AIMING DISH

[visch1]

I’m expecting a new Hopper install next week and have a feeling that a couple of “junk” trees maybe in the path of aiming from where I want the dish to be mounted. For 61.5 the direction is indicated to be 167.2 degrees with the elevation of 41 degrees if I read it correctly. Is this direction true or magnetic North?
Then again maybe I’ll take down both. TIA

 

[KE4EST]

Not sure what you are using to get your heading. Go to www.dishpointer.com and plug in your address and select your satellite and it will give you both readings and show you a pretty picture of your house on the map.

 

[ChairBound]

Ok...so I followed the advice to go to Dish Pointer (just because I was curious). I plugged in my address and it pulled up my house, but then proceeded to show me that the satellites are ALL on the opposite side of my house from my dish and off at a 90 degree angle from where the dish is pointed. I get my Dish signals fine, but I scurrilous about how to use Dish Pointer for future issues if arise. Did I do something wrong?

 

[3HaloODST]

Do you know what dish you have? Sounds like you have a WA dish and you're looking at the EA headings, or vice versa. The most common cause of confusion on that site regarding the 1000.x dishes are those with the 1000.4 WA that try to use 1000.4 settings on the site. The 1000.4 WA actually uses the 1000.2 settings on that site.

 

[ChairBound]

3Halo, I do not know what dish I have. I have a HD dish, and that is all I know. Where can I educate myself more about the dish types and what I may have? I did not notice any,where to change what dish I was using on that site. I will have to pay more attention.

 

[garys]

If you can go to your point dish screen and see what sat locations you have. If it is 61.5, 72, 77 you use Dish 1000.4 on dishpointer, if it shows 110, 119, 129 then you would use 1000.2. Dish pointer is not set up to list the actual dish and you have to use the one that shows the sats you are using. I think if it was updated to what it should be would make it even more confusing.

 

[3HaloODST]

YELLOW - YELLOW - Check Switch

If it says 1k.2 it's a 1000.2 if it says 1k.4 it's a 1000.4 EA/WA if you're on 110/119/129 use 1000.2 settings if you're on 61.5/72.1/77 use 1000.4 settings.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[ChairBound]

PM'd 3DHalo. Well crap....I am sorry to briefly hijack the thread but I cannot tell if my PM to 3DHalo worked. So a brief time out please: 3DHalo.....What do you think of your iPhone 4S? I am thinking of getting an iPhone. My contract on my Evo 4G is up. Is the quality on the 4S still as good as my husband's original iPhone 4 I wonder? I want a product that still has Steve Job's quality and design function. If I don't get an iPhone, I will just hack my Evo (pissed that Sprint took away my wireless N a year ago). Hacking the Evo is probably cheaper anyway, but if I brick it, I will have to buy something. It will likely NOT be an Android again. You don't have to post a long list of pros or anything. Just a yay or nay or whether you like your 4S, so the thread does not meander off too badly.

 

[ChairBound]

So, I followed the helpful advice posted here and went back to Dish Pointer. Sure enough, I do not appear to have my new dish pointed in the proper direction at all. Please see the pic below (sorry for the size). Umm...never mind. I cannot upload a pic from my iPad. The option to add the pic is grayed out. Ok...so the line for the satellite shown by Dish Pointer points due North, right through my house (our dish is located in our front yard and Dish Pointer points to our back yard). Our dish is actually aimed due west. It was pointed to the north before the Hopper install, but the service guy moved and re-aimed it when he installed the Hoppers. How am I getting a signal at all if the dish is pointed 90 degrees off of where Dish Pointer indicates the satellites are located? Please excuse me if this a dumb question. I am just interested to learn.

 

[ChairBound]

OK, I got off my lazy butt and got on the PC to add the photo I mentioned above:

The red arrow shows where the dish is now pointed and the green line shows where Dish Pointer says my satellites are.

 

[3HaloODST]

Replied to the PM... So your receiver is saying that you're on a 1000.4 pointed at 61.5/72.7/77? My guess is that you're actually looking at 110/119/129. Either on a 1000.2 or a 1000.4 WA.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[3HaloODST]

Oh by the way the sats are to the southwest or the southeast depending on your location and which arc you are pointed at. From VA the WA (Western Arc 110/119/129) is southwest and the EA (Eastern Arc 61.5/72.7/77) is south-southeast.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[ChairBound]

Replied to the PM... So your receiver is saying that you're on a 1000.4 pointed at 61.5/72.7/77? My guess is that you're actually looking at 110/119/129. Either on a 1000.2 or a 1000.4 WA.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

Yep, the receiver says 1000.4 on 61.5, 72.7, 77. Oh, and I got it backwards. The front of our yard is north and the back is south, so the satellites on Dish Pointer are showing to the south and the dish in my yard is aimed to the east/slightly southeast. Crap! Why can't we edit older posts?

 

[3HaloODST]

Yep EA sats are to the south-southeast from VA so it makes sense that something was backwards since the arrow you drew was actually farther east than the EA sats according to the dish pointer site. The WA sats would be to the west.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys