Setting the elevation

I can't seem to find a YouTube video which matches the antenna set up I have, and is sufficiently explanatory.

Now that I have the dish on the pole, I need to set the elevation. Dishpointer.com says that my elevation needs to be at 48.8 degrees. Well the hash marks on the bracket do not at all correspond to the tilt / elevation of the dish. (see photo) If I set it to about 49 on the bracket, it is actually way way off from 49 degrees relative to the ground. I used a smart phone app to find the exact location of Galaxy 19 in the sky and it is way far above where 49 degrees seems to be indicated on the dish / pole bracket.

How do I set the dish pointing up to 48.8 degrees, since the markings on the bracket seem irrelevant?
(and btw yes, I know that the cable is disconnected from the LNB in the 2nd photo)

You have an offset feed dish, meaning the LNB does not sit at the center of the dish and signals arrive into the dish at the opposite angle that the feed is offset. That will make the dish appear to look lower than the actual look angle.

So go by the numbers on the mount and you should be fine as long as the mount came with the dish. In my experience most LNB arms are within a few degrees of where the dish points so you could use that as a sanity check. If the mast is plumb and EL is set on the mount then you should easily hit your target satellite by rotating the AZ, especially on a tiny dish like that.
prcguy

I would recommend a satellite finder... otherwise it can be a challenge.. although G19 is one of the easiest birds to hit. As a rule of thumb I wouldnt take the markings on the dish with too much seriousness.. they tend to never be accurate.. they are in the general ballpark however so some minor tweaking as you aim should do the trick.

Is this more or less the correct elevation? It's kind of difficult to see the red line but it is at about 49. (see photo)

That looks correctly set for around 49deg elevation. Like I mentioned before, make sure your mast is plumb with a bubble level and you should hit G19 on your first try by rotating the dish around the mast. Just make sure the mount is not so loose as to let the dish droop when turning.

The only time you need a mast plumb is making it easy to find your first satellite. Otherwise it can be 10deg off and an experienced satellite guy will easily find the target satellite.
prcguy

VE3RADIO said:

I would recommend a satellite finder... otherwise it can be a challenge.. although G19 is one of the easiest birds to hit. As a rule of thumb I wouldnt take the markings on the dish with too much seriousness.. they tend to never be accurate.. they are in the general ballpark however so some minor tweaking as you aim should do the trick.

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I have a satellite finder, it's a Digiwave Satellite Finder. It's the kind with the meter that you place in line with the LNB and the receiver, and it squawks higher as you get closer to the target. I have followed the instructions carefully and I think that I've done it right, but when I go inside to check the TV, it still says "No signal" (and yes, I'm sure that I have my source set correctly for the TV set from the satellite receiver).

This is turning out to be much much much harder than I had imagined.

Could it be that I have the receiver settings wrong? Maybe that's why the receiver is refusing to acknowledge a signal when the satellite finder insists that I'm dead on target.

Here's what appears on my TV screen for the satellite receiver settings:

Unless you have a meter that you enter specific satellite parameters like the Super Buddy (my favorite) or BirdDog, etc, it will simply show the signal strength of any satellite that you encounter including the wrong ones. Peak on one then check your receiver, then move elevation up maybe 3 deg and find another then check your receiver until you find your target.

You can also look up satellites either side of your target on the Internet and set up your receiver for those satellites to see if that's where you are. When you don't seem to be on the satellite you want the main focus should be to identify what you are actually on, then you will know if you need to move right or left with a little up or down from there to reach your target.

Another thing is whatever the longitude is for your house, for example 123 degrees, whatever satellite has the same or closest orbital slot to that will be exactly due south from your location and that will also be the highest satellite in the arc at your location. Satellites with lower number orbital slots like 95 deg will be to the left and lower when looking at the back of the dish into space and satellites with higher orbital slot numbers like 137 deg will be to the right and lower, etc.
prcguy

wbswetnam said:

I have a satellite finder, it's a Digiwave Satellite Finder. It's the kind with the meter that you place in line with the LNB and the receiver, and it squawks higher as you get closer to the target. I have followed the instructions carefully and I think that I've done it right, but when I go inside to check the TV, it still says "No signal" (and yes, I'm sure that I have my source set correctly for the TV set from the satellite receiver).

This is turning out to be much much much harder than I had imagined.

Click to expand...

I'm just going to give up on it for now.... too frustrating. I have neither the technical knowledge nor the professional equipment to do this now. I can't hire someone to orient the dish for me, and I'm not willing to spend $700 for a Super Buddy.

I'm going to mothball it and hopefully try again in a few months.

Don't give up, its really not difficult. The satellite is there and you know the basic coordinates. The elevation marks on the mount should be good if the mast is plumb. You could have something set up wrong in the receiver and have been on the satellite already and didn't know it.

Try your meter again and peak it on a signal where the satellite is supposed to be. From your location if you peaked on or near G19, if you point to the next satellite west you will go a little lower in elevation and if you point to the next one east you will go up a little. Try that and see if it follows a pattern. You don't have to loosen the elevation to experiment on the next satellite east or west, just gently bend the dish up or down to see if the signal improves going up or down, etc.

prcguy

wbswetnam said:

I'm just going to give up on it for now.... too frustrating. I have neither the technical knowledge nor the professional equipment to do this now. I can't hire someone to orient the dish for me, and I'm not willing to spend $700 for a Super Buddy.

I'm going to mothball it and hopefully try again in a few months.

Click to expand...

Some renewed hope... I set the receiver to connect to my wi-fi so that maybe it would do a software update. It did. After it rebooted, it suddenly gave me a signal report of 57%... not good at all, but better than what it had always insisted before, which was 0%. Very early tomorrow morning before it gets hot outside, I'm going to take the TV and satellite receiver outside close by the dish so I can observe what's on the screen. Then I will sloooowwwwlllly pan back and forth and up and down and with luck, maybe I'll get a good signal finally.

Well, I spent an hour outside trying to adjust the dish to the correct position, but with no luck. I feel that I have spent too much money and too much time on this project, with no results.

Sorry folks but at this point I simply give up. The receiver is going up for sale on eBay, and the dish is headed for curb on Monday morning.

Now it's working!

UPDATE: Thanks to the tremendous help from folks at LegalFreeToAir.com the system has been rescued. My satellite dish is aimed correctly. The problem was with the satellite receiver settings - the LNB type was set incorrectly. Once it was set to the correct LNB type and restarted, it worked perfectly. Thanks to everyone for their help. Now it's time to go watch some free TV...

wbswetnam said:

UPDATE: Thanks to the tremendous help from folks at LegalFreeToAir.com the system has been rescued. My satellite dish is aimed correctly. The problem was with the satellite receiver settings - the LNB type was set incorrectly. Once it was set to the correct LNB type and restarted, it worked perfectly. Thanks to everyone for their help. Now it's time to go watch some free TV...

Click to expand...

Great to hear! I just saw this thread and was going to suggest checking the LNB type. I did help set a few of these up back several years ago (when there was a lot of suddenly unemployed FTA gear floating around, if you take my meaning) and having the LNB type set incorrectly was one of the biggest things to trip over. Enjoy.

And I suspect you'll be wanting to add a motor and multi-mode LNB in the near future.:twisted:

DJ11DLN said:

And I suspect you'll be wanting to add a motor and multi-mode LNB in the near future.:twisted:

Click to expand...

Yep, most likely. I'm somewhat limited because of the location of a house nearby and some trees but I can get a clear shot of most of the southern sky.

When i need to set or measure an angle, I have done one of these:
- My smart phone has a compass app, that also includes a level indicator, reading in degrees.
- A protractor with a weighted string running from the pivot hole.
- I have a magnetic angle finder from Harbor Freight :Angle Finder w/ Dial Gauge

All of these simple things have worked well for me.

HTH

I'm pretty good at pointing directly at various satellite slots by eye and can even discern the different parts of a satellite in orbit like the solar panels vs antenna with just my finger pointing. However, if you don't have a calibrated finger the best thing available is the dish pointer app for iPhone and maybe others. It superimposes the satellite arc with satellites of your choice over the camera view so you can point and see if you have line of site to satellites.

I've used this app to identify and trim trees that were about to grow up into some transmitting dishes and it also gives people not familiar with satellies a good understanding of the satellite arc, etc.
prcguy

15plus1 said:

When i need to set or measure an angle, I have done one of these:
- My smart phone has a compass app, that also includes a level indicator, reading in degrees.
- A protractor with a weighted string running from the pivot hole.
- I have a magnetic angle finder from Harbor Freight :Angle Finder w/ Dial Gauge

All of these simple things have worked well for me.

HTH

Click to expand...