My Trick to find True South

[regisma]

Hi,

I have found the following in order to find my True South:

First, I went at NGDC web site (National Geophysical Data Center) NOAA Satellite and information services in order to find the magnetic declinaison, then choose Declinaison in the top menu and choose "compute your declinaison", then enter you Latitude and Longitude et voila! You should have something like : Declination = 15° 5' W changing by 0° 4' E/year

Secondly I went at my Local city website and find an image of my house, I can zoom up to my house, then I have printed it and find de North that is indicaten in the printed out.

I have measured the the angle between my house and the North, please have a look at the picture provided. So for my house I have found a 35 Degree that I have to add plus 16 degree for the magnetic declinaison to find my True South. So That mean If I make a perpendicular line from the natural line of my roof then I add 35 degree and also add 16 degree I should have my true south at 180 (temporary measure take from the perpendicular line taken from the natural line made by the roof)+25+16 = 231 degree

I hope this trick can help others.

thanks

Regis

 

[CharredPC]

I have found the following in order to find my True South:
First, I went at NGDC web site (National Geophysical Data Center) NOAA Satellite and information services in order to find the magnetic declinaison, then choose Declinaison in the top menu and choose "compute your declinaison",

Quick link for those who don't have it boomarked (like me):
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/geomag/jsp/Declination.jsp

then enter you Latitude and Longitude et voila! You should have something like : Declination = 15° 5' W changing by 0° 4' E/year

Or just enter your zip code

Secondly I went at my Local city website and find an image of my house, I can zoom up to my house, then I have printed it and find de North that is indicaten in the printed out.

Wish I had something like that here! Here's what I did in a pinch, though how accurate it is remains to be seen. I went to mapquest.com and plugged my location in. I happen to have a fairly lengthy, straight road right outside that my house is essentially level with. So I took the angle of the road/house and compared it to South on the mapquest page. As soon as I find my protractor, I'll let you know exactly how many degrees it was...

I have measured the the angle between my house and the North, please have a look at the picture provided. So for my house I have found a 35 Degree that I have to add plus 16 degree for the magnetic declinaison to find my True South. So That mean If I make a perpendicular line from the natural line of my roof then I add 35 degree and also add 16 degree I should have my true south at 180 (temporary measure take from the perpendicular line taken from the natural line made by the roof)+25+16 = 231 degree
I hope this trick can help others.
thanks
Regis

Very helpful, thank you!

CharredPC

 

[air88]

Hi,

I have found the following in order to find my True South:

First, I went at NGDC web site (National Geophysical Data Center) NOAA Satellite and information services in order to find the magnetic declinaison, then choose Declinaison in the top menu and choose "compute your declinaison", then enter you Latitude and Longitude et voila! You should have something like : Declination = 15° 5' W changing by 0° 4' E/year

Secondly I went at my Local city website and find an image of my house, I can zoom up to my house, then I have printed it and find de North that is indicaten in the printed out.

I have measured the the angle between my house and the North, please have a look at the picture provided. So for my house I have found a 35 Degree that I have to add plus 16 degree for the magnetic declinaison to find my True South. So That mean If I make a perpendicular line from the natural line of my roof then I add 35 degree and also add 16 degree I should have my true south at 180 (temporary measure take from the perpendicular line taken from the natural line made by the roof)+25+16 = 231 degree

I hope this trick can help others.

thanks

Regis

Thanks for your post. I did have an easier way to do all your 3 steps in 1 step ( I had posted it 3/23/2005 at: http://www.satelliteguys.us/archive/index.php/t-59212.html ). Here is the post again:

A tip from my experience and it may help the beginners:

I feel it is very hard to use a small compass to find the direction. You can not place the compass near metal and your motor (important).

What I used is the web site http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ , type in my address, I get the picture of my house and all the info I need: Longitude and Latitude on the exact location I will put dish (even it is not necessary to get so accurate).

The south on the picture is the true south you need. Print the picture or just on screen, draw a vertical line down from the location you will put your dish. Find a target about 2-3 blocks away in your neighborhood (or far), point your dish to that target. You get your true south!!

Have fun

Michael

In this way, you can find your location (Latitude and Longitude), your house picture and, most important, very easy to find your true south. (Remember, the map south is normally the true south, unless special purpose map).

Michael

 

[Mr Tony]

true south is the same as longitude

Where I am (93W), true south is T6

 

[Shawn95GT]

You can also get your lat / long by your address at:

Geocode.com

I used this for my USALS 'antenna position' and TS was easy enough with a compass with a declination correction built in (you dial it in). It cost me all of $10 from a sporting goods store.

A great piece of free software worth getting is Satfinder:

http://vps.arachnoid.com/satfinder/

It's java so make sure you have Java installed on your computer.

 

[CharredPC]

Ok, putting up my Winegard/SG2100 at a new location. Now the wife can't even complain as much becuase I'm not on the roof anymore

This look right to everyone?

I'm at 40.313407 North, 111.695293 West (Orem, UT). Therefore...
Motor elevation = 50
Dish Elevation = 24
Due South = ~111.7

That due south direction puts me a little at a disadvantage; my closest "true south sat" would be Anik F2. Pretty useless. So probably Dish 110 (1.7 degrees off) will have to do. Maybe if I set the motor at position 1 or 2 instead of 0 while I line up my true south.. ?

 

[PSB]

Looks Good!

 

[CharredPC]

grrr... rotten thing. I think I need a level..

Ok, pointing the dish WAY (like, almost all the way) to the East gets me some Echostar-like thing, but with no FTA channels. I'm assuming Echo 1 or 2, or else a wacky relection of 110 or 119. But nothing else pulls up. Am I right in probably assuming my pole isn't straight, hence my height being off, etc? What's really odd is that for the first time, the quality has shot over 80% on that way-east phantom sat. Too bad there's no channels there...

CharredPC

Edit: strike that last E1/2 remark, I apparently can't read lyngsat correctly today

 

[PSB]

Remember for 110w you will need a DBS LNB and change your L.O. to 11250

 

[CharredPC]

Actually, I use FrankenLNB with a LO of 10910 But it did start out as a DBS lnb...

Also, I get 110W with the DirecPC lnb, which isn't DBS, is it?

 

[PSB]

I get 110w with a KU LNBF also but to get the right frequency you would have to use a DBS LNB. (11250 L.O.)

 

[Shawn95GT]

I'm in the same boat (well close - 112 long). I originally hit Echo 6/8 (110) for TS but that was rough with the Ku LNB.

I decided to use USALS / G10R since I had already had the dish fixed there for a while and could almost eyeball the dish pointing. This worked out nice. I USALS'd over to 123W and tried to peak the dish... I got a climbing quality bar but it wouldn't lock on. I tilted the dish slightly east and the signal came in. I took the u-bolts for the motor loose and rotated the whole assembly about 2°-3° east ('till it peaked) and dialed in the elevation. I tightened everything down and commanded IA-5 via USALS... it came right in. To say I was happy is an understatement. AMC 6 etc all are dead nuts on.

The E* bird almost due east is E*3 (61.5). With an un-altered DSS LNB you'll get international promos out there. I know... exciting. E* 1&2 (148W) has the same thing in the clear. There might be a radio channel but I think it's just the music they use for the promo channel.

About half way back between 61.5 and true south is Nimiq 1/3 (91W). This is the spot for an INSANE amount of radio channels in the clear from BEV using a DSS LNB.

If USALS is working for you, use G10R. You've been there already. You can have the LNB all dialed in so all you have to do it point the dish / motor.

 

[Mr Tony]

About half way back between 61.5 and true south is Nimiq 1/3 (91W). This is the spot for an INSANE amount of radio channels in the clear from BEV using a DSS LNB.

There's 35 radio channels there....Galaxie audio (45 of them) use to be in the clear too...but got scrambled

 

[CharredPC]

Isn't this always the way it works?

After climbing up and down the shed all day in the hot sun (gotta be 90 out there today) and having no luck, I looked at my H-only DPC lnb and Frankenlnb, and thought, oh, why not. I set them aside and put the "defective" Universal lnb on. I've tried everything else! At this point I'm just looking for ANYTHING recognizable, just to get my bearings. *grumble* I still am not getting anything over 65% signal on this lnb... but stopped on one 65% point and began tossing transponders at it anyway.

One of AMC4's lit up to 50% quality.

3ABN, TAN, Lawyers test card... yep, it's AMC4 alright, and working better than any other lnb I've used. Now (in theory) I just have to get up there, mark the angle, extrapolate true south (or limp from signal to signal until I'm at true south) and I'll be done.

... now I have to apologize to the guy I was about to return this lnb to..

EDIT/PS: .. and good greif, 98% Quality on 3ABN! Can't wait to lock in G10.

 

[Mr Tony]

EDIT/PS: .. and good greif, 98% Quality on 3ABN! Can't wait to lock in G10.

3ABN pegs at 99 most fo the time

 

[Shawn95GT]

There's 35 radio channels there....Galaxie audio (45 of them) use to be in the clear too...but got scrambled

Have you checked recently? I'll double check tonight but I could swear I'm seeign them.

 

[Mr Tony]

Have you checked recently? I'll double check tonight but I could swear I'm seeign them.

last night.....checked it With the “FTA only” option……the scrambled one shows its scrambled and no audio. This has been like that for a while now.

Dish 119 has a bunch of audio only….in duplicate : )

 

[neil_kc1]

I tried to find true south and this is what worked best for me. if your receiver has usals on it, point your dish in the direction of south, then simply tell you receiver to move your dish to the closest south satellite for your location. when it gets to position simply loosen your dish from the pole and physicall move it to the sharpest signal for that satellite. if you have identified the correct satellite, when you tighten the dish back down, when you 0 your motor it should be pointed exactly to true south. Any one else try this?

 

[Shawn95GT]

I tried to find true south and this is what worked best for me. if your receiver has usals on it, point your dish in the direction of south, then simply tell you receiver to move your dish to the closest south satellite for your location. when it gets to position simply loosen your dish from the pole and physicall move it to the sharpest signal for that satellite. if you have identified the correct satellite, when you tighten the dish back down, when you 0 your motor it should be pointed exactly to true south. Any one else try this?

I would agree except don't loosen the dish - it should be parrellel with the motor at zero position. Turn thewhole motor / dish assy for azmuth adjustment.

 

[neil_kc1]

thanks shawn, of course that is what i intended to say. i misspoke.