Re: OT: Aiming A Satellite Dish w/o a Satellite In Place

Barry S. wrote:

Although not related to GPS, I was wondering if anyone knew the answer
to this..

If you are putting up a satellite dish for a satellite that is not yet
in orbit. How does one aim it? Telescope? Reference to celestial
bodies? Total Station and coordinates?

Anyone know?

Pretty much the same way you do currently with working birds. Aim first, then fine-tune (or find if you're off) till you get a good signal.

Except you don't have the luxury of fine tuning (or finding if your aim was off).

You still need to look for and/or fine tune once it's in service. You won't be able to get close enough guesses to not need to adjust afterwards.

As far as guessing in the first place goes, you can get pretty accurate numbers (with knowing your location, and the birds location).
The hard part is translating the directions into real-life postions. 43.2567 degrees is easy enough to calculate, but a little harder to read from a compass and translate this to a direction to where the dish points.

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