Questions about Signal Strength in Arizona

Thank you for helping me with this!

On checking again, I saw that I misspoke slightly. My 110 spot transponder (TP20) gets a signal strength of about 70.

So, I have a few more hopefully quick n00b questions (sorry!):

• Is this more likely to be a azimuth, skew, or elevation problem? I'd like to minimize the adjustments if I can.
• Which are the best transponders should I be using to tune for each satellite? Is TP20 the best one for me for the 110 satellite?

Thanks again,

NachoMamma

More likely small tweaks of azimuth and elevation can improve 129. Plan to donate at least 30 minutes, an hour is better for peaking 129 since it oscillates around about every 20 minutes or so - lots of patience needed.

Only adjust one parameter at a time, I usually start with azimuth.

You need some way to tell if your tweaking is effective, I have a 5" B&W TV that I hook up to a Dish 301 receiver and take it up to the roof with me. It only sees certain transponders on 129 but all I need is one. You may have to have someone watch the point dish screen (Menu, 6,1,1) on your inside receiver and relay the results of your labor up to you.

Grask the left and right edges of the dish and push it slightly to the right and to the left, waiting 5- 10 seconds with each to see if there is any change in the signal level (remember also that 129 is wobbling so the signal will drift up and down by itself - it's sort of like shooting at a moving target). Whichever way the "push" improves the signal, we want to move the dish slightly in that direction.

Slightly loosen the bolts that hold the full dish rig clamped to the pole, just enough that you can move the base and the dish west or east. You already have ths 129 signal we're just trying to improve it, so don't move the dish so far that 129 is lost.

Turn the dish by moving the base, not the dish edge like we did before (we don't want to distort the dish). You may need to make very small changes and wait a while to see if the over all signal has improved before trying more azimuth movement.

When you are satisfied you have the very best azimuth setting, snug the bolts to the pole (not too tight) and recheck your signal. You don't want to torque the pole and thusly move the whole dish assemble away from where you just set it, yet it must be tight enough that the wind does not move it.

Now move to the elevation and use the same proceedure to peak it. You can test the elevation like we did the azimuth by using 1 or 2 fingers to gently push up or down on the far end of the bar that supports the lnb -right near the lnb. Again do not be too aggressive were just testing not bending the lnb support. And again after you loosen the elevation bolts, use very small movements and check signal after each movement. Be sure to re-snug the bolts when you're satisfied withthe signal.

Also, have a look at 110 and 119 to make sure you didn't drop them too much in peaking 129.

Have fun.