If I wanted to set up a Free to Air System?

[piperut]

I know the package came with a wall mount. There is already a mount that at one time had a dish 500 dish on it. This is me being a bit lazy. Trying to get a wall mount to plum might be a bit of a chore. Would I be able to use the mount that is already on the house, or are we talking different size pipes?

thanks

roland

 

[dashaund]

I know the package came with a wall mount. There is already a mount that at one time had a dish 500 dish on it. This is me being a bit lazy. Trying to get a wall mount to plum might be a bit of a chore. Would I be able to use the mount that is already on the house, or are we talking different size pipes?

thanks

roland

I haven't worked with the motor you ordered, but from my experience the clamps you will use can fit a numer of standard pole sizes. However, I STRONGLY recommend Anole's advise. Ground mount it first. It will much, much, MUCH easier if you can easily walk out to the dish and motor and make adjustments (and believe me, you will make many, many adjustments before you're done). If you have to climb on a ladder to make adjustments this is not only dangerous but very time consuming and frustrating. Your friend is right...these dishes have to be spot on in order to work. However, the motors are designed to track the arc very well...very close to the accuracy of the big dishes. So once you get it aligned and your mount plumb, you can pretty much forget about it. But for a beginner, that aligning part can take some time.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Piperut,

I definitely must agree that a ground mounted setup is your absolute best method - as long as it is possible for you.

It does take a little time on your first setup to adapt to the task and climbing up and down a ladder or trying to level a mast on a wall mount is really a bearcat as you usually end up working below a roof peak and cannot see everything very well and you will be in an awkward position to boot.

I started out setting up a single, fixed point dish for 97W first. Then a couple of others and then ended up with a dish farm. Then I bought a 76 cm Winegard and a SG-2100 motor. Then I moved that dish all over the yard trying to get a better LOS. I dabbled with a 1M Winegard and my SG-2100 wouldn't drive it too well, so I went back to the 76 cm. Then I discovered the DG-280 motors from Sadoun and then the DG-380 motor and then the 1.2 M GeoSat Pro dish from Satellite AV.

Needless to say, I have been all over my yard with one type of dish or another and several motors and numerous receivers! I am now set up very well for the entire horizon of satellites. Nothing is blocking my LOS to any satellite except the earth itself.

I would not have wanted to do all this experimentation on a rooftop or a wall mount setup. I spent more than five years plugging away at this and would not have wanted to add five years of climbing up and down a ladder all that time.

When this hobby becomes addictive, you want to make it as simple as you can to play with the dish and to align and maintain it.

Common galvanized water pipe of various diameter sizes are available from the local hardware store fairly cheap and are quite easy to work with. This makes a great mounting post as they are thick walled and you won't bend or crush them.

RADAR

 

[piperut]

If I start with a fixed dish, what would be the best bird to point the thing at?

Thanks,

Roland

 

[AcWxRadar]

If I start with a fixed dish, what would be the best bird to point the thing at?

Thanks,

Roland

Pipe (Roland),

There really is no "best sat" to point at right now. Well, maybe except 97 W.

The FTA channels are spread all over the horizon on many different sats. A few here and a few there. There were better times for FTA, but right now it is kinda hard to say.

You can get RTN/RTV channels on 83.0W (two channels).

You can get a lot of Hispanic channels on 30.0 W (if you are located far enough east).

101.0W has a couple of surprises in store.

123.0 W was the best for English channels, but that all went bankrupt or out the window for now.

125.0 W is still going strong with some excellent PBS material.

But the best standby sat for getting a huge amount of channels is 97.0 W, although many of these channels are foreign and possibly religious, at least there are a lot of them.

For the interim, pick a sat that either has a lot of channels or one that has the content that you would appreciate the most and concentrate on that one until the economy changes and new channels pop up. I am speaking optimistically and I am certain that things will improve once again when the economy turns around. Currently, I feel that this is a bad time for just about everything, but it will change for the better in 2012, hopefully.

For now, pick a satellite just to experiment with so that you can learn the ropes, so to speak.

RADAR

 

[piperut]

We had a local channel that carried the RTN network, but when everything went digital they didn't seem to make the change, so we don't have that channel anymore. I did watch it once in a while...

Oh, just so people can figure out what piperut meas - I play the Great Highland Bagpipe, and I am from Utah.... PiperUT.


Thanks

roland

 

[Lak7]

RTN is available on 83 west, but can be a bugger to Lock due to it's weak signal.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Oh, just so people can figure out what piperut meas - I play the Great Highland Bagpipe, and I am from Utah.... PiperUT.


Thanks

roland

PIPER UT!

Very cool! I like the pipes! I think I will drop a CD in the player and take a listen to Amazing Grace. That is one of the all time classics for pipes, in my opinion.

RADAR

Now look what you have done! I cannot turn off my CD player, I just keep playing it over and over again!

 

[Anole]

I know the package came with a wall mount.
There is already a mount that at one time had a dish 500 dish on it.
Would I be able to use the mount that is already on the house, or are we talking different size pipes?

I thought the pipe that came with my dish was longer, stiffer, stronger, and it certainly had side braces.
They're required to hold the pole plumb.
The (original) Dish 500 mount 'n pipe is not really suitable for holding a motor, in my opinion.
Not without extra bracing.

Remember, the dish 'n motor are off-center and put a heck of a side load on the pole.
Build accordingly. Maintaining "plumb" is critical in getting the motor to track.

And when I said "ground mount" above, I really meant, anything you can reach from the ground.
So, if bolting the dish to the side of your house at chest height is your goal, that's fine. - :up

edit:
And thanks for the explanation.
I took the name to mean: Pipe Rut - -
Perhaps a plumber with decades of experience? -

 

[piperut]

sort of set up

I sort of have the thing set up. I did put a pipe in the ground, and I braced it to the house to hold it steady. After reading this, I am wondering if I did not get the post steady enough. I may have to attempt to brace the other side of the post with an L bracket of some sort.

I can get the satellite at 101 (bunch of religious programming), but when I go to another satellite, I am not able to find the other birds....

I also managed to aim the thing at Echostar 61.5 degrees. I end up shooting through some trees, and that one is not going to work, unless I put the dish on the roof.

Going west, around TRDS 5 167.8W I end up shooting into a fence. Everything between there, I think I have a clear shot at.

Thanks,

roland

 

[piperut]

PIPER UT!

Very cool! I like the pipes! I think I will drop a CD in the player and take a listen to Amazing Grace. That is one of the all time classics for pipes, in my opinion.

RADAR

Now look what you have done! I cannot turn off my CD player, I just keep playing it over and over again!

Actually, Amazing Grace is a more or less modern tune for the pipe. Classical bagpipe music is called Piobaireachd (pronounced pea-brook). This are actually some fairly difficult pipe tunes.

roland

 

[AcWxRadar]

Actually, Amazing Grace is a more or less modern tune for the pipe. Classical bagpipe music is called Piobaireachd (pronounced pea-brook). This are actually some fairly difficult pipe tunes.

roland

Roland,

I don't know if I will remember that, but it is really interesting information! I am glad that you provided the pronunciation wizard there!

Tell you what, I still think that Amazing Grace is the best! I just love it!

RADAR (Gordy)

 

[piperut]

I managed to put up a brace on the other side of the post. The post is a lot more steady now. I can get the motor to move with the buttons on the motor, but every time I turn the receiver on - it moves the dish back to the satellite at 101 degrees...

I tried resetting the motor out on the post, and resetting the motor following the reset instructions from the receiver. I tried setting the receiver back to factory default.

I am sure I did something wrong someplace during the set up of the thing, but I am not sure what.

roland

 

[piperut]

The post was a bit wobbly. I managed to build a brace for the other side of the post, and attached that to the house. I think I did not have the dish pointed at due south, and that is why I was having tracking problems. The compass that came with the package was not really great. I do have a good compass someplace that I used to use for map reading, and back country treking... wonder where I put the thing?

roland

 

[piperut]

having trouble getting this set up

Hi,

I am having trouble getting this thing set up. I had one satellite, but then tried to go to another and it was not tracking properly. I then started looking, and did not have due south right. I think I have due south set (had my brother check my compass readings) and now I am not able to get anything.

also, I seem to be unable to move the dish west of what I thought was the 0 setting on the motor. There is not really a pointer on the part that moves, just the marking where the shaft is put together. 90 degrees from there, is where the bolts holding the casing together are. I set this using the marks on the casing where is it held together. should I have used the bolts?

Thanks,

roland

 

[AcWxRadar]

Hi,

I am having trouble getting this thing set up. I had one satellite, but then tried to go to another and it was not tracking properly. I then started looking, and did not have due south right. I think I have due south set (had my brother check my compass readings) and now I am not able to get anything.

also, I seem to be unable to move the dish west of what I thought was the 0 setting on the motor. There is not really a pointer on the part that moves, just the marking where the shaft is put together. 90 degrees from there, is where the bolts holding the casing together are. I set this using the marks on the casing where is it held together. should I have used the bolts?

Thanks,

roland

Roland,

You earlier stated that your location is near 112W longitude and 41 north latitude. This will put your nearest true south satellite at 113.0W - SATMEX 6. There are several channels on this bird that provide a fairly strong signal for you to align to. Check "The List" here on our site, it is a great reference tool!

I would recommend BVN-TV on TP 12.079 H symbol rate 25.635 MS/s.

For your dish elevation, try setting the angle to 28.6 degrees and the motor latitude to 41 degrees. These are rough numbers since you gave only rough coordinates in your earlier post, but these should be fairly good for you to start with. Are you near Syracuse?

Rather than get involved in informing you how to determine the east/west angle or azimuth using a compass, the simplest approach is to set your dish and motor angles as stated above and then "paint" your horizon near due south.

The term "paint" is a weather RADAR term or jargon which means to pan the antenna back and forth across the horizon in order to paint a picture on the monitor screen. Therefore, set your known angles as accurately as you can and turn the entire motor assembly from right to left, left to right in a slow, methodical fashion while monitoring the signal and quality levels on your TV monitor.

Have your receiver setup to monitor the signal from satellite 113.0W, TP 12.079 H symbol rate 25.635 MS/s (or another TP that is listed in "The List").

It is best if you can haul a small, portable TV and the receiver out to your dish site so that you can watch the screen while you are adjusting the dish. You really need that immediate feedback while you are adjusting your dish and motor as opposed to trying to yell back and forth to someone in the house monitoring your signal on the TV.

Turn the entire dish and motor on the mast from east to west and back in very small increments. Stop and wait a few seconds to allow the receiver time to lock onto any signal that may be present.

Your motor tube should be at zero degrees or dead center. You stated that you bought the DG-280B motor, this has a degree scale and a pointer to show you this. If your motor is missing the pointer, then just use the seam that runs up and down the motor tube as you stated in your previous post. When the seam is straight up and in line with the scale marking for zero degrees, you are at the home or zero degree position. You can use the manual position buttons on the motor to drive the motor there.

You are probably having a hard time seeing this scale and markers with the dish attached to the motor tube, so it might be best if you use the GO TO REFERENCE or GO TO ZERO function on the receiver to position the motor tube properly. Then you won't have to try and peer around a corner from behind the dish to see if the motor tube is home or not.

If you don't pick up on a signal from a known good TP on sat 113W after a few pans east to west and back, then adjust your dish elevation a degree up or down and pan again. Repeat this and eventually you will pick up a signal along the way.

Fine adjust on 113.0W but don't spend too much time peaking it to perfection as you will likely adjust the dish elevation and motor azimuth more later to track the arc precisely for sats to the extreme east or west of you.

RADAR

 

[piperut]

Roland,



Are you near Syracuse?

Near is subjective. Walking, on horse, ...I would say it was far. On a bicycle or in a motorized vehicle... not so far. I am in Farmington, right near the Oakridge Country Club.

I did end up taking a TV and a receiver out yesterday. Today it is supposed to rain, so I don't want to muck around with electronics in the rain. I think Sunday is supposed to be reasonable weather.

roland

 

[AcWxRadar]

Roland,



Are you near Syracuse?

Near is subjective. Walking, on horse, ...I would say it was far. On a bicycle or in a motorized vehicle... not so far. I am in Farmington, right near the Oakridge Country Club.

I did end up taking a TV and a receiver out yesterday. Today it is supposed to rain, so I don't want to muck around with electronics in the rain. I think Sunday is supposed to be reasonable weather.

roland

Hi again Roland,

Syracuse was just the largest town that I noticed was close to the coordinates that you gave out initially. I was seeking your position through Google Earth to help determine your setup angles.

I hope that Sunday (today) will be good weather for you to play around outdoors with your setup.

I want to dabble with my dish and cables and switches sometime before winter sets on, but our weather is really unusual this year. I swear it rains every 2-3 days. As soon as it has the chance to dry out, it rains again! And of course, the rains come on my days off and it is nice while I am at work! Hey, who set up this schedule anyway? LOL

I am looking forward to hearing about your success in aligning your dish. Is this your first set up? If it is, remember one bit of advice from me... Be patient and be methodical.

Take care and see you (read your reply) soon.

RADAR

 

[piperut]

Hi Radar,

Syracuse is a bit northwest of my house. Layton is more North. The town I live in is Farmington. This is more or less right at the junction of U.S. 89, I-15, and Legacy Highway. I googled Oakridge Country Club Utah, and get the Country Club House which is north of Shepard Lane, about 1/2 mile from my house.

roland

Hi again Roland,

Syracuse was just the largest town that I noticed was close to the coordinates that you gave out initially. I was seeking your position through Google Earth to help determine your setup angles.

I hope that Sunday (today) will be good weather for you to play around outdoors with your setup.

I want to dabble with my dish and cables and switches sometime before winter sets on, but our weather is really unusual this year. I swear it rains every 2-3 days. As soon as it has the chance to dry out, it rains again! And of course, the rains come on my days off and it is nice while I am at work! Hey, who set up this schedule anyway? LOL

I am looking forward to hearing about your success in aligning your dish. Is this your first set up? If it is, remember one bit of advice from me... Be patient and be methodical.

Take care and see you (read your reply) soon.

RADAR

 

[piperut]

I am getting a signal strength of 80, and a quality of 50. I think I am on Satmex 6.
I am not finding any channels.

roland