Unable to point south

[C Tatroe]

Hello, I recently perchased a Captive Work CW600S, HH90 rotor and the 90cm dish. The set-up went well until it came to zeroing in on true south. My house faces south/westish and the front yard is filled with 6 Hugh ancient maple trees.

So unless I mount the dish 10 ft. from the road, yeah right and put a

free take me

sign on it too, I don't have clear sky until just before s/w at about 210 degrees, that is if my south is 180.

I'm in central Michigan, right on the 85 th longitude, 43.3 Latitude, elevation 887 ft., dish elevation 38.5 and declination 18.53.

I fully realize and understand why I have to zero on south ....... however.

Can I fake it out, some how, into thinking it's looking south, cutting the maples down isn't an option.

Any advice would be cool.

Chip Tatroe

 

[scottc98]

Two suggestions:

1) if you mount it on the roof, will it clear the trees?

...and the long shot

2) are the trees on your private property? If so, are they thick enough that you could mount the dish on the tree? if the tree trunk is really thick, it would make a pretty plumb pole a little paint could camo the dish

 

[Tron]

You can use USALS to align your motor to true south by first directing the motor (via USALS) to move from '0' to a satellite that you have a clear line of sight to, and then peaking the dish there.

 

[fladancer]

We had the same problem in Florida .We took the dish and moved it from place to place . We had the IRD and a small tv in the rear of a van . At last we found a place that would work ok in the front of the lot. We had to cut a few limbs out of the way . The we fine tuned the dish . Now it works great .

 

[C Tatroe]

Thanks Scottc, can't do either option, trees rule the yard !

Tron, I've been trying that, I think, this is my first FTA.
When you say use USALS do you mean to set it to my settings and then use that option instead of the DiSEqC option when aligning the motor ?

And I'm using a digital compass that has the degrees also, so I know my first clear line of site is close to 210 degrees, what satellite should I look for to start with ?

Thanks
Chip

 

[Das Hammer]

Thanks Scottc, can't do either option, trees rule the yard !

Tron, I've been trying that, I think, this is my first FTA.
When you say use USALS do you mean to set it to my settings and then use that option instead of the DiSEqC option when aligning the motor ?

And I'm using a digital compass that has the degrees also, so I know my first clear line of site is close to 210 degrees, what satellite should I look for to start with ?

Thanks
Chip

You might try hitting something without the motor first, just so you can kind of see where things are and build your confidence. I would normally recommend G10R as a good place to start on the west, but it can be tricky. Pentagon channel on AMC1 is always on (I think).

Tron had an excellent suggestion and that is how I setup my rotor. Enter your lat/long in the receiver then program G10R or AMC1, whichever. The rotor will turn to where G10R or AMC1 is, based on the information that you entered. From there, fine tune inclination (elevation) on the dish and fine tune N/S axis (spin rotor on pole). If you do this, it will be easier for you if you can stay as close to direct south as you can because if you go all the way over to G10R, the dish will be at a horribly odd angle.

Best of luck.