Hello ... again. I have two other threads that I started due to my moving my recently installed DirecTV dish ... they are: I moved my dish ... dithering screw question | DBSTalk Forum & skew angle question | DBSTalk Forum.
Today my wife had some things she wanted to do, so I determined I was gonna get my recently moved dish as best as I could. I did correct the skew as it was "off" and even if done to compensate for the initial pole being off plumb, I now had my pole "plumb". When I looked at the skew it was past 66 degrees, it needed to be 64.6 degrees. I had a TV on the porch with me, spent well over an hour, and the best I could get was 95% on a very few transponders on 101. The skew change did seem to help other satelites some. Finally, I was ready to call it quits.
Then like a bolt of light from the sky, it hit me (well, it hit the dish first). I noticed that the shadow of the porch overhang was getting near the dish, but the shadow of the LNB had a ways to go to being centered. When the LNB shadow was near center of the dish, a good deal of the dish was shaded. That 33" x 22" oval dish defines a column of energy 23,449 miles long, and a chunk of it was missing. I realised that I was never gonna get 100% under that overhang. The LNB is below the collumn of energy, it gets the reflections from the dish. The sun just acted like a pointer. You can stand behind it, imagine a point from the dish center and it is clear, but that signal isn't just a point. LOS is like a laser, but even it isn't a 32" x 22" oval.
I took the dish loose, hung it from the porch railing safely, and moved my pole mount about a foot or so downward, made sure it was plumb. I had marked the pole and mount so I returned it, spent a bit going through fine tuning steps, and now a majority of 101 is mid 90%s. Instead of just a few in the 90%s, it's just a very few of the 32 that aren't up in the 90%s now. I even have some 97%s. I think it's a good bet that lowering it verticaly uncoveredd some of the dish to the satelites, but not all. I'm OK, I like where it's at, 99 and 103 both look happier too with mostly some 70%+ and 80%+, several 89% readings, and it'll be the lone snow flake that finds the dish surface here where it's at now.
This is before moving it again today. I know the sun's elevation is not the same as the satelites, but it shows where the edge of my roof blocks a dish surface when the LNB is near center.
![Tree Television antenna Font Gas Plant]()
You can see below that only the very edge of the dish is out past the roof edge, my winds come from the left side of the picture here. If anything, snow or sleet or even rain that falls here, if it misses the roof, it'll likely miss the dish too but if it falls plumb, it'l just nip the dish edge.
![Tree Wood Twig Sky Trunk]()
I could move it further outwards, but then it would be vulnerable to ice and snow ... so I'll call it good until a problem pops up.
Today my wife had some things she wanted to do, so I determined I was gonna get my recently moved dish as best as I could. I did correct the skew as it was "off" and even if done to compensate for the initial pole being off plumb, I now had my pole "plumb". When I looked at the skew it was past 66 degrees, it needed to be 64.6 degrees. I had a TV on the porch with me, spent well over an hour, and the best I could get was 95% on a very few transponders on 101. The skew change did seem to help other satelites some. Finally, I was ready to call it quits.
Then like a bolt of light from the sky, it hit me (well, it hit the dish first). I noticed that the shadow of the porch overhang was getting near the dish, but the shadow of the LNB had a ways to go to being centered. When the LNB shadow was near center of the dish, a good deal of the dish was shaded. That 33" x 22" oval dish defines a column of energy 23,449 miles long, and a chunk of it was missing. I realised that I was never gonna get 100% under that overhang. The LNB is below the collumn of energy, it gets the reflections from the dish. The sun just acted like a pointer. You can stand behind it, imagine a point from the dish center and it is clear, but that signal isn't just a point. LOS is like a laser, but even it isn't a 32" x 22" oval.
I took the dish loose, hung it from the porch railing safely, and moved my pole mount about a foot or so downward, made sure it was plumb. I had marked the pole and mount so I returned it, spent a bit going through fine tuning steps, and now a majority of 101 is mid 90%s. Instead of just a few in the 90%s, it's just a very few of the 32 that aren't up in the 90%s now. I even have some 97%s. I think it's a good bet that lowering it verticaly uncoveredd some of the dish to the satelites, but not all. I'm OK, I like where it's at, 99 and 103 both look happier too with mostly some 70%+ and 80%+, several 89% readings, and it'll be the lone snow flake that finds the dish surface here where it's at now.
This is before moving it again today. I know the sun's elevation is not the same as the satelites, but it shows where the edge of my roof blocks a dish surface when the LNB is near center.
You can see below that only the very edge of the dish is out past the roof edge, my winds come from the left side of the picture here. If anything, snow or sleet or even rain that falls here, if it misses the roof, it'll likely miss the dish too but if it falls plumb, it'l just nip the dish edge.
I could move it further outwards, but then it would be vulnerable to ice and snow ... so I'll call it good until a problem pops up.
