How do I find my True South Satellite?

[PSB]

How to find your True South Satellite.

Your True South satellite is at the same orbital location in space as your longditude here on Earth, I will use Minneapolis MN. as an example, the longditude here is 93 deg.W

lf you check the below link you will see the satellite at that orbital position is IA6 (Telstar 6)

http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html

So using a compass your true south satellite will be at 180 deg. or South
Then the Earths magnetic pull must then be taken into account, again if you refer to the below link it will give you a rough magnetic deviation angle for your location, here in Minneapolis the magnetic deviation is around -2 deg, so the reading on the compass should now be 178 deg. W for my true south satellite IA6 (T6)

http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/magmapsp.html

 

[invitro]

Good website for Estimated Value of Magnetic Declination

https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag-web/#declination

Admin Note: Fixed bad link.

 

[PSB]

Very nice find!

 

[magnoan]

hmmm didn't work .... I'm reading through what you guys told me and some numbers are diffrent from on another ..... just to make sure I have the right number )for one last time )sorry.

numbers on the dish?
numbers on the Motor?
the dish should be pointing to what degree?
I'm going crazy

Thank you

 

[Cascade]

Best delete your post, invitro.

Edit: thx mods.

 

[GutBomb]

in layman's terms wouldn't it just be simpler to say, true south is your longitude? if you live on the 89 longitude line then your true south is the one closest to 89? you still have to use magnetic declination to FIND the satellite, but the satellite would just be the one closest to 89.

the longitude where i live is 89, (placing me in central illinois) and my true south would be either G11 at 91 or AMC3 at 87. i would use the magnetic declination of -1 because of where i live but that's only after i know which satellite to go for.

 

[Mr Tony]

in layman's terms wouldn't it just be simpler to say, true south is your longitude? if you live on the 89 longitude line then your true south is the one closest to 89? you still have to use magnetic declination to FIND the satellite, but the satellite would just be the one closest to 89.

the longitude where i live is 89, (placing me in central illinois) and my true south would be either G11 at 91 or AMC3 at 87. i would use the magnetic declination of -1 because of where i live but that's only after i know which satellite to go for.

correct...Mpls, Mn longitude is 93, so IA6 is our true south

 

[invitro2]

Find true south satellite step by step

I was invitro, I don't know why my account was disabled, because of hack talking? the link I posted is not related to it although the website is. The guide is the best one to find the true south satellite as I know.
Maybe magnoan's question is too simple and nobady wants to answer.
Here is what I did, hopefully it won't be deleted.

Find true south satellite Step by Step:
1) Find your zip code.
For example: 83687, Nampa, ID.

2) Calculate your latitude, longtitude and Magnetic Declination.
go to http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/geomag/jsp/struts/calcDeclination and input the zip code, you can get those information.

for zip code 83687,
Latitude: N 43.593657
Longtitude: 116.536024 W
Declination: 15° 32' E changing by 0° 5' W/year, so Magnetic Deviation is -15.5.
If the Declination is 15° 32' W changing by 0° 5' W/year, then Magnetic Deviation is +15.5.

3) Find the true south satellite.
go to http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html. pick up the cloest satellite with your longtitude.

for Longtitude: 116.536024 W, the true south satellite is SatMex 5 at 116.8°W.

4) Find the Azimuth (Geographic) and Elevation (Degrees) of Dish.
go to http://monsterfm.com/engineering/pointdish.htm, and enter your latitude and longtitude, then select the satellite "SatMex 5" from left panel, click "Calculate Heading", you will get the dish heading information. One the webpage, there is a detail dish installation guide.

For the example, the Azimuth (Geographic) is 180.383108 and Elevation (Degrees) is 39.757063.

5) Find the true south satellite using compass.
The reading on compass should be Azimuth + Magnetic Deviation.

For the example, the reading on the compass should be 180.38-15.5 =164.88 roughly 165.

So the angle of dish (elevation) is 39.75 and the compass reading is 165. If you use a motor, read the motor manual and adjust the elevation and declination angle.

Good Luck.

 

[Mr Tony]

invitro2
Yes, I did ban that user name. I (we) have had too many people posting a hack site on their first post, so usually we ban them right away, so it doesnt get out of hand. I un-banned the user name "invitro" so you can use that user ID if you please. For future reference, do not post any links to that site 9legal or otherwise). I apologize if I jumped the gun, but when your original post was just a hack site, I had no choice.

-Berg

 

[tvfan]

So, using invitro2's instructions and zip code 18655 I get Lat N 41.176674 Long W 76.167096 with declanation of 12 degrees 8' changing by 0 degrees (don't know how to get the degree symbol so using words) 1' per year. Would my magnetic declination be +12.1 and my closest south sat be SBS6? and therefore my angle of dish be 165.70799 or about 166?

I followed the instructions easily enough but am confused on how you got 15.5 in your example. I'm not sure my 12.1 is correct.

One more question... what is the purpose of finding your true south satellite? Does it help in finding other satalites or what?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[PSB]

The only reason you would use your True south satellite is to set up a motorized system, if its a fixed dish only pointing at one satellite (at a time) then you can pick any satellite, most people seem to use IA5 (T5) as their first satellite as it has so MANY FTA channels from around the world !

 

[dssguy]

I'm a little confused. I'm a technical guy, but this is the first FTA system I've had to install. We're going to use the old Direct TV dish, which is pointed toward thier bird currently. I'm trying to find the true south satellite, and having some issues. I found the instructions by invitro fairly simple, however when I goto step 4 the bird that is true south is not listed for me, and that is where the confusion starts.

According to the NOAA page, my Longitude is 83.280438. This would mean that AMC 16 or Brasilsat B3 would be the closest true south birds, with 82.1°W and 84.0°W respectively. Here is some basic info:

My zip: 48166
Reciever: Pansat 2500A
Motor: PM900
Dish: Direct TV 18"
Latitude: 41.976582 N
Longitude: 83.280438 W

I'm also not sure how the Magnetic Deviation was calculated at 15.5 either, the NOAA site says: Declination = 6° 47' W changing by 0° 2' W/year

Can anyone spread some light on this? I think I'm starting to understand it, but I get the impression that finding true south is important, and would like to get it right the first time. I'm trying to help a friend install this, he does alot for me and has no idea what he's doing. He's talked about paying someone to do it, but I'd like to save him that money. If anyone has any suggestions, please remember to be kind, I'm a newbie! LOL

Tim

 

[PSB]

You are trying to motorize a DirecTV dish? What channels is your friend trying to get?

And what kind/make of motor?

 

[dssguy]

The motor is listed in the original post, PM900. Yes its a direct TV dish and he's trying to get all the birds he can. I'm just not sure how to find the true south satellite. In the list shown on the page he listed of satellites, the calculation page does not list those satellites. I'm trying to help him, but he seems to know more about it than I do LOL after just talking to him on the phone.

 

[PipeDream]

Why don't you just let USALS find True South for you? After setting your motor on exactly 0 degrees set up for USALS with the Pansat on any sat
you can easily get a signal on. Use USALS to "Move" the motor to that location. Then just move the whole assembly until you Lock the signal. It's not hard to pan the dish for the right elevation as you do this. If you then
scan and get any channels from the sat you have the motor moved to, the
0 degrees is pretty much pointing True South. Then just minor adjustments
at your extreme sats should get you going.