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Hi all.Is there any thing on the market compass wise which will give a true reading INSIDE the van so I don't have to wander outside like a plonker with my compass in my hand?I have tried cheap ones ,expensive ones and still no luck.I realize the metalwork of the van can affect the thing but please,any other ways round this?
Hi my experence is a bit limited, but i have found anywhere in my van the compas is a waste of time with all the magnetic felids held within the van, for example loudspeakers, engine management etc..... you are far better off using a compass outside the van when looking for satelites or in my case DF'ing for microwave shots..... if you want it for the direction whilst you are driving then use the tom tom for that....
When I was still cursing and struggling with a manual dish, after one successful lock onto the satellite I took careful note of the number of turns of the little handle it needed to lower it.
After that (so long as the van was more or less level) all I did was wind up the handle that number of turns (22.5 in my case) That got the elevation close enough to get a signal by rotating the dish - even if it was not strong enough to lock.
Once I got a signal it was simple enough to firtle the windage and elevation a little bit either way to get a lock.
(It is important to "approach" the satellite from the right direction, because there are two very close together. The "wrong" one will give a strong enough signal to get a lock, but no TV programmes will appear.
I think you approach from the East, then you hit the right one first, but I may be wrong. Somebody will know.)
Hope this helps. Once I had learned the idiosyncrasies of the brute it rarely took more than a minute to get a lock on the correct satellite.
If you have to go outside to set up your dish on a tripod then I don't see the point, you might as well use a compass. On the other hand if you have a dish like zeebedee, you could try using >this look up table< It should get you close enough to finely adjust it.
peedee
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I go outside, away from the van and take a reading and then fix on a point on the horizon in line with that compass heading. That means I can put the compass away.
Mine is a freestanding dish. Normally it only takes a very short while to line up. As has been said, start a bit too far to the East and work round to the South.
I start almost due East now as the arm for the LNB is bent. I spent an hour (looking a right prat) trying to get a signal on a THS before I twigged what the problem was. I set up the Sky signal quality screen on the TV and check through the van window, to see if I am lined up.
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I always just set the elevation, swing the dish well to the east, then slowly move it back to south, once I get a signal on the sat finder, I then fine tune the elevation setting.
On sites it is normally easy to just look at where everybody else's dishes are pointing!
It is definitely a task you need to practice as zeb says get your elevation worked out in practice sessions. Your satellite is located vertically over the equator so the further south you travel the more you will have to elevate it. The next thing to consider is how far you vary east or west from the Greenwich meridian line, for Astra 2 which is what the sky transmissions have been broadcast on 28.2 degrees east of south. but when you get as far East as Frankfurt you are that much further round so your 28.2 is now something like 25.5.
Unfortunately Sky try their best to restrict the places that the beam hits or footprint to the UK so the further you travel the less of the signal your dish will capture, this is why you need the larger dishes.
The final tweak that is available in really weak signal areas and that means on the edge of the footprint; Not behind a tree, is to rotate the Lnb ( the bit that actually the signal is focused on. Because alternate channels are broadcast either vertically or horizontally and because as you move east and west the lattice grid of signals moves with the curvature of the earth, then adjusting this skew angle as it is called can sometimes line up some of those illusive channels.
Finally weather conditions and day and night cause signal strength fluctuations.
So with your van level and your knowledge of the elevation you need as Zeb says move your dish towards the south from the East. Because the digital signal takes a few seconds to be unscrambled and create a buffer for smooth watching you will need to pause each time you move the dish. It really is easier when you have the elevation correct first.
Good luck with your endeavours, practice in the UK before you venture onto the continent.
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Thanks for the confirmation Traveller - I was relying on the ancient memory!
I have an Alden Planar "dish" now which does all the work for me . . . not because I was dis-satisfied with the Maxview Crankup, but Mrs Zeb's hands are not strong enough for the fine tuning when rotating the dish.
There's quite a lot of inertia and she was having to reach up on tiptoe almost, and just couldn't do it. Having missed a vital programme a couple of times while I was out with the dog, I was forced to prise the wallet open!
We tend to watch less and less TV as we go further South, which is fortunate because the skew angle is fixed on the Alden Planar.
It can all be a challenge at times and on the Camos crank up plus you can rotate the whole planerer receiver when you want to alter the skew angle. I have a Christmas cracker compass attached to the protractor ring and it has been awesome at helping find Astra 2. Never use any sort of meter to locate, just watch the signal strength on the mini box menu. Was OK in Denia and further down in Murcia. But it really is the elevation that makes it easy and no compass is going to show you that.
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