motorised sat dish help please.

[butchyboy]

hi guys i,ve a 1.2m irte prime focus satelite dish and polarmount and actuator arm.
its been set up years,but i feel its not pulling in all satelites like it use to.am not sure my dish was properly set up from day one.

i am in southeast ireland and my nearest due south is 7.west

Dish Setup Data
Elevation: 29.6°
Azimuth (true): 179.8°
Azimuth (magn.): 183.2°
LNB Skew [?]: -0.1°

Latitude: 52.8***
Longitude: -7.1***
got the above from dishpointer by entering latitude.

here are my details for 7.west so im almost spot on due south.

my questions are,where do i set the degree,s mark to on polar mount?, and also the dish elevation ?.

i know i keep the dish and polarmount straight and directly facing due south.

but im not sure of the degree,s mark on polarmount declination as to where it should be set and also dish elevation.

would this be the correct details for my latitude:

elevation angle 37
declination angle 7.552

also theres a o to 10 scale to set the declination,but theres no scale to tell you the details on setting the elevation angle,all i have is the threaded bar which goes up and down to set elevation,but this is difficult cause of no o to 90 scale to work off.


any help or advice would be truly appreciated,thanks

[Mickha]

The first thing you should check is that everything is still plumb, because if your pole isn't straight you'll never track the satellite arc correctly.
Secondly although the set up angles are helpful, don't rely on them 100%.
I would align your dish to 7W, peak the signal, then send your dish to the furthest East, then West, satellites, check the signal quality, then bring it back to 7W.
Make some minor adjustments, if needed, peak the signal, again, then send it East, and West, and see if there's any improvement.
You keep doing this until you're satisfied that the dish is tracking the arc correctly.

[Detlef]

Also I would be wary of quoting your location to that accuracy.

It pinpoints your house to within about 10 metres.

For giving advice on setting up a dish quoting your location to 0.1 degree would be sufficient.

Or am I paranoid (but remember Tron).