lost 30w and above 125w after windy day

[stanleyjohn]

Windy day today and i just found out that i seem to have lost sigs on 30w and above 125 w! AMC6 and AMC9 seem ok with sig quality though.What do you think wind might of done?Would a slight change in position from wind cause arc to be off on the ends?

 

[Mr Tony]

Would a slight change in position from wind cause arc to be off on the ends?

yep

 

[freezy]

I have trouble with my coolsat 6100 after a few windy days. I am not using USALs and I need to go back into each sats position and fiddle with it a little.

yours sounds like an elevation problem

 

[AcWxRadar]

Definitely yes! I am battling the wind here, too.

I have my dish/motor set on a tripod and at the base there is a swivel joint for adjusting the verticality of the mast. It is not meant to adjust in the azimuth field, but if it is not completely tight, it can move in that direction also. With the strong winds that I have been experiencing recently, it has been pushing my mast off course at this swivel joint. Not only does it alter the azimuth, but the plumb of the mast as well. It doesn't move too far, but enough to be noticeable and be a nussiance.

It was difficult for me to isolate where the error was being generated as it required two days of sustained wind (SE 20-30 mph gusting to 40-50 mph) to make it move in the first place. Since it moved ever so slightly with each gust, it was not easy to tell what part was moving. I simply happened to be observing it during one of the really gusty moments and by sheer accident I witnessed it move at this point.

My dish and tripod are quite secure in most cases, but several factors combined together to make it move. The constant and sustained wind from ONE specific direction + heavy gusts + temperature changes which allowed the locking mechanism to loosen + 1.2 M dish size which caught more of the wind and generated great force.

My tripod was intended to be a temporary setup. I need to set in a concreted mast as something more permanent. The tripod setup made it through about 2 years without requiring adjustment, but the winds recently have simply caught it just right, I guess.

Because you have lost the more extreme ends of the arc, but not so much in the center, I would initially suspect that the motor latitude moved. It is not very easy to move this setting, but the symptoms indicate that. If your setup was not entirely perfect at the start, it could simply be the dish elevation. You will have to check every axis to know for certain.

RADAR

 

[stanleyjohn]

Thanks radar and others!I will be going up on the roof and checking this weekend.Like you radar we had steady 20 to 30 mph winds with gusts to 45 the last two days and i might not of tightebed all parts as much as i should of.I will check all elevations,the mast and see that im stilled zeroed.

 

[McGuyver]

stanleyjohn, we've been experiencing high winds here also but if your dish has a tight motor and it's set correctly, the wind at this rate should not necessarily effect the dish that much. It seems that your motor elevation is slightly off the arc. If you lose signal at both ends it sounds like you're in the center (on true south) just fine. You may have to go up or down on the motor elevation just a bit. Fine tuning a motor takes time to get it just right. We had 50 mph winds here and my signals hold steady on both motorized dishes, this includes my sloppy STAB HH120 too.

 

[N0QBH]

Sounds to me like the whole thing moved on the pole.
Maybe someone here has a graphic that shows how the tracked arc and the satellite belt relate as well as why the ends are affected much more than the center when this happens.

 

[stanleyjohn]

The problem seems to have been elevation.Mast was straight,motor angle bolts tight but a loose bolt on my dish elevation setter caused elevation to be alittle lower than it should.Bought my lap top onto the roof and used the web cam to set max quality on AMC9!quality on RTN east went from 35 - 40 up to 60+.Checked all other bolts tightness and should be ok for a long time to come i hope.Good strong signals now on 30.0°W Hispasat.I know it might depend on the receiver but what kind of max quality signal can be expected from a Satellite?

 

[Jim S.]

It absolutely depends on the receiver. The SatHawk seems to have a maximum signal quality of 76, or at least that's the highest I've ever seen anyone report. I have no idea why they call it a percentage if it doesn't go to 100.

 

[N0QBH]

This image shows what happens when the dish moves on it's pole slightly.
The black line represents the sat belt and red is the dishes track.
The center satellites remain intact, but you lose both ends of the arc.
Hope this helps.

 

[Sadoun]

N0QBH, Nice demonstration of True South misalignment.