Motorised install problem...

[ronand]

You think you know - thats the problem. Anyway I will leave you to it and good luck.

[ste]

You think you know - thats the problem. Anyway I will leave you to it and good luck.

I think I know what? ... if you're referring to USALS then yes, I do know what USALS is but admittedly, I don't know a lot of things but I know that no matter what you info you put in USALS, if the dish isn't aligned correctly in the first place, it wont track the arc.

[djz46]

0.8w first please please ! Look at it this way draw an arc on a piece of paper and then draw another just to the right and see the paths cross. Just for the sake of saying where the paths cross is 28.2 the others will be way out. that is what is happening.

Please start with 0.8w (the top of the arc)

Regards

[ste]

0.8w first please please ! Look at it this way draw an arc on a piece of paper and then draw another just to the right and see the paths cross. Just for the sake of saying where the paths cross is 28.2 the others will be way out. that is what is happening.

Please start with 0.8w (the top of the arc)

Regards

Yes, I get it - this is the stage where i'm at (aligning the dish) so i'll get back up the ladder tomorrow and try and find that god damn Thor ... thanks for the help

p.s. that dish is a beast in your avatar

[djz46]

Your dish will not look straight when you get it right, if you know what i mean. This is because this will set it for the arc when you do find thor. Thus the LNB skew will be right for each sat you find. (Set the LNB straight in line with your arm) Hope this helps.

[ste]

I'm assuming you mean elevation wise it will be pointing up slightly (a bit like yours) ?

[djz46]

No ignore mine it was probably taken when that was at the top of the arc. I may have taken that when setting up i have moved house since then. I mean if you looked at your dish you would think it is like a steering wheel when turned. Sorry i am trying my best to describe it.....

What size dish do you have?

[ste]

I get you and yes - it's like that now. I only have a small oval dish (60cm tall by 80cm wide) but depending on what tp's I can find on thor, I might be increasing that to a 1m one.

[djz46]

Ok you should be half way there not far off.

[ste]

Yeah, just that last bit of tweaking to do

[Joe_90]

You wasted a lot of time starting at 28.2 as has been pointed out. You are correct in that the dish must be aligned first before you start using USALS after inputting your correct coordinates. There is no way the motor could have pointed correctly to 28.2 in the first instance unless it was starting from a known reference point. That known reference point is due south from the installed location. Normally the motor is set to its zero position and the dish pointed south. This is known as the top of the arc and is a key principle in aligning a dish. Any movement of the dish east or west of this point will result in the dish focusing on a point lower on the arc and will skew the LNB accordingly. If you initially align on a further east satellite like 28.2 this will throw the whole arc off. The point in using 0.8W (as @djz46 has advised) is that it is close to the top of the arc in most of England. For those in Wales (or like me on the east coast of Ireland), 5W is a better starting point. But you have to start with a reference point of zero on the motor with the whole lot pointing due south as accurately as you can. Then you move to 0.8W on the motor (or 5W in my case) and fine tune the positioning bolts for best signal quality. For most people without an expensive professional meter the simplest way to achieve this is to use the receiver to a) prove they are pointing at the expected satellite and b) are adjusting for maximum signal to noise.
Are you sure about the dimensions of your dish? Most offset dishes are taller than they are wide. Be prepared for further tweaking as the elevation scale on the motor will only be approximate and you may have to tweak it up or down to ensure your furthest east and west satellites are received correctly. I gather from your posts that the wall your dish is mounted on points roughly south-east as 28.2 is fairly straight on? If that is the case your view to the west may be obstructed by the house or neighbouring houses. Happy tweaking! You're right about needing a bigger dish, because the transponder you will want to receive most almost always requires a dish 10cm bigger than the one you have, no matter how big it is.

Here are pictures of my 80cm dish pointed at 5W and at 28.2E. My house faces exactly south and is on the 6W meridian. I used to have a 110cm dish but my days of jumping up and down ladders to tweak dish settings are coming to an end due to wife's orders so I swapped it for a lighter weight 80cm version. Can't receiver BADR4 on 26E any more though!

[ste]

Many thanks for your in depth explanation Tony - very informative. My dish at the moment is like a replica of the official sky mini dish only bigger and yes - it's 60cm tall by 80cm wide and you're right in your thinking that my house is pointing towards south-east but my dish has a clear view of the Thor satellite according to dishpointer.com and a few of the app's i've downloaded onto my phone.

Initially when I set my motor up, I did point the whole assembly as south as I could then moved the motor manually via the buttons to 28.2 then tweaked it to find the astra satellite - this was my mistake instead of starting at the top of the arc. Hopefully if the weather is kind tomorrow, i'll be that bit closer to my goal

[Joe_90]

Good stuff! It's just that you may be restricted to the west although I don't think there is much beyond 30W. I used to receive Amazonas (I think that's its name) at 58W, but I don't see anything on it now.
We use Zone 2 SKY dishes in Ireland which can be up to 80cm wide. Do you need a special LNB for your 80cm dish? The focus pattern on SKY LNBs is different to cater for the wider aspect and they don't work as well on regular offset dishes. Does your dish have a 40mm collar for a universal LNB or does it need a SKY LNB? As you are only doing your initial setup it might be relevant to research the newer unicable LNBs which would result in lower cabling complexity. I'm not really up to speed on these but @abu and @Huevos can help there.

Edit - if that's an actual SKY dish/LNB combo you may have issues with weaker satellites due to the odd focus arrangement and skew etc. I know some people use SKY dishes motorised but it's not the best arrangement as a regular offset dish will give you a better choice of LNB.

[ste]

Hi Tony, with where my house is, i've worked it out that I should be able to get up to 30w without any obstruction issues so i'm happy with that. The dish I have was described as a zone 2 mk4 raven dish - it didn't come with an lnb or an lnb holder for that matter - I knew it didn't come with an lnb so I bought a 0.1db universal lnb in anticipation but when the dish arrived minus the lnb holder, I ordered one which was wrongly listed as as mk4 holder but when it arrived, it was a mk3 holder so that delayed me further and then I contacted the people who I bought the dish off to ask them which I needed for the dish they sent me and they told me they would send me one out and although it did fit on the arm, the collar was only 37mm and my lnb is 40mm so I just went to Maplin and paid their overly inflated price for the right one.

[ste]

I deleted all the Thor 6 transponders on my Satfinder as some of them were incorrect - I got the list of Thor 6 transponders from Telenorsat who own Thor 6 and programmed them all in then I got back up the ladder and I did get some signal on one of the transponders but it's too weak -my thinking behind it is the dish is too small so i'm picking up a Triax 1m one from someone locally tomorrow then give it another go.