Sat Positioning for the Beginner?

[wizer]

hi
seems like the best place to post this... even tho its about sat internet.

I just got hold of a 60cm dish with a uni LNB. I want to fix this up to point to Astra 19.2E for Europe Online satellite internet services. I know a guy who can do it, but he is dragging his feet and i reckon he's going to want to charge me stupid money.

What I want to know is can I do this meself? Is it easy to positon the sat correctly. Whats the cheapest/Easiest method of getting it spot on? Can i just use a compass like this? http://www.millets.co.uk/cgi-bin/Mil.../View/09975199

Or is it more complex than that?

[knee doc]

It is easy m8, your easiest option is to see if you can beg or borrow a digital sat receiver (if you don't already own one, not a sky digi box), as they have positions set and usually a signal strength meter, you just pick a channel on Astra and move the dish till the signal strength goes up

You can use a Compass but it will only give a rough direction, you would need a proper occiliscope to find the right sat without a recieiver i would guess.

[Robbie]

It's very easy to set up your dish to Astra 1.

Get yourself an old analogue receiver. There are dozens of free to air German channels. Connect it up to a tv - best of all if you can use a portable tv and position it so that you can view it whilst adjusting the dish.

Switch on your sat receiver and set it to 11214 H. That's RTL 2, although it doesn't much matter which channel you choose.

You will need a compass so that you can point your dish towards the satellite. Your azimuth and elevation depend upon where you live. However, you could make a rough setting and take it from there. For Liverpool it would be 160 degrees azimuth and 28 degrees elevation. This is near enough with an analogue box.

Once you have made these settings, and with everything switched on, you may see a weak or even a reasonable picture.
Move the dish slowly to the right or left until you get the best picture. Then move the dish up or down very slowly again until you get the best signal. Do this again right or left, and again up and down for maximum signal strength.

You should also rotate your lnb very slightly for maximum signal strength.

That's it. You should be up and running in a few minutes

[Mr Shep]

hi there

at 10:44am point your dish at the sun that should be about 19.2e
then after that try the above

shep

[Robbie]

You don't need one of those expensive digital compasses. One of these Silva compasses will be fine. I use the Ranger.

http://www.millets.co.uk/cgi-bin/Mil.../View/09975199

[kracken]

I just got hold of a 60cm dish with a uni LNB. I want to fix this up to point to Astra 19.2E for Europe Online satellite internet services. I know a guy who can do it, but he is dragging his feet and i reckon he's going to want to charge me stupid money.

hmm , wot sort of stoopid money ? when i need to get my dish realigned (movin house or wind damage etc) the guy who normally does mine charges £40 wich to me seems very reasonable ... remember the better your signal strength the less chance you have of receiving corrupt files . EOL can be received with a signal strength of 40% approx but has been known to drop/miss files , i currently have a 1.2m dish wich gives me 80% signal strength and missed/drop files are extremely rare

[wizer]

sily money = £70-£100 (london area)

I eventually got a mate to do it for me for £30 who's a sky installer. I am getting 48-50% signal

i'm having absolute nightmares with it tbh. here's my post on EONBOARD if anyone is interested.

http://www.eonboard.net/viewtopic.php?t=4946

[kracken]

i take it you checked the site i pm'ed ya ?
i also noticed a couple of points in your images you posted ...

1) set buffer size to 262144
2)yur hdd's seem to be FAT32 .. i suggest NTFS cos you will have probs with FAT32 limitations when u start to unrar the big images (4Gb+)
3)Install Directory: Z:\Fazzt <----- i suggest installin Fazzt to C:\ drive (see below)
4)make your incoming sat files (Virtual Path) go to a seperate hdd , i have Fazzt installed to me C:\ and Virtual Path and Temp Storage pointing to seperate 60Gb hdd

heres my sys info ..
System Information:

Fazzt Settings:
Fazzt Remote Station 6.1.0.1 (1/19/2001 build) (EON)
Install Directory: C:\Program Files\KenCast\Fazzt
Fazzt is installed as an NT Service
Runs under account: LocalSystem
Can interact with desktop
Startup: Automatic
Remote Station Serial Number: xxxxx
License Information:
Licensed To:
License Key: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Add-On Components:
Twofish Post-Processing

Computer Name:
SATBOX
Operating System:
Windows 2000 Professional 5.1 Build 2600
Service Pack 1
The current user has Administrator privileges
Internet Explorer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MDAC xxxxxxxxxxx
Processor:
Intel Pentium or later (Family 6, Model 3, Stepping 1)
Number of processors: 1
Memory:
Total physical memory: 507444k
Available physical memory: 295520k
Total page file size: 1579676k
Available space in page file: 1412504k
Total virtual address space: 2097024k
Available virtual address space: 2067904k
Disk Information:
Drive C:
Drive Type: Fixed
File System: NTFS
Total space: 19936632k
Free space: 5814064k
User free space: 5814064k
Drive D:
Drive Type: CDROM
Drive E:
Drive Type: Fixed
File System: NTFS
Total space: 80413324k
Free space: 17960468k
User free space: 17960468k
Network Info:
IP Address(es):
192.168.238.238
xxxxxxxxxxxxx


hope it helps