Alignment ?

[photofinish]

Hi! I am a little slow so bear with me .The 2 questions i need help on is when i've the pole,motor , dish all mounted in-line and aimed at magnetic South 180 less or plus 15 degree west variation for my area
La. 38.00 ln. 121.00 dish elevation 39 degrees(usals) is due south 165 or 195 ? My guess 165 , Secondly there exsist a sat. at exactly my same lng. 121.00 ,when i determine #1 answer, do i lock the dish down on 165 or 195 and drive dish with the motor to 121 or do i spin the whole thing, motor, dish and aim it at 121 then lock it down?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Thanks much from a Newbie : :
ps. Fortec 36'' = HH 90 + Ivacom +fortec life-time ultra

[Mickha]

Hi photofinish,
the basic rules for setting up a motorized dish, and tracking the arc correctly, is that first you install your pole, which has to be perfectly vertical, any deviation will lose you some satellites as the dish moves.
Your setup should also be in the most advantageous position, to give you as wide a choice of satellites as possible.
Next assemble your dish and motor, following the manufacturers guidelines, which obviously depend on the motor. Fix this on the pole and manoeuvre it to your due south position, or a satellite that is nearest, in my case Thor 1W.
Now you can tighten everything up and carry out any minor adjustments that might be necessary.
If your receiver has been pre-set, follow the instructions provided, in my case I had to move my dish, using a battery to 19.2E, because my supplier had pre-installed all satellites and left the receiver on 19.2E.
Connect everything to your receiver and input the satellites, using your receiver or VBox, to get the strongest signals before storing them.
After you've done all this find the weakest transponders, you are capable of receiving, and make minor adjustments to your dish elevation to get the strongest signals.
It should take a few hours but once set up you can start enjoying a wide choice of programming.
Please post back if you with the results, or if you have any queries.
Best wishes
Mickha

[BGonaSTICK]

Hello m8, welcome to the forum.

Confusing isn't it?

It sounds like you've already read quite a lot which is good, but unsurprisingly missed one or two elements.

We do have an excellent guide on how to install motorised dishes here, but I can explain the theory behind your dilemma for you.

I haven't checked your alignment statistics, but the science is simple. This assumes you have an HH motor.

Once you're sure that the pole is vertical, and the dish is lined up perfectly on the centreline of the motor, then you must point the whole lot south. Real south, not magnetic south.

You can do this in two ways, but the idea is that you attempt to do it based on theory, and then by practice, thereby using a kind of two-pronged attack. The first makes the second easier to achieve.

Dealing with your second question first...

If your longitude is 121W, that puts you in California, right? As you say, you have a satellite at 121W longitude (EchoStar 9/Intelsat Americas 13).

This is the satellite you need to lock as your due south satellite. You are at 121W and so is EchoStar9. A perfect match - it must, by definition, be due south of you.

Your motor should therefore be driven to the center point (0) and left there before you start. You will not have to make any compensating adjustments to this until after you have locked EchoStar9 and want to start scanning other satellites on the arc.

Finding EchoStar9 is the tricky bit that's left. You can do that in a number of ways, one of which is by using a compass and then adjusting for magnetic variation. These angular figures have nothing to do with your longitude of 121W, so don't expect them to tie up.

Now, your compass question.

For the west coast of America, you need to subtract the magnetic variation figure of 15 degrees East (this figure looks correct to me if you're in California) in your case from the compass reading to get the true azimuth. When the compass reads 180, the true figure is 165. Working this backwards, if you want 180 true, then you need to add 15 degrees, so your compass would read 195. I hope I've got that the correct way round!

A good way to get a rough check is to use Google Earth (if it contains enough detail for your location), and switch on the Lat/Long gridlines.

There is only one FTA channel on EchoStar9, on the transponder at 12074 V SR 20000 FEC 1/2, so use this to fine-tune once you've done the theory.

Please read our guide if this doesn't make sense.

Hope this helps.

STICK