satellite dish help

[imrankhan]

hello everyone,
i received my goods today, they consist of, a 1 meter dish, technomate single 0.1db lnb, technomate 2600 motor and technomate tm600 receiver.im having trouble trying to find a spot for the dish.im in birmingham, and i have checked the dishes around me and they all face south.im slight confused with which way it should face.also is it possible to connect it on top of my garden shed roof, its a solid shed...

thanks

[Rick]

I think you would probably benefit from reading these

The satellite arc
DiSEqC motor installation guides.

Then ask about what you not sure of. But to answer your question, your dish does need to point south.

[imrankhan]

ok cool, thaks rick...sorry if i sounded abit stupid..

thanks again

[Robbo]

If the shed is nice and solid, it should be fine. If not, at least its easy to get to.

[imrankhan]

lol its solid ;-)

[kerrywez]

Hi your dish must face south. All the satellites are in an arc at the equator and your dish must be facing south to see them. The sats are at a distance of 22,236 miles out in space and are rotating at a speed which keeps them at the same point in space, as seen from the earth, geostationary or geosynchronous. You will need to setup your dish on the satellite which is nearest true south from your location, if you intend setting up a motorised system. You will learn a lot from the links which Rick has given you.

BTW it was Arthur C Clark, the author, who first came up with the idea of having the satellites at that distance and using them for communications, as a tribute to him the German receiver makers of the Clarktech receivers called them after his name.

Regards Wez

[imrankhan]

thanks, so basically south ?...i have a compass which if at dead south is the same as all other satellite didhes in my block.

thanks

[FlyerUK]

Originally Posted by kerrywez

BTW it was Arthur C Clark, the author, who first came up with the idea of having the satellites at that distance and using them for communications, as a tribute to him the German receiver makers of the Clarktech receivers called them after his name.

Regards Wez

And the area the sats occupy was also named after him, ie the Clarke Belt

[imrankhan]

ok everything is setup, clear view of the sky but no signal :-(
i used a satellite finder to fine tune it and got to 56 signal on receiver on the astra 28.2 band, then my finder packed up.pls somebody help me of easy alignment of dish.

thanks

[Mickha]

I'd set it up manually, by pointing your dish at the nearest satellite to your true south position,
Check dishpointer:

http://www.dishpointer.com/

Type in your postcode and check the longitude reading, this will provide you with your true south position, negative values = West, positive values = East.

So if your reading is -1 then the nearest satellite, to your true south, would be 1 West, simply set your motor to 0 and then manually move it until you find 1 West, get the best signal you can, by gently adjusting the position, and elevation of the dish, having your receiver tuned to a FTA channel on that satellite, then tighten everything up and check other satellites on the arc.