The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[Tonka]

Does any one use a satellite finder when setting up their dish when caravanning?

If so, what do you recommend?

[Google]

[minesapasty]

With digital satellite, the chances of finding the right satellite and getting it so that you recieve all channels at the maximum quality available is nigh on diddly, unless you are either very lucky, or have the patience of a saint, and are willing to use the recievers built in meter to tell you when the signal is there etc, and to be fair the displays obtained through a recievers menu are only a guide, but they are useful for checking which satellite you are pointing the dish at (see later).

For a cheap and relatively easy way of setting up a dish, getting an in line meter (about £10), is all that you need. They are powered by the satellite reciever, so no batteries to worry about......... Lidls (St Austell) have some for sale right now, I assume that the stuff they advertise via their magazines are national, not just for individual stores, so worth popping into your local store....... or drop me a PM and I'll go and get one for anyone who wants one, if there are any left.

Most satellite kits give you a tripod mount for the dish, or if you have a dish that you picked up, then just a straight pole and then people connect it to their caravan A frame or sink it in the ground by their tent....... either way, to make the job a lot easier, make sure that you have a spirit level with you, and ensure that the pole is upright (you will need to check at one place on the pole and then at 90 degrees).

To align your dish for Sky/Freesat, work out roughly where 28.2 degrees East of due South is (during the summer months it will be where the sun is in the sky at about 10.30 am   ), then connect the meter, so that the port marked LNB is connected to the LNB and the port marked Reciever is connected to the wire that goes to your box (easy to follow so far?). You then turn on the satellite reciever, and turn the potentiometer (knob) on the meter to the least sensative position, and slowly move the dish. The meter should be making a squealing noise, as you move your dish, the squeal will change, the higher the pitch goes, the stronger the signal your dish is picking up, once you feel that it is at the highest pitch, adjust the knob on the meter and the pitch of the squeal goes down, you can then adjust the dish again to obtain the highest pitched squeal that you can get, eventually, following and repeating the procedure, get the dish to as good as you can. Also, at this point, I need to add, that you should also remember the required angle of elevation, which varies depending upon how far North/South you are, as this also contributes to the alignment....... once you have the best signal then, lock the dish and bobs your aunts husband. Some meters also have LEDs on them to give a visual display to show strength/quality of signal.

Another little tip is, during the procedure, it is worth checking the recievers display meter that shows signal strength/quality, as this will show you if you are on the right satellite........ if your reciever is only capable of recieving Sky/Freesat, then if you are on Astra2, there will be both quality and strength shown by bars on the display..... strength but no quality will mean that you are on the wrong satellite. Some recievers are capable of recieving different satellite transmissions, so make sure that you have the reciever selected to a channel which is transmitted on the satellite that you want it to point to.

There are many different satellite meters available, and they vary in price, the better the meter, the more expensive they are......... but a cheap basic one (Lidls have one for sale currently) is ideal for a camping holiday set-up. Just remember to remove the meter after alignment........ they will not stand being left out in the rain.