# Setting elevation on a HotDish90



## Mark40930 (Aug 2, 2007)

Well I finally got the dish today via FedEx. It's a HotDish 90cm dish I got for a decent price on eBay.
Question I have is that there are hash marks inscribed on the mast bracket that are visible through a arrow-shaped hole on both sides of the dish bracket when they are put together but no degree number markings. I did a forum search which turned up blank so I want to pop this out there to those who may have had prior experience with this model dish and if anyone has any idea what degree value the starting point would be, since if I had that then getting the rest of the marks would be simple. 
Any info appreciated and hopefully I can move on to getting my system up and running


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

I hate to say it, but most dish elevation markings are wrong, in my experience. Some are a little wrong, some are a lot wrong, but few are perfect.

What to do is get the right azimuth (magnetically adjusted, if necessary) for your target satellite, start from what you think the right elevation ought to be, and slowly move the dish up-down until you get the strongest signal. (Then left-right to make it perfect.) When you've done that once, _then_ you'll know exactly what that elevation mark really means. Good luck!


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## bigem1 (Oct 27, 2006)

FTA Michael said:


> I hate to say it, but most dish elevation markings are wrong, in my experience. Some are a little wrong, some are a lot wrong, but few are perfect.
> 
> What to do is get the right azimuth (magnetically adjusted, if necessary) for your target satellite, start from what you think the right elevation ought to be, and slowly move the dish up-down until you get the strongest signal. (Then left-right to make it perfect.) When you've done that once, _then_ you'll know exactly what that elevation mark really means. Good luck!


I will say I agree with Michael...A trick I use and a tool is my old bubble alignment tool from long ago which has a adjustable bubble for transfering settings to multi antennas..just copy setting for any correctly aimed dish and you should be real close..Axis is done with a field compass that has a adjustable hash line... Be sure to mark the final correct locations just in case.....

Have A Great Day!!


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## Mark40930 (Aug 2, 2007)

FTA Michael said:


> I hate to say it, but most dish elevation markings are wrong, in my experience. Some are a little wrong, some are a lot wrong, but few are perfect.
> 
> What to do is get the right azimuth (magnetically adjusted, if necessary) for your target satellite, start from what you think the right elevation ought to be, and slowly move the dish up-down until you get the strongest signal. (Then left-right to make it perfect.) When you've done that once, _then_ you'll know exactly what that elevation mark really means. Good luck!


That was the solution I wound up doing. I still need to tweak it some as I can't get the quality above 55-60% on most of the transponders on G19 and now am having trouble getting Al-Jazeera English to come through as I get the error 'scrambled or poor channel' when I tune to it.


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## Gray1 (Jul 22, 2005)

The only dish I ever had with correct elevation markings was a Winegard 2076.


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## bruin95 (Apr 23, 2006)

Gray1 said:


> The only dish I ever had with correct elevation markings was a Winegard 2076.


That's strange, because I've set up several 2076's and found that the elevation scale was off by as much as 5 deg. in each instance.


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