motorised, latitude, declination..... question

fersy · 30-06-2006

hi i have cemented my pole perfectly plumb into my garden and in the morning im gonna finally take a crack at setting up my motorised system so i decided to assemble the hh mount and familiarise myself with the setup instructions but the instruction book is a bit dodgy so i wanted to clear up a couple of things.

1.true south - you can find true south via the magnetic variation table and a compass (question: where can i find the magnetic variation table)

2. setting elevation angle on the mount - adjust the elevation angle via the inclinometer or the elevation/latitude scale on both sides of the mount (question whats the inclinometer? what angle should it be at does it depend on my latitude? and how do i find out my latitude)

3. setting declination angle - the reading on the antenna scale should be 40 deg minus the declination angle, find the declination angle by the attached angle table (question is this correct 40 degrees minus the declination angle so when i have my latitude then i compare it with the table to get my declination angle the take it away from 40 degrees and set the scale on my antenna - dish to that?)

one last question i've read somewhere on this forum people saying that you should set your dish first to receive a particular satellite (the nearest one to you i think) is this correct and how do i find which one is nearest to me in northern ireland.
i know some of these questions may seem a bit dumb to some people but i just figured better to ask them now than waste a whole day tomorrow and end up on asking where i went wrong anyway. i hope someone can help as i really want to get up and running. my system has sat in my house for over a month now and i havent been able to get time before now to set it up. thanks

**rolfw** · 30-06-2006

You can find your longitude and latitude HERE

So you can then set the latitude on the mount and also calculate the correct declination figure using the method you describe above.

Your longitude will be 5W or more and so you can use that satellite to guage your Due South reference point, if you are much further West than that you can use 8W, here are the details of the available satellites

Pretty much all of this information is in a couple of sticky threads at the top of the forum.

fersy · 30-06-2006

thanks for your response
i know that some of the info is in the threads as ive also been reading them but it is sometimes hard when you know absolutely nothing to understand what someone is talking about because it may seem crystal clear to the person doing the explaining but thats because they know what they are talking about. anyway i think ive figured it out but i was wondering (just to check if im correct) if my longitude is -6.067 then does that mean i should be looking to set up on atlantic bird 3 5.0w for the top of my arc as i am assuming the minus before the number means it is west and a +number would be east

thanks for you help it is much appreciated

fersy · 30-06-2006

or should i go for nilesat at 7.0w as technically that is closer to 6.067 (i think)

**rolfw** · 30-06-2006

Go for AB3 at 5W, it is a stronger satellite.

It also has some analogue channels on it, so if you can beg or borrow an analogue receiver, finding it should be a doddle.

fersy · 30-06-2006

damn i just chucked out an analogue receiver last week

thanks a lot though.

well the rains finally stopped and its dried up a bit so i think im gonna just go for it now. no doubt i will be back begging for answers soon although i think i got it down.

thanks again i will let you know if i succeed

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