Help with dish set up.

[phatjap]

Originally Posted by robbo71

Well, assuming that your dish and motor etc are set up correctly now.

I.e, you sent the dish to 1W using USALS, have got the elevation setting on the motor correct, the pole vertical, have adjusted the dish elevation (declination) and twisted the motor around the pole for best signal quality on 11325H for example on 1W,

all you need to do is select another satellite using the SAT button and the dish should move there. Then just do a scan of each satellite.

try 19.2E, 13E, 28E to start with, only bother with FTA channels on 28E, as that is all you will be able to watch.

Other than that, you should get loads of others, like 30W,15W,12.5W,8W.5W,5E,10E,16E,23.5E,42E for example. Just work your way round, scrolling through all transponders and see what you have good signal quality on.

Robbo

Thankyou sir.

It seems it is set up ok at the mo. I have done a search on about 10 other sats now and got a signal on 5 or so. I have had to adjust the motor on fine setting about 5 'clicks' on each one, so I guess it's out somewhere, but seems to be ok.

Regards.

[robbo71]

Well, 5 satellites is a start.

Of course there are quite a few that you can't get anyway. But if you consult lyngsat on your way round you can check the footprints and see if you stand a chance at least, although not all of them can be believed.

Although I only use USALS myself, many others prefer Diseqc1.2 so that you can fine tune the motor positions, I do it by altering the satellite position slightly if need be.

Also, the further way you are from the top of the arc, the more magnified any error in your arc will be. When you adjust for 1W, try to centre it on the beam, by checking how far you have to move the dish to lose signal.
Without too much difficulty you should be able to get 30W to 42E and the stronger ones in between.

[bigtee]

Well done phatjap, five sats is good and you are now well on the way to becoming an armchair expert

[Curious123]

I thought I was an armchair expert but i think I might have to return my badge. According to my sat nav my latitude ad logtitude are 1.931 & 52.536 so I have set the elevation on my motor at 52.5 and according to my interpertation of the manual that came with my motor my angle on the dish should be about 22.5 but I am convinced that my dish is set at 44 degree. I can get an SNR 88% on Thor and can get most of the satellites on the East but on the West I can only pick up a few satellite partially due to the house blocking the signal. I have not fidddled with the dish mainly because its working but should it be able to follow the arc with its current settings?

[bigtee]

Hi Curious depending on your receiver, one of the things to check is that you have entered the decimal version of your coordinates rather than the degrees/minutes version. Because they are often close, entering the wrong one may mean that you can track part of the arc, but the right one gives the truly accurate tracking. I think for a lot of the UK somewhere around the 22 mark should indeed be the declination.

You can also check through the other usual checklist: e.g. that latitude/elevation is correctly set on the motor, pole is vertical etc

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by Curious123

I thought I was an armchair expert but i think I might have to return my badge. According to my sat nav my latitude ad logtitude are 1.931 & 52.536 so I have set the elevation on my motor at 52.5 and according to my interpertation of the manual that came with my motor my angle on the dish should be about 22.5 but I am convinced that my dish is set at 44 degree. I can get an SNR 88% on Thor and can get most of the satellites on the East but on the West I can only pick up a few satellite partially due to the house blocking the signal. I have not fidddled with the dish mainly because its working but should it be able to follow the arc with its current settings?

Setting the dish according to the manual is an OK starting point, but the scales on the back of dishes are not always accurate. Setting the declination by adjusting for best signal will get it right if it wasn't already.
You can test whether the arc is correct by going to the extremes and seeing whether flexing the dish up and down improves the signal quality.

[Curious123]

I have dm500 and I am using the usuals and also using the decimal version for the co-ordinates and my pole is vertical. I can recieve everything on the East up to 28.2E than the physical limitation of the pole and dish being tied to the kids trampoline in the garden kick into place, lol.

I can recieve everyting except for BADR 26E which works if I press on the dish with my little finger but than I get freezes on DigiatAl 16E so I have not bothered with trying to fix it. On the West I can recieve fine for up to about 8W than either the house gets in the way or my configuartion is faulty.

The urge to re-align the dish in case I am missing something on the West always gets stronger as the weekend approaches but I am resisting it as i don't want to waste a whole weekend re-aligning the dish.

I would have expected the set up to not work at all but it seems to be tracking everything on the East which is why I am a little reluctant to mess with it.

@robbo71 from what you are saying than I am not really following the arc as I not getting anything past 28E even though i can turn round to almost 36E.