Alignment adjustment?

[dmward81]

After three days of high winds I've lost most of the signal on the 101 sat. Here's what I'm getting for signal stregth:

101: high 30s
110: high 80s
119: low 90s

Given the relatively strong signals on 110 and 119, my guess is the dish just needs a little fine tuning, not a lot of adjustment.

Anyone know what these numbers suggest -- azimuth or elevation? In which direction?

Thanks...

[JimSpence]

You can enter your zipcode in the receiver to get these values.

Are all signals on all transponders readings similarly?

Assuming the 3LNB dish, then make sure the mast is plumb before doing anything else. Then check the tilt, the elevation and finally the azimuth.

[dmward81]

Thanks for the reply. I do have a 3LNB dish* and the correct values for azimuth, angle and tilt. As I said, I don't think the gross settings have changed, I'm just trying to narrow down where to begin in tweaking it. My question is whether the loss of the 101 but not the other two suggests that one of the three settings needs to be adjusted and in a particular way.

Behavior seems to be consistent across transponders. I get zero signal from 23, 25, and 29 on the 119 but I think that has always been the case.

* Correction -- I have a 5-LNB dish.

[JimSpence]

All three adjustments will have an affect on all satellites. As I said, check the adjustments in the order I mentioned. Having the mast plumb is most important. If that is off, then the other three won't work. It is possible that the 101 LNB is failing.

BTW, TPs 23, 25, & 29 are spot beams on 119. So is 31, but you must be ibn the beam for that one.

[dmward81]

Thanks. The 101 signal's now dropped to zero on all receivers while the other two sats are rock solid, and none of the adjustment hardware is obviously loose. That leads me to believe it's probably the LNB and not the pointing. D* tech support concurs so I'll let them troubleshoot it, although it will be a few days before the tech will get here. But I'm an "A-list" customer, so i got that going for me... :rolleyes: Thanks for replies.

[JimSpence]

In the meantime, tune to chs 490-494. These channels verify reception from the 101, 110, & 119 sats.

[TyroneShoes]

After three days of high winds I've lost most of the signal on the 101 sat. Here's what I'm getting for signal stregth:

101: high 30s
110: high 80s
119: low 90s

Given the relatively strong signals on 110 and 119, my guess is the dish just needs a little fine tuning, not a lot of adjustment.

Anyone know what these numbers suggest -- azimuth or elevation? In which direction?

Thanks...
My best guess would be that azimuth is OK. If it had shifted, all 3 would likely be lower than 90's (unless you had more than 90's to begin with).

I think the biggest shift must be declination (yaw). For instance, if you have a dish sited in properly and adjust declination out, the focal point on one end goes above where it belongs while the focal point on the other end goes below where it belongs, the end result of which is that the levels go down for the two outside sats while they remain the same for the center sat.

In your case, the level is down for one end but not the other, which points to a combination of declination and elevation. IOW, you may have an elevation shift for 119 that was corrected by the declination shift.

So the first thing to do is site in the middle focal point for elevation (and while you are at it, for azimuth). Once you have this, 110 will likely be 80+, and the other two lower, but nearly equal. Then adjusting declination should bring the other two back into line.

You can test AZ and EL before actually moving in a particular direction by pressing on one edge of the dish to bend it in that way. Hold it for 10 seconds and watch for changes. If the numbers go up (on 110, of course) you are going the right direction, and if they go down, you aren't.