Tuning your Satellite

[Keystone7]

Hello,

Today I setup my h-h Motor and dish. It took me long enough, I think I found it (AMC3) at 87West. (Don't mean to sound to dumb) but my question now would be after I found my south satellite, how do I search for any more? I am sure none of the bolts get moved. Any help would be great! Thanks!

 

[Larobpra]

If you tell us what you have for a receiver someone will be more than willing to help.

The best place to start would be here though.....

http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-mpeg2-faqs/190527-how-set-up-motorized-ku-band-dish.html#post1985980

 

[Keystone7]

If you tell us what you have for a receiver someone will be more than willing to help.

The best place to start would be here though.....

http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-mpeg2-faqs/190527-how-set-up-motorized-ku-band-dish.html#post1985980

I am using a CNX Nano for reciever. Also have a backup of a Sonicview Pro 360. Which would be the better to use?

 

[brentb636]

Generally speaking,
If you set up your true south satellite using USALS in your receiver, then all it takes is turning on USALS on the satellites that you want to use. Go to the antenna setup screen, and start going through the satellites, at least from 72W to 129W, and turn on USALS in all the Ku sats.
Probably , in the USALS menu of every satellite, there is a command like " Go to position" . Watch to see if your dish moves, when it stops, try scanning.

 

[Keystone7]

Generally speaking,
If you set up your true south satellite using USALS in your receiver, then all it takes is turning on USALS on the satellites that you want to use. Go to the antenna setup screen, and start going through the satellites, at least from 72W to 129W, and turn on USALS in all the Ku sats.
Probably , in the USALS menu of every satellite, there is a command like " Go to position" . Watch to see if your dish moves, when it stops, try scanning.

The motor I have says it uses DiSEqC. It does not say anything about USALS. I know it has USALS in the menu for my box. I did not try USALS since I have this motor. Wonder if it will work with USALS?

 

[turbosat]

Yes, should work for USALS. If your rec has the USALS logo on it, more than likely it was tested for use with it.

 

[Keystone7]

Yes, should work for USALS. If your rec has the USALS logo on it, more than likely it was tested for use with it.

Thanks, I will be out there first thing in the morning. I'll check the motor web site. I think the information said something about USALS? Thanks!

 

[AcWxRadar]

The motor I have says it uses DiSEqC. It does not say anything about USALS. I know it has USALS in the menu for my box. I did not try USALS since I have this motor. Wonder if it will work with USALS?

Keystone,

As long as your receiver is USALS compatible, then you are fine. What the motor states is immaterial, as long as it does state DiSEqC 1.2, which almost all should.

USALS is nothing more than a calculator which resides within your receiver, if the receiver displays the USALS logo.

USALS simply takes the site coordinates (latitude and longitude) and the satellite position in degrees (i.e. 97.0W) and calculates where the motor should be positioned to. The receiver then sends out a DiSEqC 1.2 command pulse containing the results of its USALS calculations to the motor. The motor listens and moves accordingly.

Basically, the receiver uses USALS to makes the calculations to determine which direction to move the motor and how far the motor needs to move. The receiver then communicates with the motor using DiSeqC 1.2 commands and sends these commands to the motor.

Therefore, USALS is a resident math program within the receiver and DiSEqC 1.2 is a communication language so that the receiver can communicate with the motor properly.

RADAR

 

[Keystone7]

Keystone,

As long as your receiver is USALS compatible, then you are fine. What the motor states is immaterial, as long as it does state DiSEqC 1.2, which almost all should.

USALS is nothing more than a calculator which resides within your receiver, if the receiver displays the USALS logo.

USALS simply takes the site coordinates (latitude and longitude) and the satellite position in degrees (i.e. 97.0W) and calculates where the motor should be positioned to. The receiver then sends out a DiSEqC 1.2 command pulse containing the results of its USALS calculations to the motor. The motor listens and moves accordingly.

Basically, the receiver uses USALS to makes the calculations to determine which direction to move the motor and how far the motor needs to move. The receiver then communicates with the motor using DiSeqC 1.2 commands and sends these commands to the motor.

Therefore, USALS is a resident math program within the receiver and DiSEqC 1.2 is a communication language so that the receiver can communicate with the motor properly.

RADAR

Radar,

Thanks for the lesson on this. I guess since I do have my south Sat already, I should be able to fine tune the other sat's using the USALS. Well, maybe fine tune just alittle. Thank again!

Keystone

 

[AcWxRadar]

Radar,

Thanks for the lesson on this. I guess since I do have my south Sat already, I should be able to fine tune the other sat's using the USALS. Well, maybe fine tune just alittle. Thank again!

Keystone

Keystone,

You got it nailed down quite well. If you have your angles set correctly and have dialed in your true south sat initially, then nearly every other satellite should just drop in your lap using USALS with very little adjustments. Some fine tuning may be necessary if you are as anal about your signal and quality levels like I am. I like to putz around with my dish until I peak everything to the max, which does take some time and patience, but is not usually necessary.

If you find one sat or two that don't quite line up for some reason, don't fret over them. Switch them to DiSeqC 1.2 and fine tune them that way if you must.

I have a couple of satellites out of 28-32 or so that I adjust the motor position on from time to time, but mostly everything is spot on with USALS.

One thing to mention, if you try to select a sat that is more than 59 degrees away from your home longitude, you will have to switch to DiSEqC motor control as USALS has some limitation here.

RADAR

 

[Phottoman]

One thing I didn't see mentioned (maybe I overlooked it) but you will need to know YOUR exact position before you start loading USALS in your Mini. And BTW, Mini WILL operate on both USALS or DiSEqC. And it's a GREAT machine for blind scanning. Look at the bottom of the setup screen when you are adding sats to your Mini and you see that you need to push one of the colored buttons to add your position, your location, I forget how it's labeled. Then you can start adding sats in their correct positions.

You can get your location from several places on the net, I had to 0000 out my computer and lost all of my bookmarks, but a search for dishpointer on google will get you there.

I don't know if this will be germain to the conversation, but when I was using only the DUO as my only receiver, there was an internal problem where I was constantly off a degree or two on every satellite I tried to aim at, I fixed that by adding or subtracting a degree or two to "My Location" and that fixed the problem, it tracked beautifully after that.

Good luck and keep us posted on your results.

Photto