Has anyone successfully DIY aligned their satellite dish?
I got a kit on ebay that came with a cheap meter, I have put the dish up and pointed it roughly in the direction of my other dish. Then put the meter on it and set it to where I get the best reading, and done this numerous times reducing the sensitivity as I went. It certainly appears to be aligned to a satellite and if it isn't the one I want it is the only one I can find, but the receiver box shows 0 signal.
I'll pay for someone to sort it if necessary but I had thought it would be a piece of piss.
It's certainly easy enough to DIY, I used this site
there is also
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the cheapo meter, you do realise you have to turn it down until it doesn't make a noise/deflection, then aim dish until you find a satellite and it starts making a noise again, then turn it down again and make finer alignments, rinse and repeat (some advocate half-covering the dish with a damp cloth in the final step).
A compass is helpful to determine which satellite you have pointed it at and a cheapo meter with acoustic feedback ( a whine that gets higher with increasing signal is less faff than reading a meter - or having someone else read it and say better or worse).
Make sure you are pointed at the satellite you intended first - they are pretty crowded along the equatorial line.
I wonder what you have got? I didn't have much bother - aligned by eye using a compass got me something and then I optimised from there...
I set the altitude based on knowing my latitude which reduces it to a 1D search in azimuth. Then tweaked the altitude slightly afterwards.
The first time I aligned mine I had problems getting the correct satellite. In the end I mounted it on a workmate placed where I could see the TV. I then moved the satellite watching the read out on the TV until I got the correct satellite. I then adjusted it in the horizontal plane, took a compass reading finally adjusted it in the vertical plane, then made a gauge out of a bit of cardboard, mounted the dish in its final position using the compass and the gauge. Fine tuned then using the meter. A bit of a faff, but worked for me. Now that I know its position I have managed with just the meter to et it up.
One thing to add is that some cheapie kits from last year (Ross) had mismarked elevation angles that complicated setup. I realised the problem wasn't me as I had set up a well made triax dish the year before and it had been a piece of piss by comparison. On azimuth alignment I found going to a map based alignment site and finding a landmark to line the boom up with was a far easier than using a compass (which would be affected by the metal boom if used too close).
Easiest way I found is to first look up the azimuth of the satellite you want as it appears from your location, then print off a Google maps satellite view zoomed in on your house. Plot the azimuth line on the map and note any landmark points it goes through that you can see from your satellite dish (my required azimuth goes right through a lamp post). Then align the azimuth of the dish by using the dish boom as a boresight through the landmark(s). Lock the dish azimuth so it is stiff but not locked. Then adjust the dish elevation up and down while peaking the meter, followed by a final tweak of the dish azimuth.
Yes, dozens of times in fact every time we use the caravan and it takes just a few minutes to set it up. Looking at another dish can only get you pointing in roughly the correct direction. Check the existing one's aim with a compass, then get your second one to point the same way. A piece of wood with a bit of sting, a nut for a weight and a pencil mark, should allow you to get the vertical aim the same.
Finally tweak the adjustment for strongest signal with the meter.
Because dish geometries vary, the correct elevation angle might look 'wrong' to you. You might think the dish is looking too high or too low. So don't be mislead by comparing with other dishes.
I used a Silva TD15CL compass and got an assistant to do a back-bearing to the dish/LNB using the sighting mirror, then the test tone in the receiver to work on the elevation. It works well enough for receiving TV.
It's just that when we are asked by people to align their new dish ("I've tried and tried...") quite often they are miles out with the elevation because they expect the dish face to be roughly the same as next door's, which might not be the same geometry. Also people line up on one satellite, but it isn't the right one, and don't realise they have to adjust the elevation quite a lot if they've found (say) 5W and they want (say) 28E.
Another thing is, 28E is quite a low elevation (look angle) and people don't always realise how trees etc can be in in the way.
Yes, people do it all the time. I have an entire section of my website devoted to it. From the tone of your post, I suggest that it would benefit you to read the General Intro before trying to use the calculator page linked previously by Andy (thanks, Andy):
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I got a kit on ebay that came with a cheap meter, I have put the dish up
Satellite dishes have to be aligned with far greater accuracy than conventional TV Aerials. With an aerial, unless conditions are unusually difficult, anything within a few degrees of the transmitter's actual direction will almost certainly get a signal. With a satellite dish, you have to align to within about a degree or less before you'll even get a signal to help you make the final, fine adjustments. Thus looking at neighbouring dishes is not really more than a very rough guide, especially as, although most will be pointed to 28.2E, there's no guarantee that any one that you happen to be able to see will be - if its owned by a family from some ethnic minority, it may be aimed at a satellite serving the country whence came their ancestors.
BTW, for those interested, my site also has a similar section on DIY TV aerial alignment.
If you can just check that your SAT receiver is OK first on a known good satellite receiver aerial..
Unless you know for -certain- it was working OK elsewhere..
Otherwise a bit of patience and only move it in very small increments they need a bit of time to respond;!..
If its a Sky receiver there is a built in test scale can't remember it now as we use a differing RX for Sat use but ISTR it was option 4 and prolly 4 again somewhere in the setup menu....
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