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BennyGregg
08-11-09, 11:58 AM
My dish was installed by a DirecTv installer on a pole mount. The pole was not set plumb. I do not want to call them back to correct their error. I would rather not re-set the pole.

My signal readings seemed slightly low to me. I bought an Acutrac 22 Pro and re-aligned the dish. Since the pole is not plumb, the approach I used was several sequential adjustment and dithering cycles. That is, I would adjust the tilt for maximum signal, dither the elevation and then the azimuth. Repeat several times. Now, when dithering there is no change made - dithering results in the dish elevation and azimuth staying exactly the same. After this procedure, all of my readings are generally 2 to 4 points higher than they were.

1) Is this the proper way (several cycles of tilt adjustment and then dithering) to align a dish on a mount that is not plumb?

2) Is there a better way?

These are my readings (after my alignment) on a clear day:

Satellite transponders (16 total at 99º(s)) [or 99º(b)]
1-8 99 0 95 0 95 0 NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA 82 0
17-24 75 69 0 0 85 86 85 85

Satellite transponders (14 total at 99º(c)) [or 99º(a)]
1-8 94 91 90 88 90 89 91 88
9-16 90 91 91 88 94 93 NA NA

Satellite transponders (32 total at 101º)
1-8 99 97 97 96 98 100 98 100
9-16 99 98 99 100 99 100 98 100
17-24 99 0 98 100 98 100 97 100
25-32 98 0 98 97 97 100 96 100

Satellite transponders (16 total at 103º(s)) [or 103º(a)]
1-8 0 0 0 0 0 0 NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA 95 0
17-24 0 0 0 0 92 91 94 95

Satellite transponders (14 total at 103º(c)) [or 103º(b)]
1-8 95 95 93 91 94 93 90 90
9-16 94 94 91 91 95 95 NA NA

Satellite transponders (3 total at 110º)
1-8 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 86
9-16 NA 94 NA 91 NA NA NA NA

Satellite transponders (11 total at 119º)
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA 100 0 98
25-32 99 100 99 100 0 100 100 100

veryoldschool
08-11-09, 12:04 PM
Those levels look fine.
If my pole wasn't plumb, I'd start at 101 and set AZ & EL. Then go to 119 and adjust tilt. [recheck 101]
[at this point you should have compensated for any errors from the pole]
Finally I'd use the fine adjustments for 99/103.

Mertzen
08-11-09, 12:05 PM
With those signals I wouldn't touch the dish any further, plumb or not.

paulman182
08-11-09, 01:30 PM
My non-plumb dish gives me 99c readings in the 50s-70s, and that's the best I can do.

Leave it alone!

veryoldschool
08-11-09, 02:31 PM
My non-plumb dish gives me 99c readings in the 50s-70s, and that's the best I can do.

Leave it alone!
Unless you have an LOS problem, you "should be able to" improve it.
EL & Tilt should compansate for the mast being out of plumb [any direction] "but" these are course adjustments and you'll need to fine tune them, which takes time.