Beginner Equipment and starting up

[darkage]

@Viewer, thanks! I love well engineered product and always love to research.. I see satellite equipment as an investment since I know I will love it as a hobby.. figuring out what satellites I can lock onto and what channels I can get.. I love anything technical! Once I turned a wok into a antenna for my usb wifi dongle.. this certainly beats that in the fun department!!

@Tristen, just when I thought satellite finding websites could'nt get any better you had to post a absolute awesome site! many thanks!! makes the job easier and easier the more I look into it!

ha! now I have a firm target for all this satellite stuff! Hunan TV @ 7:30pm Saturdays.. haha! opps could be 8:30pm... surprising the new wife. thats her favourite show.. any other channels beyond that is a bonus..

[Eddy39]

Hi, I use to be able to be able to get the Satellites from my position at 152.09E X -2498S but after getting my computer fixed up, had to reload Gorbtrack but only the Netherland site comes on. Have downloaded the AS.ZIP but it does not want to connect to the install. Apart from deleting the whole system and reloading, is there anything that I can do to fix it from what I have already?. BTW - my 3.7 mt dish is on a concrete slab of about 1500 kg on the edge of the yard but with bamboos and trees growing along that side (and not practical to trim them) any idea how to move the whole thing some 2 mts to the centre of the yard where the space is clear?. Thanks, Eddy.

[tristen]

It's many years since I have used Gorbtrack.

Assuming that you have Gorbtrack installed in the (default) "Program Files" directory on drive C:, have you extracted the contents of the as.zip file and installed it in the "C:\Program Files\GorbTrack\Countries" directory?

Once you have done that, you need provide details of your geographical location by clicking on the "Locations" tab and setting "Country", "City", "Latitude", "Longitude" and "Height" correctly.

[Eddy39]

Thanks tristen, yes have done this and am getting the whole system but only with Holland. When opening Gorbtrack, it come on as it use to do but no satellite in the second button, shows my place on the map but no sat names possibly as it thinks that I am in Holland and cannot see those sats from this place.Anyway, will try again and again, bound to come on eventually.

[Kavakid]

SatFinder Lite

Free App for androids on Google Play. Hold yr phone to the sky and see all the sats located accurately along
the Clarke Belt at your location using phones GPS receiver or WiFi.

Its great for seeing if the neighbours house or tree is in your line of sight, and its free.

[Thala Dan]

Eddy39,
In respect of the AS country file, I’m not quite sure what you mean by “…but it does not want to connect to the install…”
You should unzip the AS file, then place the resulting 22.2mB txt file in the “Countries” subdirectory.
The path is “Program files (X86)/GorbTrack/Countries”….assuming you’re using Windows 7?
Once you have done that, go to the “Location” tab in Gorbtrack, and select “Australia” in the “Country” drop-down list, and your town in the “City” drop-down list.
The Lat and Long will appear automatically once you have done this, and you then need only to enter “Height” ….that is of your dish, not your town :-)
Then, on the “Sat Info” tab of Gorbtrack, select only the first button marked “A-Z” – if you have the current satellite list installed, you should have at the top of the drop-down list “Satellites (1295)”.
If you now press the button at the top of the satellite list marked with a pair of binoculars, you should see a smaller list of satellites appear – being those which are visible from your location (theoretically).
In my case, the number (1295) at the top of the list drops down to (238).
Now, here’s the tricky bit.
If you want to use the buttons marked “Ku” and “C” at the top of the satellite list on the “Sat Info” tab to see which Ku and/or C band satellites are visible from your location, you must first ensure that the transponder column on the “Sat List” tab of Gorbtrack has been filled in.
Deactivate the “Binoculars” button, and leave only the “A-Z” button activated.
Go to the “Sat List” tab – you should see all 1295 satellites listed on that page.
Find the satellites that are of interest, and make sure that either “Ku” and/or “C” is entered into the “Transp” column as appropriate. If there is no entry in this column the satellites will not appear on the “Sat info “ tab when you activate the “Ku” and “C” buttons.
And if you’re using Gorbtrack with any regularity, make sure you update the data files periodically using “Tools/Options/Update”…and make sure you hit the “Apply” button once you’ve downloaded the updates, before you exit the updates dialog box.
Hope this helps – it’s a handy little program.