Taken a VAST Plunge

[Kelvin12]

After quite a few problems and lack of communication from the dealer we are up and running. Now just got to convince, "you know who" that we need the an auto tracker on the roof. Setting this up every day would be enough to turn me into a drunk.....

Dirk

[Wilbor]

Setting this up every day would be enough to turn me into a drunk.....

Dirk

And the problem with that would be???

I find the longest part of the setup is getting the dish onto the tripod and set up in the right direction, the actual satellite location and tuning takes about a minute

[Kelvin12]

Part of the initial problem was to many reds, and sitting out in the sunshine complicated instruction books. Took a tad longer than I thought so it actually wound up taking 2 days.

Dirk

[BruceS]

The elevation of the satellite ALWAYS remains the same. Only the direction (Left or right etc) is the problem one.
How about locating one of those small caravan spirit levels on the top of the dish to set the level & then just swing right or left in the direction to the right of North?
It's easy for me! The top deck of the houseboat is always level............ I just need a quick look at the compass & then some minor adjustments.

[Kelvin12]

G'Day Bruce,

It already has a circle spirit level incorporated in the top of the mast section. Finding the satellite is such a fine movement from crap to good, like a pin in a haystack. I had heaps of trouble initially, apart from following the damn instructions, (one of my failings, when all else fails....etc, etc) I wound up on the foxtel satellite and it took a while to realize I was on the wrong one. Finally found the right one after half a day cussing and swearing and a phone call to a satellite technical bloke. Almost got to the point of tossing the lot in the river. But all good so far after the initial hiccup.

How do you go in the house boat if there is a slight swell going on from passing boats or wind swell. Would have thought that would give you some interruption to the service.

Dirk

[BruceS]

Very little swell on the Murray but I guess a speedboat might interrupt it very briefly.
The biggest dish (85cm I think) will allow some amount of movement whereas I believe the smaller dishes won't tolerate much movement.
In the marina there are poles on both back corners into the river bed. I have had to temporarily tighten the ropes to stop swinging around in the wind.
When mooring up at night along the river I use 2 ropes from the back corners to shore so there is virtually no movement at all.
Yes that satellite that is much closer to true North has caught out a lot of people!!!
Have you grabbed Jim's Nomad program?
http://www.c-com.com.au/nomad.htm

[Kelvin12]

Yes just downloaded good thing isn't it and worthy of the small donation asked. Saves scrounging around for the satellite book every time. Some clever people around.

Dirk

[dapope]

I use a couple of phone apps to align. Forgot yesterday how important it is to have the dam thing level, wasted nearly 40 minutes before I hit the right satellite. Then discovered the subscription had expired! At least now it boots up almost straight away with a renewal

[RussellB[SA]]

The turning point for me was the purchase of the signal finder that ignores all sat signals except the C1/D3 signal. With this unit it's SOOOOOO easy.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Kelvin12]

Russell so what was the brand of this finder and where did you get it.

Dirk