On the arc?????

[gordonkearse]

Here's my problem. About a year ago, I set up my c/ku band perfect 10 dish.
I used 123W as my reference satellite and set the dish up again about twenty-five miles from where it was originally. After several adjustments, I was getting sixteen satellites, both c and ku band. They are 127W, 125W, 123W, 121W, 119W, 116.8W, 114.9W, 107.3W, 105W, 103W, 101W, 99W, 97W, 95W, 91W and 87W. All are in the western Clarke belt. My actuator would not give me coverage of the eastern Clarke belt. My truth south satellite is Nimiq 2 (82W).

A few weeks ago I decided I would try to extend my coverage into the eastern sky. I loosened the bolts on the actuator arm and slid the actuator to extend my coverage. I had to do it several times because the dish would lock when it got to the end of the eastern Clarke belt and would not resume its westerly sweep. Finally, I got it adjusted just right.

I retained the same reception of both c band and ku band satellites in the western arc. But I am still not able to scan any satellites below 87W. I have tried many blind scans close to where I believe satellites must be but am unable to get any quality or transponders on any of my blind scans.

Frankly, I thought it hard to believe I could be getting so many satellites (16)and still be outside the arc. Can anybody help me? Surely someone must have confronted a similar problem. Thanks!!!

 

[14karat]

Have you tried using a cheapie 'beeper meter' to see if you're getting signal peaks as you're running the arc?
What levels are you getting on the western birds?
Frankly, if you are tweaked from 87 up, you should be really close all the way across...
Since 82 is your TS, then your dish is always leaning west... any chance the feed/dish/mount is shifting/wobbling when it starts to lean east?

 

[gabshere]

if its hitting the arc on all those sats on Ku , then the best thing to try is with the receiver & tv out at the dish and using the LIST for known good transponders search for the next satellite over 85w & 83w . your not saying what your moving the dish with so if its a vbox / gbox the position counts would be close to the same as the distance between 91 & 89 or 89 & 87

so using those counts would get you in the ballpark to find those know TP's. once you are there if it not finding anything try a little pressure up & down on the dish slightly while scanning for those known TP's this would let you know if the dish is off slightly enough to miss the signal.

 

[gordonkearse]

Thanks so much!!!!

First off, thanks everybody for spending time answering my thread. I can tell that those interested know my problem. I've never been around a BUD so I don't have anything to compare my reception to. And, frankly, I don't know anyone close to me in the hobby. Thank goodness for the internet or we'd be totally lost!!!

I'm using an old fortec ultra. I know. Why? I've tried using my newer CW600P but the signal is not compatible with my v-box. I tried setting one up with the remote and got interference from the other. So I had to resort to the old tried and true -- one of my three ultras. I'd try my Viewsat lite, but I don't think it has a line out for my AC-3 converter. I just added it recently and use it to decode the dolby channels. I'm using a Buzz for Ku and my Fortec for C/Ku on my big dish. I'm also getting my OTA locals. So I've got a pretty good selection of "free" programming with great digital quality. Sure beats analog reception .

And the fortec is slow, slow, slow. Blind scans are thorough but take forever.
And I refuse to program new satellites not listed because every time I have to do the factory reset I lose all the work I've done. So I made a list which I put on the wall and use some satellites listed in place of the real ones.
So it has gotten somewhat confusing.

Last week I did a lot of work and I'm up from about 15 to 20 satellites. I adjusted the bottom elevation bolt on my Perfect 10 and got great improvement in my reception. I did it with my dish pointed at the most southerly satellite I was getting at the time, which was 87W. I lost the Research Channel and the University of Washington channel on G10. But, heck, they're no good anyway. Also, the PBS channels on 125W come in sporadically anymore, but I get PBS channels anyway. I added some better programming. I like ABC News Now and CHCH (Canadian Super Channel),
which I never had before.

I've been afraid to make any big adjustments to my dish because I didn't want to lose everything. I like playing with my BUD lots more than watching OTA!!!

Also, concentrating on my more southerly reception has made me realize the eastern arc is there. I'm starting to get some of the feeds between 75 and 80 degrees West but not much in the way of regular programming.

And, yes, I had a tent set up for about a week under my big dish when I initially set it up about a year ago and didn't want to go that route anymore.
And, yes, I've set up a small tv on the back of my pick-up truck under the dish trying to tweak it in the past, too. But I'm getting older now and trying to avoid as much unnecessary work as possible.

My next project is to set up a 36 inch dish with an hh motor. Maybe I'll have more luck getting the eastern arc with it. At least I'll be able to figure out what is and isn't coming in on my BUD. But I'll be sure to put it a lot closer than 125 feet away from my house like my BUD is. That's a long walk!!!
Plus I'm sure the voltage drop from my receiver to the hh motor would be way too much. Knuck, knuck, knuck.

Go fta!!!

 

[gabshere]

Last week I did a lot of work and I'm up from about 15 to 20 satellites. I adjusted the bottom elevation bolt on my Perfect 10 and got great improvement in my reception. I did it with my dish pointed at the most southerly satellite I was getting at the time, which was 87W. I lost the Research Channel and the University of Washington channel on G10. But, heck, they're no good anyway. Also, the PBS channels on 125W come in sporadically anymore, but I get PBS channels anyway. I added some better programming. I like ABC News Now and CHCH (Canadian Super Channel),
which I never had before.

with the adjustment to elevation and losing a channel on your west i suspect instead of an elevation adjustment that you are slighly off arc. so resetting the elevation on your south sat back to where it was and making a slight ( and i mean slight about 1/16 th of an inch to 1/8 mark in in pencil on your pole mount ) adjust the whole mount & dish slightly west.
with this adjustment you would have to re adjust your v-box/ g-box ( some allow you to resync) if you have to make a couple of adjustments and decide to go back thats what the pencil marks are for .