hi AcWxRadar and all!
anyone out there combining their Circular and Linear feeds?
I originally mounted my motor at the mid-point of the mast, as the instructions said. but, after a couple of evenings of back-and-forth it has slid down until the lower U-bolt was resting against the angled portion of the mast.
I think this brought the motor just a little out of true 'plumb' and this has been accounting for some of my problems. to compound this, i've managed to "strip" one of the U-bolts holding the motor to the mast so i'm not getting a tight grip on the mast.
thanks for reading, looking forward to any input
jeff
To save yourself the aggravation of the motor slipping down the pole, and to aid in azimuth adjustments, attach a gate hinge to the pole just under the motor bracket. The bracket will rest on this hinge. A muffler clamp will also work...
Hey Jeff,
Good Saturday morning to you!
Yes, I combine my circular and linear signals using a switch. I use a Chieta DiSEqC 4x1 switch. There isn't much to watch on the circular side of Ku, except NASA on 119.0 W as it is unencrypted.
The dish network test card channels are really handy to assist in aligning if you need them. These are the "Congratulations, You are Aimed At ...." channels. These usually have assigned SID's of 9902, 9903, 9904 etc.
However, if you are uncertain of your switch condition or type, I would recommend NOT using any switch at this time. It can lead to confusion during the alignment process since you can forget to set up the switch parameters for each satellite in the menus or may set them incorrectly by oversight.
I would connect your cable directly from the receiver to the motor and then from the motor to the linear LNBF and concentrate solely on the linear signals.
As for the mast or motor support pole, definitely make sure that it is plumb in all directions and very sturdy.
This is extremely important! And when I say sturdy, I mean an elephant should be able to scratch his butt on it without moving it!
I know of many people who have set their first motorized system up and had the mast be "not perfectly plumb". They state that "it is off a little, but not too much, it should be alright". NO, it is not alright! The mast is the whole foundation of your motorized system. All the other angles depend upon the mast being plumb so that they will be correct. The greatest reason for not being able to track the satellite arc is the plumb of the mast.
Always use a bubble level. It will be more accurate than anything else. Also, the longer it is, the more accurately you can judge the plumb of the mast, so don't use a 3" level. Use something like a 10", 12" or longer level.
The tip from Tron to use a gate hinge or something similar on the mast, set below the motor, is an excellent tip. This provides the motor with a "shelf" to rest on to prevent it from sliding down. This has more of an advantage than you may realize.
When you loosen the motor clamps to be able to rotate the motor on the mast, you can utilize this shelf to help support the motor during the process. Without this "shelf", you may tend to loosen the upper clamp/s more than the lower and use the lower clamp/s as a stop to hold the motor from sliding down the mast. Doing this will change the motor and dish elevation angles since the motor bracket is obviously drooping downward when the upper clamps/s are more loose.
You want to loosen both upper and lower clamps the same amount and only just enough so that you can "spin" the motor bracket on the mast while setting the true azimuth angle. The tip of having something for the motor to rest upon during the process will provide an extremely beneficial support.
I hope that this information proves beneficial to you.
RADAR
