That damn Wind!

[Mship]

That bl**dy winds been at it again!

I've found that it's been moving my dish a bit, not too much but enough to knock it off satellite by about 6 'fine tune' clicks > I still pick sats up easy enough but signal quality has dropped from around 82% to 79% on most sats ( 12w is the only sat that seems to be consistantly below this) .

So tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll be up the ladder trying to sort out some sort of system to stop this happening, which may involve drilling into the motor bracket and scaffold pole to insert a 10mm bolt :spite:

I think it's the motor bracket that's causing the problem as that only has two clamps whereas the pole has four.

I've left 1w and 4w in their original positions so re-aligning the dish to it's original state should be pretty straight forward (I hope 8)).

Also, would it be worth pushing the LNB forward a bit to try and get better signal quality? Or is 82% about right for a 1m dish in this part of the country?

Oh, and I've remembered to get some grease so I'll be applying some to my nuts while I'm up there

Cheers,
Kev.

[BGonaSTICK]

Signal strength varies from receiver to receiver, so it's only really any good comparing like for like. In fact, I wouldn't trust two receivers of the same model to be identical. Generally, your strengths seem fine, but it's only really the quality that's critical.

Are you sure your dish has moved? If and when you re-align it and get it as good as you can, mark the corresponding parts (motor bracket and pole, dish bracket and motor shaft etc. accurately with a permanant market to see if it moves in future.

I find that for a given orbital location, I can tune the motor position perfectly on one transponder, and yet have to move the dish up to maybe half a degree with the receiver to maximise the signal on a different transponder.

Where there are several satellites in one location, you'll find that they are actually all in slightly different positions!

Have a look at http://www.lyngsat.com/tracker/europe.html and click on each of the Astra1 or Hotbird sats for example. They're all over the place!

[Mship]

I'm pretty sure the dish has moved, we had some big winds over the weekend and by Monday night every sat was off line I've only lined up the sats I've been watching this week (13E, 16E,19E,42E and 30W) because it'll just mean re-aligning them again after I've been up the ladder.

On sunday night I found it impossible to watch anything on satellite due to the strong winds and heavy rain >
In fact it's breaking up slightly on hotbird now as I type.

It's all probably due to being in an exposed location, but even lowering the dish a couple of metre's wouldn't provide much more protection, and then I might struggle picking up some of the western birds due to the proximity of the neighbours house :

Chers,
Kev.

[diapason]

It's blowing a gale here in Paisley, Scotland, and I'm at the top of a hill and it's 10.55 p.m. on a miserable Thursday. My two dishes are bouncing a little but all pictures from 28E, 19E and 13E are stable with the exception of CNN on 28E whose signal is very much lower than all the others and only the odd glitch every so often. But during last week's rain every picture from all three satellites disappeared for about 8 minutes until the worst was over and then they all came back without any trouble.

[satsid]

hi m8 i fully understand this as i live on the sea coast,it gets very wind here.the winds we had before these today had made lose 2 nuts that hold the bar on my poler mount.i did these up nice & tight last time with a small re-line of dish,& seem to be holding up well atm on signel.when these winds are gone i will re check the same nuts 2 see all is ok.i find here a good thing 2 do when windy is 2 use the edge of the dish to cut the wind.this means it hits the side of your dish not the face of dish.here i find anything from 16 east to about 7 east or in between to park dish till winds have gone.now my wave t90 dish that dont move wind dont bother this 1 atall,it stays like a rock
sid

[nanochickin]

Looks like Saturday is going to be the best day for you to reset the dish. The wind in Workington will only be at 3mph according to the BBC weather center.

htt*p://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=1389 (remove the * )

It will however start picking up again after Sunday.



Nano

[BGonaSTICK]

Yes, Sid's tip of parking your dish side-on to the wind is a very good one, especially when mega-storms are forecast.

[Mship]

Managed to get up them ladders this morning and do a bit of 'tweeking'. I've nipped up the clamps as far as I dare without stripping the threads. I really do think that the clamps should be 10mm instead of 8mm . This could be a job for the summer, swapping the clamps for the much stronger 10mm one's.

I also found two nuts that were half way off the bolts. These were the bolts that hold the motor body onto the pole clamp and were fitted without washers . They're now tightened back up complete with flat and spring washers so, hopefully, that should keep them in place for a while .

The test will come when we get some more big winds, although it is blowing a bit now and I've not experienced any picture break up at all so it's looking good

Cheers,
Kev.

[BGonaSTICK]

Originally Posted by mship

I really do think that the clamps should be 10mm instead of 8mm

You're dead right. They shear really easily too, as they're seriously crap metal. The latest ones have stainless steel U-bolts which would take a beating from anything, even at 8mm.

If you find a supply of these long square bolts, please let us know. I would certainly buy a set.

Spring washers are good idea for the motor clamp. Never heard of this problem before, but yours should be going nowhere now

Good tips!

[BlackHawk]

One good thing about the wind, for me that is, all the leaves have gonne off of my neighbours treer. I can now get a signal from 53*east. Low level as signal comes through the branches but watchable pictures.
BH