Noob Guide to Dish Alignment (fixed)

[intelliGEORGE]

Ok, so you want to position your fixed dish to a particular satellite, don't know where to start? Well you're in the right place.

Before you run up a ladder and jump on the roof there's a few terms you need to know, they are as follows;

Azimuth


Azimuth is the turning of your satellite dish East or West (Left & Right). This is the same as your compass reading. Make sure when you look on your compass for the proper degree, that your compass is away from your satellite dish. Remember, metal objects can throw off the reading on your compass, so be very care full.

Elevation


Pretty self explanatory, but for those that don't know, elevation is how high up the signal is coming from. You can usually measure your elevation based on the degree markings found on the back bracket of your satellite dish. Make sure you don't tighten the bolts too much to leave room for play incase you need to fine tune your dish. Once you fine tune to the highest possible signal, you can tighten the elevation bolts.

Skew/Polarisation


Skew or Polarity is how much you turn your LNB. Standing in front of the satellite dish, looking at the dish, if you have a positive Skew angle you want to turn your LNB counter-clockwise. If you have a negative skew angle, you want to turn your LNB clockwise.

Now that we know what we are talking about, I found a little tool on the internet useful in finding the magic numbers needed to setup the dish alignment.



To use this calculator, you simply click the satellite drop down menu, select the satellite you would like to align your dish with, then enter your address using the following format in the line provided: e.g 123 bush rd, Suburb, State

Then Click GO.

The result should look like this.
Make note of the Magnetic Azimuth as opposed to the True Azimuth. In the image below there is a variation of approx 12 degrees, which is correct for Sydney.



And there it is a pretty picture with all the info needed from your house. Now get on the roof and mount that dish, or you could leave it on the back veranda

Happy viewing!