signal problems in slight wind

[pau1777]

Ive had my dish in the same place, at the bottom of my garden, for about 9 years now.
Over the past few weeks I have noticed that my signal droppes out on all sats whenever there is the slightest wind. I have looked at the dish and tightened all of the nuts and bolts, but the wind still makes my signal drop out to zero.

What should I be looking for when I examine the dish. It still seems very stable!
Thanks

[mister-t]

maybe it aint the dish,maybe motor has worn,so even in light winds there is enough play for you to lose signal,try alighning dish then ret-tighten all fixings
if you just re-tightened dish without first re-checking if it was still lined up then that will not cure the problem,all dishes will move in wind but should not be enough movement to lose signal
so seems to me you are not lined up correctley

mister-t

[pau1777]

There does seem to be a lot of "play" on the motor when I move the dish by hand.
I have not realigned for years is there a website that could give me the alignment figures for where I live?
I could try that this afternoon.
Thanks again.

[mister-t]

dish pointer.com
i think thats what its called

mister-t

[digicon]

if its a diseqc motor first thing to look at is the play in the motor stub, sometimes you can get away with just tightening up the bolt that goes through the middle the harder way is to get the hammer out and adjust the backlash adjustment especially if its been hammered in the wind, If its a triax steel dish the rear plate mount are not the best in the world and with adjustment over time lose the rgidity it has when first new.

[pau1777]

dish pointer.com
i think thats what its called

mister-t

OK Im out of touch here:302:
I have a motorised system that can get 28e to 30w using DiSEqC 1.2

On this website what would my setup be?
Motorized with stab HH?

My dish is on a single pole with the motor on top.
Thanks for any help

[pau1777]

Also which one is which



Motor Latitude: (on motor)
Declination Angle: Not sure!!!)

Dish Elevation: (on bsck of dish?)

[digicon]

Latitude is what ever the figure dishpointer gives you so if your latitude is 53.5 then make sure your motor bracket is as close to 53.5. Forget about the declination angle and your dish elevation is only a rough guide so if it says elevation : 22 then set your dish bracket to 22 and be prepared to adjust up and down until you peak your signal

[pau1777]

Will have to check this out tomorow in the daylight.
Thanks again for your help.
Im sure I will be asking more tomorrow!!!!

[pau1777]

OK been trying to get this sorted today.
My Motor bracket is on 53.5.
My elervation was 35, so I tried moving up and down, sometimes losing signal completly. I put it up to 37 which seemed to be OK, but then when I moved the dish to 1 west there was picture breakup again. I sorted that out by moving slightly again and tightened the bolts, but as soon as a gust of wind came the picture broke up.
I think I need a new motor. Been offered a darkmotor to try.
Is there a satellite I should do the setup on? I think I was told that it is best to do 1 satellite and all the rest should be ok.
Thanks again for any help.

[lupsetlad]

Ive had my dish in the same place, at the bottom of my garden, for about 9 years now.
Over the past few weeks I have noticed that my signal droppes out on all sats whenever there is the slightest wind. I have looked at the dish and tightened all of the nuts and bolts, but the wind still makes my signal drop out to zero.

What should I be looking for when I examine the dish. It still seems very stable!
Thanks
add the same here mate just resent with the winds we have add, up to the last week or so everything as been ok

[TheBadger]

Is the LNB original to the system? That could be a major problem as they degrade over time. Which satellite you use to peak your system depends on your longitude. Most people use 1W but you might find one of the other birds is closer to true south for you. I'm sure I uploaded these files ages ago but can't find them on the site so I'll upload them again. You may find them helpful.

Doh, there they were when I went to "Manage Attachments"

[pau1777]

Hi,
Thanks for the attachments.
the LNB is brand new. I changed this first, thinking that this could be the problem, but the issues continued.
I have a new motor on the way so will try this. I'm worried that my pole may have moved slightly from the dead vertical position. On the spirit level the "bubble" used to be dead centre, now it is slightly off to one side. I have never noticed this before (but then again I haven't checked for years!) It might be seasonal movement as the ground is wetter than on the summer.
Could this be the problem?

[mister-t]

pole should be dead vertical on all sides,maybe your pole is moving in the wind.see if you have any movement by pulling or pushing pole slightly.there should be no movement

[nreans1]

I too have the same problem in strong winds. In my case it is simply caused by lateral movement from the motor due to worn cogs. The solution is a new motor, however you can alleviate the problem by aligning each satellite position against the wind thus causing a cog to act as a brake. This of course will be ineffective in swirling wind conditions.

[pau1777]

The pole has been cemented into the ground for 9 years. There is no movement in the cement, just wondering is it has slightly dipped one side due to weather conditions. We have had bad weather over the past few years!
I can look at making slight adjustments to make it vertical again.

[andy gg]

@paul1777
Try unpluging the LNB cable and take off the F connector and look at the copper cable inside it should be a gold colour if its green that will be the fault.
Good Luck

[TheBadger]

Could well be water ingress to the cablev as Andy says. If you've got enough cable it would be worthwhile re-making the connection by cutting back any cable showing signs of verdegris.

[pau1777]

Ok started the process of changing the motor. What a nightmare.
Ive now put the new darkmotor on the pole, which is different from the manattern (darkmotor stub points down, manhattern points up!) I hope this will not make any significant differences to the signal.
Anyway I think I put the motor on the dish dead central , I then put it in the pole where the compass said was dead south, no signal. Ive tried moving the dish around to find 1 west, still no signal.
I then used USALS after putting in latitude and longitude on STB to move to 28 degrees and it went to a position that I know is too far west (acually looks like it went to around hotbird position)
Im really stuck and dont know what else to do. I have ordered a sat meter to try but I dont hold out much hope!!!
Any tips for a novice!
Thanks

[TheBadger]

Due south according to the compass is magnetic south and is not true south which is where you want the dish to point when the motor is set to 0°. What is your longitude? Mine is 3.5°W so I use 5°W as my starting point but most of the UK uses 1°W. Once you've peaked your signal with the motor pointing to your true south you shouldn't have any problems.

[pau1777]

I am still having a slight problem!
I have managed to sort out all sats from 1 west to 28 east all come in fine and have a good signal.
When I move the dish to hispasat at 30 west I get a very poor signal and none of the channels are viewable, I just can not understand why this is. I have made sure that I get my peak signal from 1 west.
Any ideas?
Thanks

[Mickha]

Can you please post signal strength/quality readings for 39E, 1W and 30W, also a few in between, I'm guessing you're arc is slightly off, this needs to be gently adjusted. Can you please post some pictures of your dish, and the elevation markings.

[pau1777]

Ok. I cant get 39E due to wall blocking the signal, Ive never been able to get this.
Is there any transponders that I can give the strength/quality on? I have noticed that some are stronger than others.
I will take some photos of the dish and motor tomorrow when it is light again to show the elevation markings.
Thanks

[digicon]

Did you manage to get your Pole Vertical again with the spirit level on all sides if its not level then thats the problem

[pau1777]

Its almost bob on now mate.
I have put a piece of wood behind the pole and then attached the pole to it making sure it is straight.
Apart from digging the pole up that was the best option I think!

[digicon]

when you say almost does that mean that the spirit level bubble is inside the markers on all sides but maybe slightly edging towards hitting one of the sides. Dont forget if that pole is not straight and i mean no margin for error here you wont track the ARC correctly on both sides.

[pau1777]

Hi mate,
Yep the bubble is inside the markers, but it is edging to one side. It is better than it was, as it is in the lines now. Would that cause no signal at all on the hispasat channels?
Would it be good to look at trying to peak the signal on hispasat and seeing what happens to the other sats?
If you have any suggestions on how to straighten up the pole (other than digging up and starting again!!!) could you let me know.
Thanks again for any help.

[digicon]

Sounds like the pole is still out if the bubble is edging to one side rather than perfect central, Thats probably whats knocking out your west sats even with a slight off adjustment you should be able to pick up hipasat i mean you can get this on a sky minidish its that strong. The only way around it is to get a block of wood and fit this in between the pole and the motor and then try and get the motor elevation bracket sides bang on level you cant do this at the moment as you are aware there are 2 v shaped on the motor back plate which is there to get the motor on the pole central.

In other words your motor needs jigging so to speak to get that bang on level, the wood should help you just jig it round a little on the pole then get your level on both sides of the elevation bracket and tweak it from there to get it straight.

Its not an ideal solution but should get you back your western sats

[mister-t]

another way to straighten pole up if you dont want to re-concrete it verical is

get a couple of 3x2 slabs,lay them next to pole.either side of which ever way the pole is out,get 2 large heavy duty L shaped brackets,t&k brackets would be ideal
attatch brackets to bottom of pole,adjust pole by pushing or pulling untill level.now mark brackets on 3x2 slabs,drill slabs and fix with heavy duty rawl bolts

mister-t

[pau1777]

This sounds more and more like a summer job!
Been out in the freezing cold this morning and still signal.
Ive tried to straighten up as best as I can with numb hands!!! I have 1 west to 28e so I think I will get all of the football until the weather starts getting better!

I tried to peak the signal on 30w and Im just not getting much at all. I dont know if the 6inches that my dish has moved down from using the manhattern where the stub was pointing up to the darkmotor where the stub points down would make any difference (I might be clutchung at straws!)

Thanks again for all your help lads.

[TheBadger]

The height difference is irrelevant. It sounds very much like a pole problem as others have stated, as long as you are absolutely certain you have all the dish angles correct when looking at 1W. Once you are happy with the angles you can start making sure that station keeping is correct. Tighten the motor mounting bolts so the motor cannot move and drive the dish to 28E. Gently pull/push on the top edge of the dish to check for maximum signal. If signal drops for both pushing and pulling your dish should be tracking the arc correctly. Go to 30W and do the same: you should get the same result. Back to 28E: if the signal drops when you pull on the top and increases when you push your motor will have to be rotated on the pole towards the west. Do this a small amount at a time, fixing the motor and checking signal for each new position until the signal is peaked at 1W and 28E. Hope this helps.

[Mickha]

This sounds more and more like a summer job!
Been out in the freezing cold this morning and still signal.


I can empathize !!!!!!! Worked on mine at 7 this morning, by the time I came in I couldn't feel my hands !!!!!!!!!