A real head scratchier

[Nosbod]

Hi Guys
I took down my 8 foot dish and put an extension on the pole and put up a 6 foot solid dish. I am now working about 15 feet above the ground which makes adjustments a challenge.

Here is my problem: The pole is level all around, I have set the declination and elevation and triple checked these settings. I have swung the dish south and have found my south satellite, but I am only receiving a 50 % signal and it doesn't improve if I push up or pull down on the dish. When I run the arc I am only receiving the top 4 or 5 satellites and them the bottom sats at both ends.

Any of the sats I am getting only giving me a signal of around 50 to 60 %. If I center the dish over the mount and look across the dish it should look like the bottom of a pan but it doesn't, I can see about 3 inches of dish on the left side all the way up.

I have pushed and pulled the dish on the extreme east and west and then made the adjustments, and every time I try to correct I loose everything.

I'm wondering if the dish shape is the problem and it doesn't matter what I do I will never get this dish aligned.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[northgeorgia]

Hi Guys
I took down my 8 foot dish and put an extension on the pole and put up a 6 foot solid dish.

So, you removed your 8 foot dish and up a 6 foot dish, correct? I know this isn't the main problem, just just a reminder that you probably will lose some of the weaker transponders and could have a signal reduction on the other ones when comparing to your 8 footer.

 

[FTA4PA]

Hi Guys
I took down my 8 foot dish and put an extension on the pole and put up a 6 foot solid dish. I am now working about 15 feet above the ground which makes adjustments a challenge.

Here is my problem: The pole is level all around, I have set the declination and elevation and triple checked these settings. I have swung the dish south and have found my south satellite, but I am only receiving a 50 % signal and it doesn't improve if I push up or pull down on the dish. When I run the arc I am only receiving the top 4 or 5 satellites and them the bottom sats at both ends.

Any of the sats I am getting only giving me a signal of around 50 to 60 %. If I center the dish over the mount and look across the dish it should look like the bottom of a pan but it doesn't, I can see about 3 inches of dish on the left side all the way up.

I have pushed and pulled the dish on the extreme east and west and then made the adjustments, and every time I try to correct I loose everything.

I'm wondering if the dish shape is the problem and it doesn't matter what I do I will never get this dish aligned.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

I see two possible issues. First, you did down-size from an 8' to 6' dish. Generally going to a smaller dish will lose some signal, however, the fact that the smaller dish is solid might negate some/all of the drop in size. Someone with more knowledge than me will have to comment on that though. Second, and probably more important, by your description of centering the dish, looking across it and seeing 3" of dish all the way on the left it would appear that it may be warped in some way. Have you done a string test on it?

 

[primestar31]

A 7.5 - 8ft dish can be borderline in locking many of the S-2 8psk channels as it is, unless all is tweaked really well. Going down to even a PERFECT 6 footer (such as a pristine spun aluminum one-piece) is going to lose a MINIMUM of 2db signal, AND a 6ft dish is NOT 2 degree compliant, so sats to either side can interfere with each other. That means you are throwing out around 75% of the possible signal gathering and locking ability of your former 8ft dish.

Why would you do that? I can understand trying a 6ft dish if you had nothing else, but to downgrade to that from an 8 footer is a mistake, unless the 8 footer was seriously damaged in some way.

If you needed more height due to trees growing into your viewable arc, perhaps you can get those trees topped, or move the pole back more to clear them. Or just install a longer pole and put the 8 footer back up.

P.S. What you are describing about receiving the top few sats, and then the bottom sats probably means you might have your declination setting set way too much. Or, maybe your dish is clam-shelled.

 

[lfp302]

Possibly an increase in terrestrial microwave interference because of higher elevation?

Also is skew of lnb still a factor?

 

[Radioguy41]

If you are, in fact, actually located in Canada I would consider any 6 foot dish to be below minimum for that area.

 

[wvman]

Hi Guys
I took down my 8 foot dish and put an extension on the pole and put up a 6 foot solid dish. I am now working about 15 feet above the ground which makes adjustments a challenge.

Here is my problem: The pole is level all around, I have set the declination and elevation and triple checked these settings. I have swung the dish south and have found my south satellite, but I am only receiving a 50 % signal and it doesn't improve if I push up or pull down on the dish. When I run the arc I am only receiving the top 4 or 5 satellites and them the bottom sats at both ends.

Any of the sats I am getting only giving me a signal of around 50 to 60 %. If I center the dish over the mount and look across the dish it should look like the bottom of a pan but it doesn't, I can see about 3 inches of dish on the left side all the way up.

I have pushed and pulled the dish on the extreme east and west and then made the adjustments, and every time I try to correct I loose everything.

I'm wondering if the dish shape is the problem and it doesn't matter what I do I will never get this dish aligned.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Did you ever consider using the 6 footer for Ku and the 8 footer for C-Band? I installed a 6 footer at my apartment in the 80's and it worked OK for analog, but digital is a horse of a different color, and that was before 2 degree spacing. Unless your 8 footer is in bad shape, I believe I would have left it in service. I'm using two 7.5 foot wire mesh dishes and some of the channels are marginal, especially when a channel has an FEC that's not optimal.

This weekend I'm planning on switching out one of my 7.5 footers for a 10 foot I just acquired. I hope to have both of them switched out before winter. On a 6 foot, I could imagine the channels on SES-1 giving you trouble, especially with it so high off the ground when the snow flies. I know you get a lot more snow in Canada that we get here in West Virginia.

 

[Nosbod]

Hi
Thanks for all the input. I've taken the 6 foot down and gone back to the 7.5 foot. The reason I extended the pole and went with the 6 foot solid because my pending garage was going to block the dish. I am going to have to re-think this whole thing. I have a 12 foot dish sitting in the bleachers and I think once the garage is built I will pull it out of moth balls and fire it up combining a KU feed as well.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[wvman]

Hi
Thanks for all the input. I've taken the 6 foot down and gone back to the 7.5 foot. The reason I extended the pole and went with the 6 foot solid because my pending garage was going to block the dish. I am going to have to re-think this whole thing. I have a 12 foot dish sitting in the bleachers and I think once the garage is built I will pull it out of moth balls and fire it up combining a KU feed as well.

Thanks for your comments.

Sounds like the best plan of action, especially as far north as you are. Cheers One suggestion, if you don't already have one on this dish, you may want to install a Titanium dual output LNBF on that dish since it's 15 feet off the ground. It will be real unpleasant out there if it's 15 below and a polarotor goes out. Electronic switching removes that problem.

 

[luke rizzuto III]

That far north u should hav minimum of a 10ft dish... even in California my 10ft dish performance can barely cut it on some cband channels, some transponders will mess up if the signal quality and strength isnt up at 96% plus, (depending on different recievers signal meter)

 

[luke rizzuto III]

..in ca my 7.5 ft is really just for a handful of channels, almost just for show next to the 10ft dish