Setting up a motorised dish

brin251

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A friend is coming to put my dish up and get it bang on thor at 0.8w he then says it will be down to me to get the box working and tune in my own satellites
My question is will it be quite easy from there to track the other several satellites i wanna use or have i missed something wanna try sort it for weekend

Also, what transponders are best to tune to

80cm dish motorised and spiderbox 9000hd

Cheers

Brin
 
A friend is coming to put my dish up and get it bang on thor at 0.8w he then says it will be down to me to get the box working and tune in my own satellites
My question is will it be quite easy from there to track the other several satellites i wanna use or have i missed something wanna try sort it for weekend

Also, what transponders are best to tune to

80cm dish motorised and spiderbox 9000hd

Cheers

Brin

once your dish is lined up on thor and your usals co-ordinates are input the dish will track the arc and if you choose multi-sat scan the box will scan each satellite along the arc for you. regards mdt
 
The one part you must take some time over is the initial mounting pole, you must take pains to get that pole truly vertical. Not only on the left and right sides but the front and back as well.
Use a spirit level and TAKE YOUR TIME over this as it's THE most important thing when setting up a motor.
Any error in the vertically of the mounting pole will be magnified by the number of degrees the motor tracks.
A poorly mounted pole might well bring in say Thor, Sirius and the closer satellites but be well out at say Astra2 or Hispasat.
So this mundane part of installation turns out to be of paramount importance, don't skimp on this one point.
 
The one part you must take some time over is the initial mounting pole, you must take pains to get that pole truly vertical. Not only on the left and right sides but the front and back as well.
Use a spirit level and TAKE YOUR TIME over this as it's THE most important thing when setting up a motor.
Any error in the vertically of the mounting pole will be magnified by the number of degrees the motor tracks.
A poorly mounted pole might well bring in say Thor, Sirius and the closer satellites but be well out at say Astra2 or Hispasat.
So this mundane part of installation turns out to be of paramount importance, don't skimp on this one point.

i am getting a satellite pro to do it what do u think of 90 quid for the job i will still do the box myself
 
once your dish is lined up on thor and your usals co-ordinates are input the dish will track the arc and if you choose multi-sat scan the box will scan each satellite along the arc for you. regards mdt

Does the spiderbox hd9000 use usals i thought it was disq 2.1 or somethin which i believe is a tad harder to set up
 
Does the spiderbox hd9000 use usals i thought it was disq 2.1 or somethin which i believe is a tad harder to set up

Oh yes mate and the USALS is 110% accurate!!, DiseqC is fine except you have to locate each satellite and store it's position.

If your motor is USALS compatible and the installer does a good job (£90 is not unreasonable) then you will get whatever span can be achieved from your location.
From my location I can span from 45 east to 30 west no problem except for Nilesat 7 west which would need a 2 mtr dish and my wife says NO.
 
It is very easy to set the dish on one sat (Thor in your case) and have EVERY vital adjustable angle set WRONG!!
Do yourself a favour, install the patch and a channel list (Billybits). Have your installer set your latitude and longitude in your Spiderbox, then use USALS as the means of finding all the sats. Check as a minimum, 1w, 19e 28e & 30w.
 
Oh yes mate and the USALS is 110% accurate!!, DiseqC is fine except you have to locate each satellite and store it's position.

If your motor is USALS compatible and the installer does a good job (£90 is not unreasonable) then you will get whatever span can be achieved from your location.
From my location I can span from 45 east to 30 west no problem except for Nilesat 7 west which would need a 2 mtr dish and my wife says NO.

dont blame her lol
 
It is very easy to set the dish on one sat (Thor in your case) and have EVERY vital adjustable angle set WRONG!!
Do yourself a favour, install the patch and a channel list (Billybits). Have your installer set your latitude and longitude in your Spiderbox, then use USALS as the means of finding all the sats. Check as a minimum, 1w, 19e 28e & 30w.


i have a gps on my telescope so i know my co-ordinates spot on i also know how to put this in the box i think what you are saying is if the engineer does a good job and finds my sat for me and everything is parrallell and set up properly my box should do he job for me

I hope im right

By the way billybits where are his channel lists
 
i have a gps on my telescope so i know my co-ordinates spot on i also know how to put this in the box i think what you are saying is if the engineer does a good job and finds my sat for me and everything is parrallell and set up properly my box should do he job for me

I hope im right

By the way billybits where are his channel lists

Just one more thing, make sure the coordinates are in decimal NOT base sixty which is still widely used.

Decimal coordinates would look something like 54.10N 0.2w (a minus indication means west no minus means east e.g. -0.2 is 0.2W, 0.2 is 0.2E.

Base sixty coordinates would look something like 54'30'30N and 00'2'2 W
 
i have a gps on my telescope so i know my co-ordinates spot on i also know how to put this in the box i think what you are saying is if the engineer does a good job and finds my sat for me and everything is parrallell and set up properly my box should do he job for me

I hope im right

By the way billybits where are his channel lists

Yes my friend, if you install Billybits channel list (web search will find it), then enter your location, once the engineer has installed the dish correctly, all you need to do is select a channel, the hard work of finding where to point the dish and where a channel is has already been done for you in the channel list. So unless you live next door to Billybits, just alter the lat & long and you're sorted.
A badly installed dish CAN be correct at say 1w, 28e and 30w but may be out for sats inbetween. Check as many as you can whilst the engineer is there.
 
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A badly installed dish CAN be correct at say 1w, 28e and 30w but may be out for sats inbetween. Check as many as you can whilst the engineer is there.


any installer worth his salt should check the weaker sats himself anyway as word of mouth will get him say 70% of his jobs. regards mdt
 
any installer worth his salt should check the weaker sats himself anyway as word of mouth will get him say 70% of his jobs. regards mdt

A friend is coming to put my dish up and get it bang on thor at 0.8w he then says it will be down to me to get the box working and tune in my own satellites

Not worth much salt then me thinks.
 
Not worth much salt then me thinks.

@brin251 Hi mate, now please believe me any clown (and I'm in no way saying your friend is) can put up a dish using one satellite, that part is easy. The skill is in setting up the dish/motor so that it tracks the arc correctly and this is why I pay an installer to do mine (I don't like heights either).
Now if your in the UK your most likely satellite for reference is Thor BUT if your over in the west or Ireland it may not be.

Now let me explain why and I will keep it simple, if wherever you live you stood facing the equator then from the northern hemisphere you will be facing south, from the southern hemisphere you will be facing north.
All satellites are at the same height from the equator so lets assume your Longitude is 0 degrees (mine practically is I'm 0.2 west of 0).
Ok your facing south and at 0 degrees if you looked up and could see the Clark belt* then the "highest satellite" would be Thor, but hold on I hear you say you just said all satellites are at the same height now you say Thor is higher!!
YES I did say their all at the same height FROM THE EQUATOR
and the Earth is round so the further east or west you look the lower down on the horizon the satellites would appear BUT only from your point of view.
From the point of view of someone standing say at 5 east then Sirius 5E would be the reference as from their location that one is the highest.

Now the reason we use the "highest" satellite from our/your location is it will allow the greatest symmetrical swing east or west and therefore the greatest number of satellites to be received.
If the motor/dish installation is not done correctly it can severely limit the number or satellites receivable.

*Clark belt, named after that great science fiction writer Arthur C Clark who in 1945 in Wireless World gave the necessary information for stationary satellite orbits and hence gave us satellite TV.

Sorry if this is a bit over the top.
 
@brin251 Hi mate, now please believe me any clown (and I'm in no way saying your friend is) can put up a dish using one satellite, that part is easy. The skill is in setting up the dish/motor so that it tracks the arc correctly and this is why I pay an installer to do mine (I don't like heights either).
Now if your in the UK your most likely satellite for reference is Thor BUT if your over in the west or Ireland it may not be.

Now let me explain why and I will keep it simple, if wherever you live you stood facing the equator then from the northern hemisphere you will be facing south, from the southern hemisphere you will be facing north.
All satellites are at the same height from the equator so lets assume your Longitude is 0 degrees (mine practically is I'm 0.2 west of 0).
Ok your facing south and at 0 degrees if you looked up and could see the Clark belt* then the "highest satellite" would be Thor, but hold on I hear you say you just said all satellites are at the same height now you say Thor is higher!!
YES I did say their all at the same height FROM THE EQUATOR
and the Earth is round so the further east or west you look the lower down on the horizon the satellites would appear BUT only from your point of view.
From the point of view of someone standing say at 5 east then Sirius 5E would be the reference as from their location that one is the highest.

Now the reason we use the "highest" satellite from our/your location is it will allow the greatest symmetrical swing east or west and therefore the greatest number of satellites to be received.
If the motor/dish installation is not done correctly it can severely limit the number or satellites receivable.

*Clark belt, named after that great science fiction writer Arthur C Clark who in 1945 in Wireless World gave the necessary information for stationary satellite orbits and hence gave us satellite TV.

Sorry if this is a bit over the top.

George this is not over the to p i am actually quite wekk educated as i am an amateur astronomer and my knowledge of our solar system is second to none

Cheers

Brian
 
Yes that remark was not aimed at yourself but at say members new to the whole satellite TV subject as I sure many new members will avidly read all posts to gain some insight.
At least I hope they will, as in all things the more you read up on a subject the more the knowledge gained can be applied to other everyday problems as well as the original problem.
Well that's the way it works for me.
Sorry if I have caused any offence it was not my intention.
 
@brin251, I hope your dish installation went well. Could you let us know if it did and the approximate span you now have? also would you recommend that installer to other members in your area?
This will help other members considering having a motorised setup installed.
 
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