need tracking help

[somery]

Hi its annoying me again Anywho, I hope this isn't answered in the video(s)listed in the faqs. The main problem with those is a combination of my crappy computer speakers and my hearing impairment. I may have more questions but first things first.
Ok, first i was wondering, if i put the dish at its "zenith" or where that polar axis is level is this where it HAS to point to true south? It stops on G1 going west and almost points to the ground going east. Is there something i can do about this? or at my longitude's sat (im at -95W 29N) i can only find 93W. What channel should i turn it to when looking for 95? I keep skipping over it, so it must be a weak satellite? Hopefully a transponder that would work both H or V, because it seems like it always goes to the opposite one that is listed in the sat charts of Skyvisions magazine.

Also in one of the pictures below, i put in A, B, and C. A is polar axis, B is elevation and C is declination offset, right? There are two bolts for B. Do they need to be the same measurement from the little plate they are tac-welded to? Or is this the adjustment necessary to fix my first problem above? I dumbed off during one of my quests to setup the sat tracking arc by confusing B and C, throwing everything off. I can't seem to find paint evidence to where they were set to. This is starting to sound familiar from another thread i read a month ago please forgive me? There are SO many threads to search thru, that i have spent many hours reading and getting easily sidetracked into reading other sat related (but unrelated to my searches) problems or coolness, and am trying to cut down on time wasted on the computer (this is hurting the WAF!)

maybe more questions later if these answered doesn't get me going enough? This camera sucks and makes my rust look worse than what it is Some of that is surface rust and some is red primer under the previously peeling paint that i pulled off. i derustified the inside of the mount and the rest will follow after i finish tuning/ tracking

 

[somery]

one question answered

Via private message, determined sent me a response to my first question stating that the clamps can be adjusted and this wouldn't affect the other settings. Wow did I ever goof off! I never remembered reading about that. The SuperJack came with a trifold inlet card, full of misspellings and was not very clear. Clamps were not mentioned, so i tried to copy the other one. (clamps come with permanent rivets (probably been for years) now instead of bolts (just the part that goes over the jack shaft) and i could barely get it on there.
Oh well! Now everythings out of wack!
Thank you very much determined! Now I'll be one step closer.

 

[voomvoom]

If I'm looking at the picture correctly, you have your definitions for B & C backwards. B should be your declination, and C should be your elevation. You are correct in your assumption that the true south is in the direction of the polar axis. It appears as though you have it set-up for an eastern arc, so you may not be able to go any further than G1 and you're only missing 3 sats to the west, which the last one, you probably wouldn't get anyway, as it's primary target seems to be Alaska. The 2nd one has only feeds occassionally and the next one to G1 has a few analog subscription channels and a couple of shopping channels along with C-Span2. It could possibly be in the limits on your Drake receiver. But, unless you get a DVB receiver or especially a 4dtv receiver, you should be OK as you are. And last but not least, your feedhorn/polarotor may be off 90 degrees causing your H/V to be off. But, then again, if I remember right, I had one of the 1st Drake receivers, and it had a button on the front, with H/V on it, to push when you changed from one sat to another. Later models would do this automatically. I'm sure you probably have a later model. And oh yeah, 95 only has occassional feeds with analog, so you would need to catch a live feed of some kind? Good Luck!

Al

On another note, you should consider getting a 4dtv for subscription programming and/or a DVB receiver for ITC (in the clear) FTA (free to air) programming. You can also check out this site:
http://www.lyngsat.com/
For what's on what. Look in the America frequencies section.

 

[somery]

Awww that makes me sad about those other sats. If i rotate the dish on the pole i can pick up that AMC 10 with the analog nick on it. I was under the assumption that Houston has a terrific footprint, cause we are the communication center for space stuff. I love the elevation for Houston, i can have the dish only 12 feet from the house and it will look over the [one story] house with the whole dish, leaving more room in my fairly small back yard (ive seen smaller!)

 

[somery]

thanks voomvoom for the information. the drake that i have seems to be fairly recent for an analog reciever. im pretty sure i saw an auto calibrate sats option, which i believe will find them all if i set up the limits and true south correctly. i tried it once but it responded that my limits were not right. when i push "peak" on the remote it will go back and forth, adjust H/V, and go up and down the skew. i can tell im off, because it is sparkly, but when i manually move the elevation and azimuth i can get it sparkle-free, but only one sat at a time. the polarity switches back and forth if i change channels, it just seems it always picks the opposite one and i have to menu-1 it and push 1 again to change the polarity. my dad also had old sat names, ect. that i am finding wrong all over the place ....im considering erasing the memory and starting fresh, but im messing too many things up so i'll finish one thing first before i do that. His pole was going out of plumb and the tech reset his settings so they don't seem to work for me, thats why i made it worse playing with them. I have to study the lyngsat listings a little better, cause im having trouble understanding it because it seems to mix FTA with 4dtv and analog, right? (don't answer that i guess, i'll look again in a moment) Sorry i babble all the time, and thanks again!

 

[tdti1]

I have to study the lyngsat listings a little better, cause im having trouble understanding it because it seems to mix FTA with 4dtv and analog, right?

Analog is listed as NTSC, the cream color or white dvb feeds are what many call fta, and most of the DCII channels are 4dtv.

 

[somery]

Analog is listed as NTSC, the cream color or white dvb feeds are what many call fta, and most of the DCII channels are 4dtv.

OMG Thanks!!

 

[somery]

I woke up this morning and went outside to see why i lost all my picture last night, and the dish mount was all the way to the pole. I noticed the clamps rode up the shaft gouging paint and peeled every bit of sticker in its path, so no superjack sticker or stand away sticker, that i kinda liked :-( And i remember being afraid to crush the tube ...... grrrrrrrr oh well, hope i didn't hurt anything, it didn't take out the sticker barcode thats by the grease insert.......

 

[determined]

I'm really sorry if something I told you caused you a problem. By looking at your pictures "A" needs to be set at the 29.6 degrees that I told you for your latitude which you said was 29 degrees. The adjustment for that appears to be "C". "B" is the adjustment for declination that I told you was an additional 4.8 degrees for a total of 34.4 degrees across the face of the dish when it it at its zenith or apex. Voomvoom is right, it appears that it is set up for an eastern arc. That possibility didn't occur to me without the pictures. For a western arc the drive arm is mounted on the east side of the dish and is pretty much fully retracted when the dish is pointing to satellites in the west.

 

[somery]

no no no nothing at all....it was my fault because i didn't tighten the clamp bolts enough. that and having to go to work getting in the way no i have been working on it. its coming along slowly but sure. For a while i had it working pretty good. I can, in fact, go past G1 after all, i just can't seem to get it exactly on the arc. I am off Sunday, so i think that is when i will get it permanized. I found some hockey the other day with a perfect picture, so that was cool.