Trying to adjust feed horn, ele. & azm. on 10 ft

[xxtornxx]

Trying to adjust the feed horn and azmith and ele. by useing a t.v. a fortec receiver and a sat. finder and its not working out very well.Idownloaded some pics. and may by lookig at these pics some one can get me started. I did stumble on to D121 but the recevier said 107w The angle of the dish looks to high my 33" dish looks to be lower.And is the lnb cband & ku look like the right place cband at around 5 oclock and ku about 11 oclock.

 

[1captain]

do you're self a favor, an go an buy a angle finder it will help a great deal, price on them from $10 to $80 for a fancy digital it will make this job so easy.

1 problem that I see from the picture's is you feed legs an bolt hole location that you used bolting to the dish. you need to use the hole closest to the bend on the dish where they bolt, an on the scalar the same hole also, an if you have a Channel Master scalar ring you should use that also instead of the chaperral. reason why is the CM scalar will have 2 bolts per leg an it makes those CM dishes more rigid by using their scalar. now those CM dishes they have their F/L work out real good as long as you use the right bolt holes.

If you need the F/L I can measure 1 of mine here an give it to you.

 

[melgarga]

Offset vs prime focus 'look angles' are apples and kumquats. Ignore the offset dish for elevation look angle. It might come in handy for general azmuith though.
Let's see. I think you need to go back to dish alighnment 101 and get your primary points established first.
If the dish was ever tracking properly before you started on this problem, and you have adjusted the inclination and declination settings, try to return them to the original positions if possible.
Determine your true south satellite.
Program in a known working tp/sr that is on that sat.
Remove any/all switching devices, and verify sat config page lnb settings in the FTA box.
Motor the dish to the highest point in the arc. If your true south sat is a bit east or west of your location make a slight deviation of position in that direction from the highest point in the arc.
Note the polarity of the dipole in the feed horn. You will need to stand behind the dish and look up into the feedhorn. It is a small wire, or hook looking piece with a section of it parallel with the dish surface. It is ~5/8-3/4" and appears suspended in the center of the feedhorn.
You did not mention what you were using to move the dish and drive the polarotor.
At the highest point a horizontal orientation will have the dipole parallel to the horizon. A vertical orientation will be 90 deg from that. If you are using an old analog ird to operate the dish/polarotor, odd and even channels are opposite polarites so switching from any odd-even will (should) drive the polarotor to it's two opposite points. Some rx's even have a H/V button to flip polarity on the same channel. You should hear the sound of a small motor spining as the servo moves from one polarity to the other.
If you dont see the proper orientation, look for a skew or 'fine tune' adjustment. If you have rotated the feedhorn, the desired orientation may be out of range of the servo and you will need to adjust the rotational position of the feedhorn in it's mount. Verify the polatity orientation is correct for the channel you've chosen.
Once you are satisfied all things are set up properly, try bumping the dish actuator E then W ever so slightly a few degrees. If you still have no quality on the channel you've picked, try to increase then decrease the elevation setting a small amount, the pan E/W again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

1Captian is correct. If you have whacked the elevation by too much, an anglefinder will save you a lot of rough estimate searching.

Post what other equipment you are using to control the dish/polarotor, and the specifics you are using to find your true south bird. Arc alignment and tracking hinge on getting this setting correct first.

Go here for the best explanation of C band tracking alignment and theory of operation.

http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/tuningp4.html

There is a lot of info here. It may take several read-thrus for it to sink in.

BTW, locate a list of known good FTA channels and be prepared to set up several for various birds across the arc. If the declination adjustment is trashed too, we will need several reference points along tha arc to re-align the track.

 

[xxtornxx]

Been away for a few days working.Thanks 1captain & melgarga for the responce i guess an angle finder would help , i thought that I got dish 30 miles away that a lot of adjustments would be the same.Any way there are three holes on the feed legs and I just used the hole were I took it apart from as in old owners location pics 1&2 pics3 is the orginal ku/lnb. and the scalar ring i keep the CM orginal and put the dual lnb ku/cband in to. 1captain a mesurment of the focal point would be great (befor i took the old lnb i mesured F/L 47 3/4 inches from the center of the dish to lnb ring) and my cband lnb i have at around 5 oclock and ku at 11 oclock

 

[xxtornxx]

melgarga this is the first post about the dish and the problems that i was facing at he time frozen motor to bad electonics http://www.satelliteguys.us/c-band-satellite-discussion/171953-found-10-ft-dish-will-need-help.html
Now I think i am in the home stretch but its 115 degrees out and it is just to hot to mess with it, have a small window in the morning to work on it.Any how try to return them to the original positions I don't know were that is so i will have to adjusted the inclination and declination settings. The true south sat my long. is 112.5 w and long is latis 33.7 w i thought it would be 111.7 or 113.0w satmex 6 i don't know which sat. is best to test?
Polarity of the dipole in the feed horn i will have to go out and look.I know what you are talking about.
Equipment you are using to control the dish/polarotor are gbox 3000 to move dish(and motor is working great east to west not frozen no more) and i got pansat 9200 hd , and a fortec life time ultra this unit i been testing with( it works good on my 33" for fta) because the toshiba trx -80 just keeps scanning for channels some thing may be wrong with it . I want to get dsr 922 but not it budget yet or until i get dish to opperate with equipment i have.Is this going to give me a problem with servo because i can not change polarity.Is there any way around this with out changing lnb it might be cheaper to get a recevier on e bay.

 

[melgarga]

Well if you think you've whacked the adjustments beyond getting them back to the original point then stop now and get an angle finder. A dish within 30 miles may have needed a slight tweaking but probably would have gotten some of the stronger TPs if the new pole is plumb and the true south alignment was correct.
I can identify with the heat issue. It's been at or over 100 here for 5-6 weeks straight, and some spotty rain around the passed 2-3 days, but nada on my lil' patch of the earth.
I cant comment on what may be on the Anik and Satmex birds. I dont even have them programmed into anything I have, but there are others that watch them that could give you some good tp/sr/pol data to tune with.
You could change to an LNBF setup, but personally I prefer polarotor systems.
You posted " toshiba trx -80 just keeps scanning for channels some thing may be wrong with it" I am not familiar with that model. If it is a standard analog IRD like the -22, and in working order it should be able to handle dish positioning and polarotor control duties. If it has issues you should try to find another analog ird to use for these functions. Sometimes they are on Fleaybay for a dollar or two using the make offer button if you can live with the expected inflated S&H charge. You just have to keep an eye on it.