Dish satellite direction

Offset satellite dishes are

If you want a satellite different from Arabsat (BADR) at 26 deg east select the satellite you want to point towards using the pull down menu box at the lower right. The Arabsat (BADR) at 26 deg east orbit longitude is just an example.

Put your grab hand shaped mouse cursor near your location, hold the left mouse down and drag to the centre of the map. Alternatively double click the hand and the map display should now jump so that your chosen location is in the middle. The lat and long of the map centre is then shown below, together with your satellite dish pointing azimuth, elevation and polarisation angles.

Centre the map around:

To improve the accuracy, click on the plus sign in the navigation boxes at the upper left side of the map. The scale will get bigger so that you can accurately find your site. Repeat several times if necessary. You may investigate the cities and streets for accurate location information. For satellite antenna pointing, an approximation is OK.

Dish pointing (Azimuth and elevation mount):

Set the dish elevation angle first. This is the up/down angle and there may be an elevation scale on the back. Setting the feed polarisation angle involves rotating the BUC/LNB. There may be polarisation rotation scale at the narrow feed throat. Facing the satellite, clockwise is positive.

For the side to side azimuth bearing use a magnetic compass and boldly swing the dish sideways near that angle. You should find the satellite on the first swing, then spend half an hour peaking up. Peaking up is very important for long term service quality and minimum outage time during any rain fades.

The azimuth direction is also shown by the blue line. If you consider the blue line and adjacent buildings or roof edges it may help you point your dish.

I have marked the towns of Buraydah, Kumdah, Al Madinah, Ar-Riyad, Al Manama, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Aden, Yemen and Muscat, Oman. If you want somewhere marked please email me. The geocoder does not yet work for all place names. Try more words, including country name, that sometimes helps. e.g. Aden Yemen

Related posts: