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DISH SETUP: Single sat, Multi-Sat & Motorised
Using a compass find magnetic south
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<blockquote data-quote="spiney" data-source="post: 188100" data-attributes="member: 192438"><p>Crikey! Well, I don't myself have a motorised dish, but ........</p><p></p><p>1) You start off with the satellite's actual position in the Sky, as an East or West angular bearing from 0 degrees latitude (all dbs sats have a fixed "vertical" position on the "Clarke belt", because that's the only place they can go and still be "geostationary").</p><p></p><p>2) Then - from your particular ground location - the satellite will have a "bearing" - in up/down elevation and east/west longitude, and that determines what direction you actually point the dish in. WOrking out this direction from 1) above need 3d geometry and some calculation, so most people just use a "dish pointing calculator", there's plenty on various websites.</p><p></p><p>3) The difference between actual north and magnetic north depends on local "magnetic variation", which changes al over the earth's surface, but is typically about 4 degrees difference over most of UK.</p><p></p><p>4) To actually find the satellites, you have to "jiggle" the dish around a bit, while using some sort of "satfinder" gadget (it shows signal strength). Doing this in UK, you can normally ignore magnetic variation, since it's quite a small angle (it's not too important!).</p><p></p><p>5) Setting up a "diesqc" motorised dish is slightly more complicated, you have to make sure the motor fixing bracket is exactly vertical, then get the dish elevation angle right for your particular latitude, after which the motor should move the dish from left to right "along" the Clarke Belt - as seen from your particular ground location. This can be tricky, it might take a few "goes" to get the tracking good enough!</p><p></p><p>Hope that also helps. For much more info see our FAQs and Links sections.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="spiney, post: 188100, member: 192438"] Crikey! Well, I don't myself have a motorised dish, but ........ 1) You start off with the satellite's actual position in the Sky, as an East or West angular bearing from 0 degrees latitude (all dbs sats have a fixed "vertical" position on the "Clarke belt", because that's the only place they can go and still be "geostationary"). 2) Then - from your particular ground location - the satellite will have a "bearing" - in up/down elevation and east/west longitude, and that determines what direction you actually point the dish in. WOrking out this direction from 1) above need 3d geometry and some calculation, so most people just use a "dish pointing calculator", there's plenty on various websites. 3) The difference between actual north and magnetic north depends on local "magnetic variation", which changes al over the earth's surface, but is typically about 4 degrees difference over most of UK. 4) To actually find the satellites, you have to "jiggle" the dish around a bit, while using some sort of "satfinder" gadget (it shows signal strength). Doing this in UK, you can normally ignore magnetic variation, since it's quite a small angle (it's not too important!). 5) Setting up a "diesqc" motorised dish is slightly more complicated, you have to make sure the motor fixing bracket is exactly vertical, then get the dish elevation angle right for your particular latitude, after which the motor should move the dish from left to right "along" the Clarke Belt - as seen from your particular ground location. This can be tricky, it might take a few "goes" to get the tracking good enough! Hope that also helps. For much more info see our FAQs and Links sections. [/QUOTE]
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DISH SETUP: Single sat, Multi-Sat & Motorised
Using a compass find magnetic south
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