Great Way to Aim Dish

[Lone Cloud]

I had seen this described before but never tried it. I was actually dreading carrying receiver, G-Box and little TV up to the roof to aim my Birdview.

I taped a circular lnb into the Birdview scalar plate and hooked up a viewsat receiver I had. I opened the menu and set it for "beep on scanning"

I have one of those wireless radio headphone deals you hook to the audio output of your receiver and listen privately. I had about 30 feet of audio cable and plugged it into the audio on the back panel of my Viewsat. I brought the transmitting unit outside, hooked in the audio cables where it had a line of sight to my new Birdview install.

I had the Viewsat set for 119 west, which as you know has a strong signal, and is about 2 degrees off my longitude. As I turned the whole dish and mount around the mast, I found the 119 w "beep" and stopped at the highest pitch. Then I did the tilt angle, and again stopped at the highest pitched beep. Then I turned it around the mast again and did the tilt again.

The aiming process worked very well. I have my westernmost satellite
(148 w) in my arc and I have 82 west as well. I am looking forward to trying for everything above 50 west.

In any case, for those of us who don't want to spend a lot for one of those fancy satelite finders, this wireless headphone "beep" system was great.
I could leave my equipment in place and didn't have to bring them up to my roof, where it was as hot as the planet Mercury. No tedious unhooking and hooking back up. Great.

You can get those wireless headphones for less than 20 bucks. If your receiver has a "beep on scanning" mode and you can get your headphone transmitter to a line of sight to your dish, you go up your ladder (in my case) and hit the ON button and start adjusting. The whole process took maybe twenty minutes. If I had done it the other way, it'd be two and a half hours before I got it all apart and back together.

Thyanks all for your help. My Birdview is turning fine. I need to still figure out how to get this Birdview DLNBA working. I'd appreciate any input on that.

 

[Anole]

good call

I think too many people fighting with their first install, totally forget that there are all these nice beacons out in space.
The DBS satellites with their circular signals (read: no skew to screw with), are sprinkled from 61° to 148°.
Why =not= use them? At least to get a first rough alignment.
Because if you can't hit those, . . . you can't hit squat!
Plus, most are far enough apart that you won't get the wrong one.

And actually, all the Ku users with their QPH-031's are in the catbird's seat, having both linear and circular.
'Cause frankly, I don't find that LNB particularly necessary, otherwise. (I know: heresy[4] ! )

 

[Lone Cloud]

Actually, the circular lnb I used was an old Directv lnb that I had laying around. I have no idea even where I got it from. I remember using it at one time to get the unscrambled NASA station on 119.

I actually have one of those Invacoms you refer to. I use a Winegard 1 meter dish with it. I get mostly linear stuff with it - 123 west, 101 west and 87 west. But I do get that NASA station on 119 once in a while and I need circular for that.

Anyway, I have gotten some stations with the Birdview DLNBA. I'll work on it some more, because I can't get 99w or Galaxy at 91 west.