ruki

Here is an advice for a newbie, or how to make your first installation easier by doing it little bit more complicated way (from the first glance).
Use whatever you have at your disposal without purchasing professional equipment.
You'll save time if use the following:

1) Umbrella stand
2) Portable video camera (old type from you garage);
3) GPS;
4) Image of protractor printed on A3/A4 plastic sheet;
5) Free web sites for getting required angles.
---
1) Do your first installation on your deck (or fence), where you can easily reach the dish - don't go on the roof yet. Later it will be easier to install pre-adjusted dish on the roof when you have practiced a bit;
You can use an umbrella stand with a pole. Or get a scaffolding tube (those are normally 3 meters) and attach it to the corner of the deck;

2) If you already get a cheap Sat Finder that’s fine having a buzz tone is useful while rotating a dish, however you may not need it at all;

Portable video camera with 3,5 mm pin type A/V connecter. You may be unaware that your old camera can serve you as a portable TV.
3,5 mm connector pin outs are (from the open edge) - L Audio, Video, Ground, R Audio. Connect your camera with the cable to the STB, take the tape out (otherwise it will shut down within few minutes) and turn it in the tape mode. You have portable TV now.
Turn STB in the manual tuning mode and put required Frequency, S/R, polarization of the transponder you are about to tune to. Make sure you’ve adjusted LNB.

3) Compass with its wobbling little arrow always pointing North when you need to point somewhere else – leave it for tourists. Here is what you may wish to do:

Get coordinates of your dish, get the coordinates of the visible landmark – e.g. mast on the hill, chimney etc, would be good idea to choose one visible at night. Travel to that landmark, get coordinates. Your have 2 points now. Line from the dish to the landmark will be your azimuth to the landmark (as provided to you by your GPS software).
It is most probably True azimuth, not Magnetic. It is important that you realise the difference. Cause different sources give you either one or another or both (like DishPointer.com - Satellite Dish Pointer / Alignment Calculator with Google Maps)

4) Print the huge image of protractor on a piece of plastic (used for transparencies in presentations)
Image:Protractor1.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The bigger the image the better. You’ll need two lines made of bright material – one pointing to your landmark, another – to the desired satellite. Those lines could be made of plastic and as long as you wish making your adjustments so easy. Get the angles from the DishPointer.com - Satellite Dish Pointer / Alignment Calculator with Google Maps.
Remember on that site to put your coordinates in the following format:
-xx.xxxx, xxx.xxxxx

If you are using offset type dish – don’t rely on inclination marks on it.

That’s all. Good luck!
Sounds too complicated? Try with the Sat Finder only.

__________________
D1, D2, C1, Intelsat 2

Godzilla

Nice post.

Its always refreshing to see a diffrent point of view of ways to getting the job done.

pak_indo

good tute mate, cheers!

z1gg33

nice. How good are just basic satellite finders as I saw someone selling them for like $30 bucks, alas I dont have a GPS, I'd like to read a basic how to on how to use them

__________________
Trying not to look stupid OR offend anybody (2008 Resolution!)

anyone

the basic finders are worth $30 or so as its plugged in near the dish, you can also plug the stb in near the dish and watch signal strength and quality, back to the sat finder , turn the dial up till you hear it then back of a smidgen so its quiet then move the dish slowly, it will beep on a target , even a house, once you think you are looking at a sat turn the dial down another smidgen and fine tune, cheers

PunX0r

Good post mate, im sure this will come in handy

z1gg33

awesome. i think it might be worth a purchase at that price

__________________
Trying not to look stupid OR offend anybody (2008 Resolution!)

ruki

I 've got sat finder for 26 NZD. But when you have 2 sats as close as 3 degrees (e.g. 166 E/ 169 E) - it is hard to say which signal you re getting. Hence using a small tv in your camera in front of you is more desirable.

Also - always switch the STB Off when connecting/disconnecting coax cables to avoid burning the DiSEqC input (in case it is connected).

__________________
D1, D2, C1, Intelsat 2

allstarnz

yeah, agreed about the close sats. I use a cheapo sat finder to get my bearings right, but it's never good enough to get it perfect.

As my dish is actually ground mounted, and I can see the TV from through the window, I just chuck the sat finder on the screen and fine tune from there. If I can't see it, I just grab the old 14" and set up outside to fine tune.

At least where I am, C1 is quite hard to get, it often gets drowned out by D2.

anyone

true the sat finder doesnt tell you what sat it is but here in wa i have no prob moving from sat to sat via my markings and finder, i would try the camera but i dont have one

bigfella08

Great effort "RUKI" great post

ruki

Just improved my protractor with the line and sinker, so it became an inclinometer as well!
Recent 1.8 Dish set up did not even required fine tuning. With the approach as described - Asiasat 4, C-band was up and running within 2 minutes.

__________________
D1, D2, C1, Intelsat 2