Yesterday near Hawthorne NV aiming the Slimline SWM took me well over an hour. I thought I was getting pretty good at it, but that humbled me.
My truck was parked near the dish, also I was near a metal building which I knew was throwing off the compass, so I allowed for that. I used dishpointer dot com, also checked that with what the receiver told me, reset the receiver, unplugged the receiver, checked all cabling.. After an hour of swinging that dish I had nothing, and sans meter that's a challenge.
I finally figured the elevation must be the problem, as I had swung many degrees of az but not changed elevation so much. I set the dish azimuth and pulled the dish up a full 5° higher than the spec elevation. Bingo! I have no clue as to why the elevation would be off that much. I use the little pink marker on the dish, I checked the tripod base for level several times, so no problem there.
From now on I think I will set the az then 'sweep' the elevation.
I had a problem recently that resulted from the dish itself being very slightly bent. That prevented me from getting any signal at all.
So, I called DirecTV, and they sent out a technician to point the antenna.
He couldn't get a signal either, so he replaced the dish, and got a full signal.
Interesting to me is that the folks in the adjacent space have the same antenna setup which works fine, but after he aligned ours, we have 3 more degrees of tilt than the next door neighbor, and the antenna is pointed a few degrees east of our neighbors. Both antennas get great signals.
Everytime I have trouble finding the satellite it's due to my moounting pole not being plumb. If I go back and re-setup the tripod and make sure everything is plumb then the satellite locks in right away.
If it takes more than 5 minutes to find the satellite, go back through your setup to make sure everything is level and plumb.
Interesting. I may be wrong but if you are experiencing Deviation at your site it would equally affect DishPointer. Also, Elevation should not change if rotated 360º about a level plane. Was your mast plumb?
I am often suckered onto a bird 10º right of the 101. I have learned that if I get a good signal on the meter but none on the box, I've been had. When I swing 10º left, I will find the 101. Seems to hold true for NV, AZ, ID, and UT.
If my mast is plumb, my Elevation and Tilt preset, and I've nailed the REAL 101, I will have useable signal.
The tripod horizontal base was level as always. I never remove or reset the aluminum shaft which is always mounted on the dish, so, I don't know what was wrong.
My Slimline blew over last week in a terrible windstorm and now I can't find the 101 at all. I'm thinking LNB that has gone south but Popsie's comments about being the dish have now raised another possibility. It has a slight ding at the top edge but the surface itself appears to be fine. Just how badly was the ding on yours Popsie? BTW, I do detect some signals on the meter, just none of them are the right one. thankfully I still have my 18" dish here and have at least SD TV, but no locals, they are apparently in HD only in this part of Iowa.
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denverhank wrote: My Slimline blew over last week in a terrible windstorm and now I can't find the 101 at all. I'm thinking LNB that has gone south but Popsie's comments about being the dish have now raised another possibility. It has a slight ding at the top edge but the surface itself appears to be fine. Just how badly was the ding on yours Popsie? BTW, I do detect some signals on the meter, just none of them are the right one. thankfully I still have my 18" dish here and have at least SD TV, but no locals, they are apparently in HD only in this part of Iowa.
There was a very slight bend in the rim that goes around the edge of the dish.
2oldman wrote: From now on I think I will set the az then 'sweep' the elevation.
That is the way I always do it. I make sure I'm as close as possible to the correct azimuth indicated by the compass, then I rely on my Acutrac meter to find 101 as I lift the dish up and down by hand to find the signal. Once I know where I want to go I loosen up the elevation locking screws and make final adjustments. Never worry about the KA's. They are never a problem once the 101 is maxed out. That's the reason I'm not so hung up on being level. If I used a SL5 instead of the SL3 then the story would be different.
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