How can I get a signal?

smudger

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I've managed to source a pace 2200 and a dish. I want to get the free to view chanels. I am trying to align the dish, I have a compass and have checked out SMW and Heavens Above but I don't know which is the more suitable satellite. We live on the Isle of Man Latitude 54.1 Longitude -4.47. I don't know how to use a compass in relation to the Azimuth angle and totally don't know what the polarization angle is. I know these questions may sound simple but they have me stumped. Any help would be much appreciated.

Smudger.
 

rolfw

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My Satellite Setup
Technomate 5402 HD M2 Ci, DM7000s, Transparent 80cm Dish, Moteck SG2100 DiseqC motor, lots of legacy gear. Meters: Satlook Digital NIT, Promax HD Ranger+ spectrum analyser.
My Location
Berkshire
Hi smudger, the azimuth reading on the SMW calculator is in relation to due South (being 180 Degrees), so from your location you are looking at 141 degrees, almost exactly SE, The elevation is 21 degrees, so the dish face on most offset dishes will appear to be pointing down. The skew for the LNB, will be between 7 and 8 O'clock looking from behind the LNB towards the dish.
 

smudger

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Thanks Rolfw

I think that I understand the azimuth and I've set my compass to 141' and the dish is pointing about SE( is this in relation to magnetic north or true north?). The LNB looks like its around 7-8 o'clock. I'm not sure about the elevation though, what part of the dish do I use to set this angle?

Again thanks for your time,
Smudger.
 

lazydave

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Remember that the (offset) dish is a kind of "mirror" with the LNB as the "eye". Although the dish is "pointing" at one angle from the horison, the angle at which it is actually "looking" (= elevation) is higher. How much higher? Well, the angle between the LNB arm and a line going straight into the middle of the dish (i.e. where the dish is "pointing") is the same as the angle between where the dish is "pointing" and where it is "looking".

Doh ;) .... Is that confusing enough?

On a lot of dishes there are marks on the side where you can make up/down adjustments that indicate what your elevation angle is, assuming your pole is really vertical. Don't have a minidish, so I don't know if it has these marks.
 
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