In article <5525pmF231aobU1@mid.individual.net>,
Pat <psweeney@riversway.ac.uk> wrote:

[..]
> I do have USALS BUT is what you have said dependent on wether or not the
> dish and motor has been set up correctly?

Yes, it is in any setup.. Although (further below) it might
not be as hard as many imagine it to be - especially with
USALS to do the hard calculations for you.. )

> I can find several satellites manually but not using USALS. I just wonder if
> he has put the dish up correctly.

I can't answer that directly - if only because I don't know
how your installer set it all up. I get the impression not
too well - but that might be doing him an injustice. He
should, of course, be prepared to come back to you and correct
any initial misalignement - but that isn't going to help if
he doesn't know what he's doing in the first place. Mounting
a motor is not quite the same as hanging on to the end of a
dish until one get's a signal from the Hotbirds or Astras,
then bolting up and hoping for the best.

OK ..to avoid problems the following must be done...

1. Set the mount absolutely vertical in all directions,
ie perpendicular.

A variation of only 0.5 of degree - perhaps less
than a centimetre to one metre vertically could be
quite enough to throw your large dish offtrack.

Why? Because the offset arm of your motor's dish mount
relies on this exactitude to aim the dish accurately
at a point just a little larger than a Mini's car door
at around 23,500 miles away... It also needs this accuracy
to enable the angled mount to auto-adjust the 'skew' angle
of the LNB(s). (You will already have noticed how the
LNB and dish 'twist' as the motor turns the assemblage).

How? Well, simpler than it might sound! Where your mount
is attached to the wall, usually with four bolts - or perhaps
with a couple of scaffold-type mounts held by bolts,
placing a simple washer under (often just one) corner bolt
will make the whole mount become accurately perpendicular.

..but you must check with a small spirit level, (one with
the level running at right angles to the 'measuring' edge),
that your mount is perfectly perpendicular. The blu-tack
and length of string might be helpful here - although
I've found the level a little easier to use. )


2. Your dish needs to be aligned precisely to True South.
Not magnetic south, but about a degree-plus to the east,
(I think), of where you are. You can get this, on a sunny
day, by the shadow cast by the sun at midday, 12h00 GMT,
using a fence post, a Church Tower, a nearby skyscaper, or
even a gravestone. (Although I'm reliably informed that
using your own headstone is not recommended). )

You'd be surprised at just how accurately you can make this
judgement ..or just use a compass at around 01.8 degrees to
the (east, I think) of where you are.

3. Then, motor (or better USALS) your dish to pick up one
of the sat signals coming from Thor/Intel at 0.8W or more
usually at 1.0W. That, if you like, might become your
reference satellite position. (There's a group of three
FTA channels that seem to have test card signals that,
although not quite as strong as some, nevertheless act
well as alignment channels)..

Why?

True South is the 'highest' point in the sky - and,
from this position, (Thor/Intel is a sneeze to the west),
your dish will be able to aim accurately at every satellite
within your line of sight, from far east to far west...

Quick history:

Imagine that all the satellites are spread in a band
right across the horizon. This 'belt' is named the
'Clarke Belt', after Arthur C. Clarke - the famous
SciFi author who is regarded by many as first positing
the idea of geo-synchronous satellite comms, many years
ago and long before Sputnik first hesitated a tiny bleep!

..and yes, last I heard he is still alive, on the 'net
and may even be reading this Usenet newsgroup, given it's
chartered name!

This continuous belt of satellites, right around the
circumference of the world - above the equator and
following the curvature of the Earth - slowly moves
downward, out of your line of sight and that of your
dish as they slowly 'dip' towards the ground at the far
east and far west extremities. That is why you can't get
the satellites over the Americas and Hawaii - even less
Fiji, New Zealand, Japan, Australia and China. They are
out of sight, around the other side of the world.

Of course this does present a problem for the Flat Earthist,
who may possibly claim it's all a conspiracy anyway, dunno!


Now, a slight variation often done, between (2) and (3). Many
find it easier to sat box 'USALS' the dish motor to Thor/Intel
at 1.0W ... and then physically twitch the dish a little up/down
or a smidgin of a move east/west to get the best signal yowling
from their TV sets - (if you don't have a sat finder or a 700.00gbp
signal set).

After setting the dish bolts, so that the dish is now firmly in
place on the motor arm, one may move the whole assembly, motor and
dish as one unit, back to True South and then bolt the whole lot
up quite tightly ..so that it doesn't fall on it's head at the
first hurricane, or worse, perching sparrow!

OK ..sounds complex, but really it isn't complex at all. It
mostly just requires a simple series of steps - and, above all,
checking at least once if not thrice, that each step has been
taken - /especially/ the one about the perpendicular mount for
the motor and the dish unit - for without that, nothing else
will be in reasonable alignment.

As for Turksat ..(earlier comment made by your 'installer'),
well, at 42.0E it is, for me, easy as I can get up to 57/58.0E.
Lot's of Turksat comes in at c.93pc signal, with a better than
90pc quality. Similarly up to 58.0W at the moment... )

Anyway, enough for the minute! )

What is the name and model number of your latest sat box? Is
it a Fortec Star.. (if so, it should be reasonable). I guess
your dish is a Fortec - as I guess the motor is a Metronics, so
they should be OK. I'm also guessing that the 'F' plugs have
been correctly fettered - if only because signal are clearly
getting through, (when they do)! - and the USALS controls go
through the same bit of central core conductor..

Are you actually in USALS mode - ie, the box is set in that
mode. (It would be a bit strange to start seeing "1.2" which
is a DiSEqC control menu), whilst in USALS - although, not
knowing your box, who knows..!

...and don't lose heart. ) You are very, very close to a well
sorted setup...

...and this month's (or is it next month's) "What Satellite and
Digital TV" is now out ..a /very/ well-worthwhile read, at 3.99gbp.. )

hope helps, at least so far...! )

Bill ZFC

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