 |
|
Last Changed 6/9/2009
|
All you have to do to setup up your satellite TV dish is to aim it
at a satellite located 22,400 miles above the Earth, something you
can't possibly see.
So how do you do it?
Tools make the task a lot easier. An investment in good tools will
pay themselves back in hours every time you set up the dish.
|
Level |
 |
When setting up the tripod, it is critical to have the mast
vertical. A bubble level works well in this situation as the bubble
shoes the effects in adjustment is all directions in one place/
|
 |
If you use a standard level, you have to move the level from
front/back to side/side and back to check if the mast it level. |
|
Meter |
For DishhTV the goal is to aim the 119 LNBF towards satellite 119.
Assuming the Skew is set properly, then the 110 and 129 LNBFs should
be pointing towards their related satellites.
The DishTV has a built in Switch. The Switch accepts signals from
the three LNBFs and connects them to the outputs as needed. This is
great for hooking up receivers to the LNBFs but is can be a real
problem when aiming the dish. The reason is that you could be led
astray by either the 110 or 129 LNBF being aimed at satellite 119.
You would have an indication of being on 119 but the other
satellites are not being pointed to.
To alleviate this problem we tried disconnecting the 129 LNBF from
the Switch and putting aluminum foil over the 110 LNBF. This would
allow only the 119 LNBF to receive signals and when we get a lock
on, we would know that the 119 LNBF is pointing at the 119
satellite. However, with the switch, there was no surety that the
cable we had the meter connected to was electronically connected to
the 119 LNBF.
To solve the 119 LNBF selection problem, we bought a meter that can
select the 119 LNBF by putting a 22KHz signal on the wire. |
 |
We have Accutrac 22 Pro meter that we put in line with the cable
from the Switch to the receiver. This gives us a visual indication
of the signal strength. The Accutrac 22 Pro actually has two inputs
so that is could be looking at the 119 LNBF and the 110 LNBF at the
same time. We have just been using the primary input. |
|
 |
We often found that we were setting up on the wrong satellite,
usually 10° off. Compensating for that was difficult by eye.
We already had an
Align-a-Site for setting up our Satellite Internet Dish. We
purchased an additional base plate and attached it to our DishPro
1000. We put the desired azimuth, elevation, and skew settings into
the Align-a-Site and then put it on the DishPro 1000.
We found that after a couple of setups, the metal in the dish was
causing a 40° compass error. We now take the target azimuth setting
and add 40°. We line up the azimuth arrow in the Align-a-Site and
we are almost dead on now. The Align-a-Site took a whole lot of the
frustration out of setting up the dish. |
Elevation |
 |
The next step is to preset the Elevation. This is the angle of the
Dish to the vertical mast. This is part of aiming at the target
satellite. |
click on images to enlarge |
Now we position the dish onto the tripod aiming it using the
back leg of the tripod as the reference of the Azimuth.
Now to find that satellite out there 22,400 miles up.
If our tripod mast was vertical, the Azimuth, the Elevation and the
Skew were all set properly, we should be in the ball park. The
reason for only being in the ball park is that a Zip Code can cover
a large area of real estate. Therefore a little tweaking will be
necessary.
|
|
We have found that we only need to connect one wire to the dish
since we can select the 119 LNBF by turning on the 22KHz signal.
The Accutrac 22 Pro solved another problem. The DishTV receiver
needs to runs a Switch Check when the environment changes. We also
has a roof mounted dish that is a different "switch" than our DishPro
1000. To complete the Switch Test, the satellite receiver has to
pick up a valid satellite. If the Switch Test is not completed, you
cannot use the receiver to try and select the 119 LNBF. This is
like a Catch-22, you need the Switch Test to find the satellite, you
need the satellite to run the Switch Test. By using the Accutrac 22
Pro meter, we can use it to select the 119 LNBF and get the dish
aligned on the satellites before running the Switch Test and having
a completed test.
Using the Accutrac 22 Pro meter reading, we tweak the azimuth and
elevation setting for a maximum reading.
|
|
click on images to enlarge |
We could also set the Accutrac 22 Pro to put out a tone that
increases as the signal strength grows from the satellite. But we
don't use that because we have one more tool to aid the aiming
process. We have wireless earphones that we can use with the Sound
System/TV when we don't want to disturb the other person if they are
sleeping or working. We wear these wireless earphones when we are
aiming the dish. The receiver is also putting out a tone that
increases as the satellite signal strength increases. We found this
one to be a better indicator because the receiver only gives you a
tone if it is locked onto a DishTV satellite. The Accutrac 22 Pro
meter could give a reading on a non-DishTV satellite.
We usually remove the Accutrac 22 Pro meter from the cabling.
Listening to our earphones, we swing the dish from side to side
looking for the maximum tone. Once we center on the best signal,
then we tweak the Elevation a bit up and down, again looking for the
highest tone.
To date, we have not bothered to tweak the Skew. When we have
locked onto 119 using the system above, we have found the other
satellites to be okay. |
