. Pause 5 seconds. Push it again the smallest amount you can left. Pause. Repeat. If you don't find a signal, move dish back to where dishpointer.com says. Push the dish right the smallest amount you can move it then pause 5 seconds. Repeat.
Once you receive your first signal, all frustration will disappear. This is why you must focus only on receiving that first signal without worrying about all the associated detail.
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Johnson,
If your building, or another, is blocking your true south LOS, that may or may not be a problem. Please remember that you don't necessarily need to aim at THE TRUE due south satellite to align your dish, but it makes the calibration procedure a lot easier if you have it available to you.
If you set all your dish and motor angles "according to Hoyle" and can't aim at a due south satellite because of some obstruction, you can use USALS to command the motor to move to a satellite where there is NO obstruction and at least pick up on that satellite and other sats that are not blocked. But, this installation may be highly limited. If most of your southern horizon is blocked by a building, you may just be out of luck and not be able to get anything at all in the first place.
You need to evaluate your LOS for the southern horizon and see how much of the arc is blocked. Dishpointer.com has a feature that allows you to determine this. There is a little "bubble" that you can move around by clicking and dragging it with your mouse and setting it in the location where the dish now stands or where you may intend to put it. You can select one satellite and see a LOS path in green (I think) to that sat eminating from your satellite dish. If you zoom out on the map, you will eventually see another "bubble" that helps you mark obstructions and you can click and drag that bubble to the obstruction and it will tell you how far that obstruction is and how TALL it can be before it causes an interference problem. If the apt building is higher than that, than you are going to be looking at the wall of the building and not the sat.
If you have a lot of buildings blocking your southern LOS to the arc, you may have to set up a fixed point dish and aim at just one or two sat's between the buildings. You may have a very poor location for use of a motorized dish, unless you can install on the rooftop (not usually an option for most folks in your situation).
Really need to see some outdoor pix and such. That will help us help you evaluate your LOS.
RADAR
Pictures of my motor dish. I changed the elevation which i think it might be wrong. I didn't take the picture of the dish face the south because of neighbor's windows upstairs is open. I only took an angle shot.
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Someone from the forum is coming to help out tomorrow. I will be glad if he's able to resolve the problem
What is the distance from your pole to that brick building? Did you use a level to check your pole is vertical? It may be the camera angle, but the pole does not look vertical.
Added: Your dish is pointing much too high. Unless that building is more than at least 35 feet away, it will probably block you from receiving a signal.
Added: Your dish is pointing much too high. Unless that building is more than at least 35 feet away, it will probably block you from receiving a signal.
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I agree with Cyberham. The post looks to ne not plumb and the dish / motor angle is set far to high.
The motor angle should be adjusted using the latitude scale and be set to match your location's latitude. The dish elevation angle will be set to within the range of 20-30 degrees. Thie dish angle is calculated by subtracting the declination (provided in your motor's install guide) from 30 degrees. Example for my area is: 30 - 5,5 = 24,5 degrees.
That building is definitely in the way and is blocking the southern satellites. Your option will be to use USALS to position the motor as described be AxRadar.
Too bad the dish must be mounted where it is placed. It looks like you selection of satellites will be limited or even possibly not available!
The motor angle should be adjusted using the latitude scale and be set to match your location's latitude. The dish elevation angle will be set to within the range of 20-30 degrees. Thie dish angle is calculated by subtracting the declination (provided in your motor's install guide) from 30 degrees. Example for my area is: 30 - 5,5 = 24,5 degrees.
That building is definitely in the way and is blocking the southern satellites. Your option will be to use USALS to position the motor as described be AxRadar.
Too bad the dish must be mounted where it is placed. It looks like you selection of satellites will be limited or even possibly not available!
Someone on the forum is coming to help with the motor tonite. If I couldn't get it to work tonite. I will have to remove the motor and just use the dish by itself. I was able to get Galaxy 19 about a month ago without the motor. I will just have to wait til I move to my own place for me to setup the motor. Thanx everyone for your post. I really appreciate all your help and support.
Aiming for Galaxy 19 would likely clear that building to the west of it. There are perks to getting your own place besides satellite work!
cyberham said:
Getting my own place will give me the chance to install it on the roof or at a clear area away from the building. I leave in an apartment complex so I am limited to installing anything than having my own place.
I think that the mast may be plumb. In some of your photos, it really looks badly misaligned, but I also look at the buildings and the fence and other objects in the same picture and they seem to be off in that way, too. The mast looks horribly misaligned at first glance, but I think it is more an optical illusion with the camera angle. That you can check and correct easily.
The major problems are that your LOS is blocked really bad and you do have the dish elevation and possibly even the motor latitude angles set incorrectly. I don't think you are far enough south towards the equator to warrant that steep of an angle. When you factor in the offset angle of the dish setup with your dish elevation setting and possibly the latitude angle of the motor, you are nearly looking STRAIGHT UP in the sky!
RADAR
The major problems are that your LOS is blocked really bad and you do have the dish elevation and possibly even the motor latitude angles set incorrectly. I don't think you are far enough south towards the equator to warrant that steep of an angle. When you factor in the offset angle of the dish setup with your dish elevation setting and possibly the latitude angle of the motor, you are nearly looking STRAIGHT UP in the sky!
RADAR
Could be. But the building view is in the distance so that's perspective working. The mast is a closeup shot. Easy to check with a simple level anyway.
cyberham said:
I'm sorry I was able to get it to work with the help of Gabshere from this forum. I posted another thread for the success. I did everything right as in the set up. The building wasn't blocking my due south. I just didn't lift up the dish elevation enough and that's what Gabshere did that evening in the rain.
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AcWxRadar said:
I was able to get it to work on Wednesday with the help of Gabshere who is from this forum. He was a good guy he did it in the rain that day. I posted a new thread of the success I guess you didn't notice the post. I did everything right I just didn't lift up the dish elevation enough. That was what Gabshere did that evening.
To everyone I was able to get my motor and dish working with the help of a good friend from this forum Gabshere. He came over to help in the rain and made it work. My apartment building did not block the due south the location I placed the pole was ok but not that great. I didnt everything right with the elevations I just didn't set the dish elevation right. Now I can use the motor to search for few satellites. Thanx everybody for your posts and helpful advice and a great thanx to Gabshere.
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