Signal Meter Sensitivity Question

[cborjon]

I am pretty good at pointing or adjusting the 5-lnb Slimline that I have on my roof. I have moved it several times to different places on the property for one reason or another. Normally I just use the receiver and a cellphone and have someone tell me the readings from the receiver in the living room. I even had a second dish that I used for tailgating, camping, etc.

I have never had a problem. However, I recently purchased a third dish (second one was lent to a relative) for a tailgate and I had a heck of a time pointing it. At the game, we had it on a tripod, forgot to stake it, and it fell over which meant re-pointing it - it took even longer to find the satellites the second time (we checked the post was plumb). In tailgating conditions, we FINALLY got them, but I don't want to go through that pain again so I am considering buying a meter.

I have a suspicion that the elevation may be stamped incorrectly on the "third" dish (for starters they are different on each side). My question is can a meter, such as the Accutrac III or the new First Strike FS-1 meter, help if the elevation is off by a 3-5 degrees? I have heard that a meter is good in that it is more sensitive (you can swing the dish faster or without having to nudge it and pause). However, are the meters sensitive enough to pick up the satellite if we are swinging the dish near the correct Azimuth heading but are off with the Elevation or Tilt setting?

[litzdog911]

If the dish fell over it might have bent or warped the dish itself. That will make it virtually impossible to align properly for all of the satellites.

[cborjon]

Although I am pretty sure the dish was not damaged...we eventually got all the satellites with good signal strength on each with the standard tilt. :)
HOWEVER, this is even a better test for my question...forget that the Elevation might be mis-stamped - I have a warped satellite :eek2: but I am just trying to find the 101 satellite.

My question is can a meter, such as the Accutrac III or the new First Strike FS-1 meter, help if the elevation is off by a 3-5 degrees? I have heard that a meter is good in that it is more sensitive (you can swing the dish faster or without having to nudge it and pause). However, are the meters sensitive enough to pick up the satellite if we are swinging the dish near the correct Azimuth heading but are off with the Elevation or Tilt setting?

[carl6]

There is a very narrow window in both azimuth and elevation where you are likely to find any signal at all and then be able to fine tune to peak it. Using a separate meter does make the job easier, but it does not give you a wider "view of the sky" - that is a function of teh dish geometry and the LNB.

[Grentz]

As Carl said, there is not a ton of difference. IMO the receiver meters work very well if you can get them in view of the dish so you can see exactly what your movements are doing.

I use a portable DVD player with a lot of RCA cables and run it up on the roof next to the dish for aiming...works great ;)

[AntAltMike]

The meters in the receivers have the slowest response times, so it is possible to sweep right through the "sweet spot" without your realizing that you have done so. The cheap, analog meters with needles have the fastest response time.

I've successfully straightened out a 30" round dish that had been mishandled in shipping, but it would be nearly impossible to tell you via a forum how to go about doing that.

[cborjon]

Maybe I am lucky but the dish is fine. In fact the one on the roof now, before we anchored it properly, fell over HARD a few times and these things seem to be pretty tough. The tailgate dish did eventually pick up the 101 satellite, and we made some fine tuning adjustments and got all the other satellites aligned as well.

The receiver and the TV were 5 feet away so I had pretty good access to the receiver's signal meters. RESPONSE time is EXACTLY what I am talking about. My guess is given the conditions (cold, lots of people milling about, heckling, maybe a beverage or two...) we kept sweeping (actually nudging too quickly) right past the window.

The elevation is definitely stamped wrong on the dish so we were at a disadvantage to begin with. From the sound of things it would be easier to find the AZ/EL window with a meter - especially if we are less than 100% confident about our EL setting. The First Strike FS-1 meter sounds like it might be worth checking out.

[doctor j]

When my tailgate dish "fell over" the dish looks fine but the LNB arm IS bent.
Put good and damaged dishes side by side and you'll usually see a upward angle in the LNB support arm.

It can be "bent" back to normal but my experience says "Ditch It". Get a new dish. Change your tripod support arms to longer supports which widens the base and squats the overall setup. Also add some weight or bungy cord support to hold the dish to the ground.

Been there , hope this helps.

Doctor j