Motorized Satellite Dish Almost Set Up

[Nutsandbolts]

hopefully the fine tuning information I think I need will be in the download. Have got many satellites east and west but too low signals on some (both sides of arc) and end up loosing signals if I do the declination angle only. pole verticals have been checked many times so can only assume that the problem is in alignment of the dish.

Hi. If you get East and West satellites you are nearly there. The size of your dish may also affect the signal quality on some satellites/channels. In my experience in fitting motors 9 times out of 10 the problems are the dish angles. Do not adjust the motor tail/spigot but adjust slightly the gap between the back of the dish and motor tail ( i think they call this the azimuth angles). Also check LNB is set correctly. You can adjust it slightly left or right and see if signal quality improves. Also i would make some visible marks on the dish and non moving part of the motor in case you lose your setup. This may help you to re-align dish and motor. Also make sure for each satellites you have up to date TP's(frequencies). Hope this makes sense.

Regards.

[the goat]

gents help please, really finding this hard going, been trying to get my motorised dish setup all weekend

had it working before with my old dreambox500, upgraded to a VU+ duo now geeting probelm

got 90cm dish last night i got these readings

28E 93% AGC 74 % SNR
19E 93% AGC 83% SNR
13E 91% AGC 0 % SNR
4.8E 69% AGC 0% SNR
0.8W 69% AGC 0% SNR

if i had any hair i'd be pulling it out, i just can't get the SNR readings up
Pole is Plumb on T & K Brackets, (i will re-check the motor is the on same place both side,

should i move the dish up and down the motor shaft ?

[ramjet]

gents help please, really finding this hard going, been trying to get my motorised dish setup all weekend

had it working before with my old dreambox500, upgraded to a VU+ duo now geeting probelm

got 90cm dish last night i got these readings

28E 93% AGC 74 % SNR
19E 93% AGC 83% SNR
13E 91% AGC 0 % SNR
4.8E 69% AGC 0% SNR
0.8W 69% AGC 0% SNR

if i had any hair i'd be pulling it out, i just can't get the SNR readings up
Pole is Plumb on T & K Brackets, (i will re-check the motor is the on same place both side,

should i move the dish up and down the motor shaft ?

moving it in that manner wont help

first task is ensure you have the usals set correctly for your house location, and then check the motor elevation is set to your latitude and lock it there. the dish will be something like 25 to 28 degrees depending on your location (the motor booklet will tell you this)

so it appears you are missing sats the further you go away from 28e so triple check that pole is plumb just to be safe too

then if you are in the uk I would setup on bbc world news fta on 0.8w or you could try the sat at 5 west instead where the france channels are

once you get that 0.8w check another channel like the music channel so you check both V and H and then lock it up and start to check 30 west and 28.2 east to ensure you have the arc correctly with fine adjustments to the dish elevation and maybe the left or right on the pole itself (but not the motor elevation)

[the goat]

thanks for reply

i can just about go to 5W before dish hits house wall,so i only go to 0.8w
I'm going to try to get up and recheck the bracket and pole are plumb again tonight,
thats one thing i've not been doing is checking h & v channels/transponders at each satelitte
for my location, just sth of doncaster motor setting is 53, dish is 22.4

[ramjet]

thanks for reply

i can just about go to 5W before dish hits house wall,so i only go to 0.8w
I'm going to try to get up and recheck the bracket and pole are plumb again tonight,
thats one thing i've not been doing is checking h & v channels/transponders at each satelitte
for my location, just sth of doncaster motor setting is 53, dish is 22.4

so the problem here is you can only check half that arc, and you are checking it on strong sats like 19e and 28e so it still appears your arc is incorrect

my darkmotor superior table shows the dish at 27.4 for a latitude of 53 so 22.4 doesnt seem correct to me but maybe it is for your motor ?

I would try and set up on 0.8w or 5e or maybe 10e so that you are in the middle or so of the arc that you can "see"

there is 5e, 7e , 9e , 10e and 13e to set up on to try and get the true arc

depends on your channel list but I know pltv using biss is on 10e along with fta the TEST channel AND BARAEM on 11399H 07814 and Tandberg on 11624V 2500 that you could line up on , then check 28e and 39e and 42e to see if you get the arc

[the goat]

I've got a TM2600 diseqc motor with location 0.93 W 53. N
not got the book here, but from both the manual 53 for the motor, and dish 224, I will check cos now i question everything to do with this motorised dish

i've got a bouquet on reciever with FTA channels from various Satelittes (mostly BBC world News & God Channel)

[Manic01]

The elevation for dish in manuals is a guide only.
It's always hit and miss.
Just adjust once on strong signal for optimum performance.

[Nutsandbolts]

I've got a TM2600 diseqc motor with location 0.93 W 53. N
not got the book here, but from both the manual 53 for the motor, and dish 224, I will check cos now i question everything to do with this motorised dish

i've got a bouquet on reciever with FTA channels from various Satelittes (mostly BBC world News & God Channel)

Hi. Take it from me the TM2600 motors are pinpoint accuracy. You need to make sure that you get a satellite from the west and one from the east working properly then the others will follow by adjusting the dish angles. As mentioned before ignore the manual guide as they dont take into consideration local conditions, type of equipment used etc. Always use your hands and eyes to adjust the dish as you go along. Always use USALS as this will take you on or near the satellites after you have set it up correctly on the first satellite. It is important with USALS that you get the
first satellite right. The rest will follow with minor adjustments to dish angles NOT dish height. For the THOR 1 west satellite ignore BBC WORLD NEWS channel and set it up on channel BTV-1 11247V s/r 24500. This is a FTA test channel for THOR. BBC WORLD NEWS wil NOT give you all channels but BTV-1 will so long ay your TP's are up to date. Setting up a motor is very easy you just need a bit of patience and common sense.

Good luck

[ramjet]

fair comments except he cannot access any western sats due to a wall at about 5 west so only gets half the arc to work with (east only) which means his arc can be way out and still get a couple of sats like he is doing now and he could vary this arc and pick up 2 or 3 different sats and still miss out on others

fair comment on btv but I would ADD that to the list to check, not dismiss any, better to check five channels than the one channel, but I believe he is better to aim for the centre of his available arc at 10 east or maybe even 13e or 16e so he can check both ways

[the goat]

thanks guys
at home now so will try again

still don't under stand getting good AGC 80% but no SNR
does AGC not indicate that there is a satelitte signal close
and SNR is the transponder signal its self

[Manic01]

SNR = Signal to Noise Ratio - which means signal quality
AGC = Automatic Gain Control - which means signal strength
Check the skew on your lnb as well.

[digicon]

thanks guys
at home now so will try again

still don't under stand getting good AGC 80% but no SNR
does AGC not indicate that there is a satelitte signal close
and SNR is the transponder signal its self

AGC = Automatic Gain Control in other words the power of the signal from each satellite, with the amount of satellites there are in the ARC when you sweep your dish along the ARC left or right it will nearly always give you an AGC reading as your hitting satellites as you pan so to speak.

SNR is your key here the higher it is the better, The Picture i uploaded will give you a better understanding what is happening on your setup and how important it is to track the ARC correctly

[the goat]

had 3 hours at this tonight and got no-where, feel like throwing it in bin

took dish/motor down and rechecked pole, plumb all round
made sure dish bracket was dead centre of moter arm
fixed motor to pole bracket at 53 latitude
dish fixed to 22.4 (triax 88)
put it all on pole and not getting any strong signals
using vix image on box and getting nothing to lock on to, but before i took it all down i could lock onto 28E but not pick up much

now with vu+ duo not attached to dish, if i go on sat finder in menu its giving a read of 20% SNR thats just mad the tuners are not connected to anything

[Manic01]

When you have motor locked to 53, leave dish around 25 degrees
Send dish to 1w or where ever you are using.
Move the motor around pole until good signal then adjust dish up/down and only then lock off the motor bolts and the dish bolts.
The dish is fixed tight to motor spigot centrally.
The actual motor is left hand tight on the bracket so you can move and tune just incase you were doing it differently.

[the goat]

thats exactly what i've been trying to do,
yesterday i had 0.8w and was fiddling about trying to get the rest, earlier today i had signals on 19, 28, but now nothing
its driving me mad
its an 30 min job at most, so far i've beenat it 3 days
not should if it my box now
starting not to trust anything
is there a better sat finder ipk to put in vu+duo vix image