Finding the arc, motorized dish and USALS.

johnno1970

Hi, just a question on this subject. My longitude is 9 degrees West here in Kerry. Should I set the motor to "0" with the dish and pole all in a straight line, then point at 9 degrees West to find the satellite at the highest point on my arc? Or do I point at South , everything again in a straight line, then send the dish to 8 degrees West?
And whats the difference in degrees between true and magnetic South?

tomslick

With all straight and correct like you say. Line your dish upto 8 west. Get your pole perfect, when you've entered your lon&lat select the sat 8 west and your motor will go to 0. Line your dish up and your away.

swoofer

are you sure about that, the arc starts from his reference point, ie dish points south, then you get your reference sat ie 8west, so everything straight, enter usals, then select 8west, dish moves, NOW move whole assembly to get a channel on 8west, tweak to peak, then tighten up, job done, dont worry about true north malarkey.

gbc-

tomslick

GBCULLEN wrote: »

are you sure about that, the arc starts from his reference point, ie dish points south, then you get your reference sat ie 8west, so everything straight, enter usals, then select 8west, dish moves, NOW move whole assembly to get a channel on 8west, tweak to peak, then tighten up, job done, dont worry about true north malarkey.

gbc-

His ref sat is 8west. When he selects 8 west with usuals it will drive to 0 on the motor. 8 west is due south for op.

recyclebin

Does it matter which satellite you use once you have usals?

You can use usals to drive the motor to any satellite and then align it. Then drive the motor to a weaker satellite and fine tune.

You just need to ensure the pole is straight and the angles on the dish and motor are correct for your position.

johnno1970

I'm going to attempt to use the sun to line things up. The dish is mounted on a pole set into the ground, checked for plumb, all is good. The pole will set the shadow I need to line up on. From what I understand , the sun at 11.00a.m in Greenwich is due South. My longitude is 9 degrees West of that. Each degree is equal to 4 minutes. Therefore at 11.36 a.m. the sun is at due South. I need to line up on 8 degrees West (being my closest satellite), so I deduct 4 minutes for 1 degree. So at 11.32a.m. the shadow of the sun lines up with 8 degrees west.
Would everyone be in agreement with that? or am I talking a load of old tripe??

tomslick

Johnnjo, I've never heard of anybody trying to line a motor up using the sun. Nice idea though but would/could only work on two days a year. It would be when the sun tracks Clarkes arc/belt. It blocks/interferes with the signals when the sun sits perfectly behind the sat. Only lasts a minute or two. Can't remember the date this happens but I'm sure someone will remember. A lot of sat anoraks trace this across the belt on the day. If you do get it with the sun I think a major career in satellite installs awaits you.

recyclebin, In theory any satellite should do with usuals as long as pole is dead vertical and dish is dead centre of the motor arm. I have done this when I first started this hobby but have found it to be a little off. It is easier to line off 13 or 28 because the are easy to hit. You will pick up the strong sats 28,19,13 etc very well but the more difficult ones won't come in. It is easier in the long run to line the whole lot up with the correct sat first time. Your case in laois 8 or maybe 5 west would do.

swoofer

You can make this a lot easier, just say size of dish, make of lnb, receiver and motor. 12 midday gives you due south but not much sun. i am in clare and use a 1.1m triax with a balck ultra spiderbox and superior motor. did you look at dishpointer com? the best and easiest method is to use the tv, if you can hooked up to receiver and just tune in a channel thats fta. the had bit is getting dish elevation and motor elevation correct. here is a good channel on 8west thats fta. NRT 11075H 3000 is very strong and FTA.

lots of videos on u tube as well
good luck

johnno1970

o.k my receiver isnt the most user friendly. Xtrend et6000. Too many options to scan. i.e positioner set up menu, satfinder menu, 4 scan menus= automatic, blind, manual and fast.
Can I point the dish and motor assembly to South, send the motor to astra 28.2, move whole assembly to lock on astra and that should be that? Do I need to save position of first satellite found?

swoofer

had a look for that box and its NOT all over the net! why or how did you get it and where from? have you got a support forum.

Its a linux box and will take a bit of getting used to. I am looking at the xt9200 and not a lot of support. What you should do is load a channel list with all the sats to your box and they may even have the channels already scanned in. I was just on a baord and it mentioned catseyes! or similar but got locked out so have to wait 15 mins!!

With sats and channels pre-loaded you just use USALS ie enter your location but need to know if your motor does usals and make, then size of dish.

You could drive dish to 28east and that would mean you are using diseq mode so yes when you have best possible signal you save that sat. it will take a long time! to do all sats.

is box brand new etc.

gbc

johnno1970

Box is brand new, bought in from Germany. Reading up on it, it gets good reviews, its a newer model than the Clark-tech/xtrend et5000. I have downloaded catseye on to it so the channel list is present. Just need to hit the right satellite to find top of the arc, and it should be good to go. Motor is an Optibox dm3800. I believe this is USALS compatible.
Support site is www.world-of-satellite.com

swoofer

now we know enough, i am thinking of getting the 9200 so have a vested interest. with usals you just enter you long and lat, pick your nearest sat, dish moves, then move the lot until you get a picture, tweak it then tighten up. it is that simple. with usals its best to use your nearest sat to set it up. when you have sat xml files and a channel list in box you only need to enter usals stuff. try this but put in your details, that you get from dishpointer com.

usals on xtrend box

I get the following LAT & LON:
Latitude: 51.4979°
NORTH
Longitude: -0.1042°
WEST

Press Menu
Select Setup Press OK
Select Service searching Press OK
Select Tuner configuration Press OK
Select Tuner A Press OK

Configuration Mode: Simple
Mode: Positioner
Latitude: 51.497 Press OK
NORTH
Longitude: 0.1042 Press OK
WEST

Press OK to save.

Press Menu
Select Setup Press OK
Select service searching Press OK
Select Positioner Setup Press OK
Select goto 0 Press RED Button

Dish should now goto 1w.

now that is for a london location so when you put in your details its possible dish will move to west and that is what you want. then use the channel i named above.

Did you get a manual with box? and where in germany? that motor looks very good, takes a huge dish.

good luck

i am a member on WOS as well!

johnno1970

Thanks for that, got the receiver at Satking.de Manual came with it, but it doesnt go into the whole setting up and storing of satellites.

johnno1970

Hi,
Pointing at 5 degrees west at zero position on motor. Cant seem to lock onto 8 degrees west( my longitude is 9 degrees west)When I do a blind scan on 5 degrees west, the motor moves and scans 1 degree west. How do I tell receiver which satellite is at zero position?

swoofer

have you put in the correct location ie yours

and you should have a channel list for 8 west, more later

swoofer

the best option with these boxes is to always load a pre-prepared channel list and it must be a one for a motor. linux boxes have the sats list as xml and then a channel list. so in your case all you need do is input YOUR long and LAT save it to replace what may have been already in the channel list by cateyes. Now you select 8west and dish will move but it wont be much if anything, that is your 0 point. From the channel list for 8west select that FTA one ie NRT 11075H 3000 is very strong and FTA. move dish and motor assembly until you get picture. The default on yours is probably 1 west. When you are getting all the sats you can look at DREAMBOX EDIT !! when you are in the menu underpositioner you should be able to see a command go to x and that means send dish to zero. dont do any scanning until you are set up.

gbc

johnno1970

o.k finally seem to have it sorted,(fingers crossed) my south was off by 4 degrees, i.e. scanning 1 west when I wanted to scan 5 west. So, with the motor at zero, I moved the whole assembly by 4 degrees west. Attached my sat meter and tweaked to the nearest satellite. Did a blind scan then on 5 west and It was spot on. Currently doing an automatic scan and its at 28% with 2495 services found.

swoofer

great stuff BUT why scan? the channel lists should have all the channels already in. when you scan again you will get duplicates! hence 2495 at 28 and counting!! that box will pick up everything, radio channels, data channnels, streams, video and so on. cateyes clears all the muck out but hey if you get pictures and dish moves easy from sat to sat you can worry about editiing channels later. DREAMBOXEDIT lets you download the channels from box and then arrange them as you like, delete all the rubbish and re-load it back.

glad you are sorted, i will probably get the 9200 in a few weeks, post back and say how good hd is etc. web tv is a goer on your box as well.

gbc

johnno1970

Never knew that, can I stop the scan halfway through?

swoofer

look on the screen and does it say cancel anywwere, it should allow you to but LINUX can be odd and lock up, to be safe let it scan 28. has your box got 2 tuners?

and you can get DTT on it with a usb thingy.

johnno1970

Doesnt say cancel anywhere, already scanned 28 east. Just the one tuner. Think I might let it finish to be safe, its at 64% 5574 services! Another half hour should see it through.

johnno1970

Have to pick your brains on webtv and DTT at a later date, haven't done any research on those yet.

swoofer

i am here waiting for the footie first and then after 2pm trying to get saorsat at 9east.

it may be adding numbers to existing but 5574 is a bit high. while you are waiting go to satpimps com and join, got a good xtrend section and there is a tool for loading channels etc. LW is lee of goldwafers and they sell the 9200 that i have my eye on but .. cheaper from germany may not be the right one.

i have to go out for an hour, you may have to start again!! but dont give up

what image are you using?

johnno1970

VIX 2.3