quick and easy satalite aiming

[cody]

I figured I'd start a new thread on this, I have a direct tv oblong HD dish with the 3 eyeballs and room for another, each time I park it's miserable to aim and get a quality signal if any signal at all, when I try to do it by myself I fail miserably, normally at some point a more experienced voice will chime in and cut me down from the tree I'm trying to hang from and poof it's aimed, WHAT IS THE SECRET LOL, I have the aimer meter, it just cornfuses me, I watch the tv for the numbers and they just confuce me, I believe that I reached my level of competance with rabbit ears and tin foil, I level the tripod and get the bubble perfect, from there it's all down hill.  I can't affford a dish that aims itself, I maybe the only guy left on the planet that god intended radio for.

[Eagle]

I am in the same tree with you Cody.  What I have started doing is get the tripod level and set the elevation and then I start just West of West and very slowly rotate the dish back toward the South.

[redbus]

Cody
When I was in the U-P I had a lot of trouble also because of all the trees. You are aiming really low on the horizon. Do you have the same problem in Florida?

[cody]

Terry, in florida I only had the batwing antenna on the roof and from Jacks I could see the towers out in a field a mile or so away.  It just gets frustrating for me but I guess I don't do it often enough to really get the feel for it. And when were you in the UP without calling to say hi.

[redbus]

We were in the U-P the end of July for a couple of weeks or so. We went to Sault Ste Marie,to a State Forest Campground near Crisp Point,then to U.S.2 and on to Wisconsin.
I sent you a message asking about the anti K.O.A. but I guess you did not get it.

[Ncbob]

C"mon fellas, it can't be that difficult. I have a Dish TV antenna with a single LNB and a magnetic compass ($2 at Wally World) and the TV gives me the azimuth (direction) and the elevation for the Zip code I'm in.

I don't have any way to level the tripod except by earballing it. But I have a little trick that I use. I have a pair of hand held walkie-talkies one of which I put on the TV with a rubber band around the PTT (Push to Talk) switch and carry the other in my pocket. When the beeps get rapid I know I'm close.  This way I take the wife out of the equation and so there's no screaming and bitching!

Now if you have multiple LNB's and the dish has to be canted sideways a few degrees...you're paying too much for your Satellite services...so send me the excesses. 

Best of luck.

NCbob

[cody]

Bob, you nailed it, now i know whats wrong, my dish is the oblong one thats got the tilt feature needed to make it work and, I'm to much set in the straight and narrow path lol.

[PP]

So after all these years of listening to that screaming voice coming from the walkie talkie, all I needed was a rubber band? 

[buswarrior]

Rubber band on the ptt?

NCBob, the smartest guy in the room!!

thank you, very muchly!

happy coaching!
buswarrior