can't install motorised dish and need help.

[Okan]

Hi,
I am trying to install my 90cm motorised dish. i have read dozens of articles about how to install but I might be doing something wrong: I live in Birmingham, UK. I entered my latitude (52.42) and dish bracket angle (22.5) correctly (although 52 latitude does not read exactly 38 elevation on the other side of motor. bought it from Maplin!) and input my latitude and longitude (1.95 W) in Fortecstar reciever. Spent one afternoon trying to get a respectable signal but whatever I did signal density showed 45% and signal quality 5%. I managed to get different reading only when I disconnected the LNB. I even changed the latitude from 52 to 65 and 45 but above values remained the same. I am on the verge of paying someone to install it for me (they are asking £150+ !!!). Although the mast is not perfect cylinder (again from Maplin) the side which motor is connected by 2 V type brackets is perfectly vertical.
Can someone please help me what I am doing wrong?
Thanks a lot.
Okan

[Robbo]

Hi,

Can you tell us what mast you have?

The best thing to use is a pair of T&K brackets and a short piece of scaffold or similar, so you can get it perfectly vertical.


You send the dish to Thor 0.8 W, and adjust the elevation of the dish (adjust the declination) and swivel the motor around the pole for best signal on 11325H. Once you have done that, the dish should more or less follow the arc.

Robbo

[mikeanodd]

dude,i have same set up as you..from maplins.same problem too...turns out after a week of desperation the lnb was duff..do what i did,buy a sat finder meter,it will save you loads of aggro,then point your dish south till you get the sat at 1w...then move your dish to other sats an tune in...plus read other threads on how to set up motorized dishes kike i did and saved myself lots of time

[Okan]

Hi Robbo71,
I used T&K brackets and although the mast is not perfectly round I managed to get it vertical. My problem is 45% signal intensity and 5% quality values don't change regardless of where I point the dish. Like mikeanodd pointed out it might be the LNB. I have got a sat finder, which I also purchased from Maplin. I will give it a go and let you know how I am getting on. In the meantime if anyone has got any other advise I would really appreciate that.
Cheers.
Okan

[Okan]

Hi,
After spending about 2 hours yesterday i managed to get signal levels to 75% and quality to 90%. mikeanodd, you are absolutely spot on about usage of sat finder. using only receiver makes life very difficult whereas with sat finder it happens in real time. thank you mikeanodd and Robbo71. I have saved $150 + the hassle.
cheers.
Okan

[Robbo]

Ok, well done

Some receivers are OK for adjusting the dish as the response is immediate. I also have a Lacuna Mk4 professional meter, it is slightly more sensitive to dish movement that my receiver, but on the whole, I much prefer using my receiver.