Satellite dish

YC 1 wrote:
OK,, With the information from Bill about what is normal I have proceeded with "brute strength and ignorance".

Time to upgrade my sat meter for sure because that would have made it a breeze versus the wife on the phone hands free calling out the numbers.

Gently lifting the lnb arm showed marked improvement. I tried to get as much adjustement as the bolts would allow. Some improvement but not enough.

Moving the arm left and right with brute force gained a bit but still not enough.

So the issue was the lnb arm needed to bend up a bit. Of course the arm will not bend so I pressed forward on the top of the dish reflector and held the base of the lnb. OOPs. A little too much as a little dimple formed at the base of the reflector dish. Signal gone.

Too much brute force and ignorance.

Ok, a bit less brute force and the same ignorance to tweak it back a bit and like magic here are the numbers. I have cycled the system on and off a couple of times and the number come back each time.

99C 95
99S 0
101 97
103S 55 takes ten seconds to show
110 97
119 100
103CA 94
103CB 97

OCT 2013

Thanks Bill.

Now for the paint peeling question. I just noticed some peeling on the edge of the turret. Cannot blame mine on salt water.

Installed in Nov 2012

I ran across this thread via Goggle while looking for info on loss of only 2 transponders on 103ca.

BILL & BILL:
Did you ever get your alignment issues taken care of on the roof? I have the same failure to align as you, but its never jammed on anything, and that arm isn't going to bend at all

Bill.satellite: Paint update.. It turns out that the pic I took was only the beginning. I went up on the roof with a very light duty abrasive wheel on a Dremel and most of the powder coat on the base flew off along with a layer corrosion dust underneith that was probably 75%+ of the base. Arms and everything above is OK. I resprayed the entire base with an exact match Rust-Oleum grey that got a nice long dry air bake before ocean exposure

Big Katuna wrote:
But unless you camp in the desert, you often can't get a signal if there are trees. We prefer state parks which are typically heavily treed and I rarely can use my roof sat. I carry a tripod and 100' of cable and can set it up in a few minutes.

2x that we had one on our first MH and only got use of it 50% of the time due to interference.

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Interesting. I have never seen that before. Even one of the screws in the base there is different that what I have seen. How old is your antenna?

The antenna is probably 3 years old now. The screw in the picture has a rubber washer on it to keep moisture out of the threads and causing other issues.


YC1: If you already have a meter, THIS cute little frequency splitter will allow you to use your existing meter for multi-satellite alignment.

OK,, With the information from Bill about what is normal I have proceeded with "brute strength and ignorance".

Time to upgrade my sat meter for sure because that would have made it a breeze versus the wife on the phone hands free calling out the numbers.

Gently lifting the lnb arm showed marked improvement. I tried to get as much adjustement as the bolts would allow. Some improvement but not enough.

Moving the arm left and right with brute force gained a bit but still not enough.

So the issue was the lnb arm needed to bend up a bit. Of course the arm will not bend so I pressed forward on the top of the dish reflector and held the base of the lnb. OOPs. A little too much as a little dimple formed at the base of the reflector dish. Signal gone.

Too much brute force and ignorance.

Ok, a bit less brute force and the same ignorance to tweak it back a bit and like magic here are the numbers. I have cycled the system on and off a couple of times and the number come back each time.

99C 95
99S 0
101 97
103S 55 takes ten seconds to show
110 97
119 100
103CA 94
103CB 97

OCT 2013

Thanks Bill.

Now for the paint peeling question. I just noticed some peeling on the edge of the turret. Cannot blame mine on salt water.

Installed in Nov 2012

Interesting. I have never seen that before. Even one of the screws in the base there is different that what I have seen. How old is your antenna?

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Paint? Pretty sure it's all powder coat but I can't be sure.
Where are you seeing this?

Probably is powder coat, but it's still a paint. Either way, it's thin enough that the salt air got through it.

Paint? Pretty sure it's all powder coat but I can't be sure.
Where are you seeing this?

I see no physical slippage on the arm either, but you can visually see they are not true.

Speaking of the roof.... Is anyone having problems with paint peeling on the Travler?

Great info Jeff.

Since Bill confirmed there is a bit of looseness I will take some measurements as he suggested. If that measure correctly I will loosten the head first and try to tweak that. Looking at the paint on the bolts there is no indication that the arm has moved. Someone start singing now. Up on the roof.

Bill.Satellite wrote:
It really sounds like you tweaked something as the arm and dish are very sensitive to being moved by outside forces.
You could stow the antenna and then when the LNB is 1-2 feet off the roof measure from the roof to each side of the bottom of the LNB. They should be the same distance. You can also look to the dish itself and see if there is even the slightest wrinkle (bend, scratch, wave) anywhere. The arm of the LNB being slightly out of line would be my first guess / best guess so you also might want to have someone watch the signal and try gently twisting the LNB to see if 99 appears.

Did as you suggested the other night. Tried tweaking the arm etc and the only improvement was moving it on rotation a bit.