SatSig topic:

Satellite finder for Ku band Tooway

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Feb 5^th, 2011 at 7:40am

Hi

I have Tooway on Ku band (Modem SM1101) which is installed but needs realignment. It was first activated in summer 2010.

I’m in Scotland, I think I have to hit the very sweet spot this far North.

On Maplin I see satellite finders ranging from simple analogue for £15 to the very expensive.

All work in the 950-2,400 MHz band, so should be OK for Ku band?

Will the simple one suffice, or are there other features in the more expensive ones I would need?

Would the same be true if I wanted to move it to a new location and start from scratch?

Feb 5^th, 2011 at 1:50pm

The Ku band version of Tooway uses standard LNB and BUC parts, so you can use a cheap satellite TV 'noise power' meter to peak up.

Note that such cheap meters do not identify which satellite you are aimed at, nor are they of much use in adjusting the polarisation. Typically you might use such a meter to find any satellite, peak up on it and if is the wrong satellite then you need to step along the orbit, peaking up on each satellite in turn till you come to the one your modem is configured for. Once your modem locks to the wanted carrier, the RX indicator will show. You need to have set the polarisation name and adjustment amount and direction first, of course.

If it was me doing it, I would determine and set the elevation and polarisation angles very accurately. Then swing the beam boldly sideways and be reasonably sure I would find the wanted satellite on the first swing. If not, I would try 0.5 or 1 deg upwards if the mount was sagging down a bit.

Then peak up, taking perhaps 30 minutes to complete this task. Getting the pointing to the exact centre is really important for two reasons: The transmit beam is narrower than the receive beam. Correct pointing gives you a big link margin for rain fading; this decreases the number of minutes per year you will lose service due to heavy rain.

Setting the polarisation adjustment angle accurately is important to avoid your transmissions interfering with other satellite communication services.

Use this calculator https://www.satsig.net/tooway/satellite-dish-pointing-ka-sat-tooway-europe.htm and add +3 deg clockwise for polarisation.

Look at the pictures here https://www.satsig.net/topics/satsig-topic-num=1265579585.htm about an installation south of Glasgow.

Best regards, Eric.

Feb 5^th, 2011 at 3:15pm

Quote:

Hi

I have Tooway on Ku band (Modem SM1101) which is installed but needs realignment. It was first activated in summer 2010.

I’m in Scotland, I think I have to hit the very sweet spot this far North.

On Maplin I see satellite finders ranging from simple analogue for £15 to the very expensive.

All work in the 950-2,400 MHz band, so should be OK for Ku band?

Will the simple one suffice, or are there other features in the more expensive ones I would need?

Would the same be true if I wanted to move it to a new location and start from scratch?

In addition to above suggestions from Eric.

[broken link] https://www.europe-satellite.com/images/satellite_finder05.jpg

May 15^th, 2011 at 10:08am

Hello mrgreen,

i was wondering how you got along with the adjustment of your satellite dish and the upward beam. Did you make it without a satellite finder.

Regards andreasn

May 20^th, 2011 at 4:29am

Hi, I recently had a service call to attend a recent install done by another engineer around Xmas. His system had failed, I found the dish was not that tight and consequently had lost its signal. It would have been easy to just realign it and finish. But it was set on the old Eurobird Sat 33deg so I decided to realign it onto the newer Atlantic Bird at 12.5 deg as it is a stronger signal. I made Skylogic aware of what was done so they could reactivate the cust account on the new Sat and I left the customer a happy man.
My suggestion therefore is that you have your dish moved onto AB12.5 deg or get a larger dish as you are on the edge of the footprint in Scotland. Hope this helps Kevin OrmeSat