My uncle gave me his when I was about 16. Been hooked ever since. It was one of those with a hand crank to move the dish. 10 Foot Fiberglass. (still in use as a fish pond)
He had no system of finding the satellites but I thought of something. I gave it 1 turn ran inside to search for signals on the receiver ran back outside to the dish gave it another turn.
Eventually I had all the satellites available in my area and when I wanted a particular satellite like Galaxy 5 I would go outside and start turning for like 50 turns. And poof TV.
I got a lot of exercise running out to the dish to change satellites and turning the hand crank. I had a path in the grass from running back and forth.
I'd like to have a hand crank on a small Ku band they still make those hand cranks for dishes? Now at least I have a satellite meter so no running needed now. lol