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Pixl
Pixl
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in C-BAND Satellite Discussion

alignment on Polaris

My thanks to who ever posted instructions for setting your geo arc by sighting Polaris. I forgot where I read it, one of the threads on this message board somewhere, but tried it and worked perfectly in one try.

Jim
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skysurfer
skysurfer
TantalusFld said:
My thanks to who ever posted instructions for setting your geo arc by sighting Polaris. I forgot where I read it, one of the threads on this message board somewhere, but tried it and worked perfectly in one try.

Jim
Click to expand...

thanks for the memories. that's how I sighted my first couple dish instalsl way back when. Polaris was just visible over the roofline on one of them and I did the polaris sighting thing before I put the reflector on it.

Nowdays I just use the inclinometer to get the angles in the neighborhood, rotate the dish about the pole until I'm about due south and use the signal meter to look for lock on my due south sat and go from there.
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Pixl
Pixl
skysurfer said:
Nowdays I just use the inclinometer to get the angles in the neighborhood, rotate the dish about the pole until I'm about due south and use the signal meter to look for lock on my due south sat and go from there.
Click to expand...

My South sat is 85° doesn't seem to be anything on it. Using 87° peak and then move over a little I just never got it right.
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B.J.
B.J.
I own 2 Arctic Cats myself. My Bearcat is a real work horse. Use it to pull a sled around to collect sap from my maple trees in the spring (this year I didn't get anything, due to global warming I guess). But I wouldn't trade my Bearcat for one of those fancy drag racing models.

But back to Polaris, a couple comments.
I wouldn't call it the most accurate method, unless you had an accurate spotting scope attached, and got some good tables for when Polaris was at what angle.
Polaris isn't exactly at the north pole, it's off by about 3/4ths of a degree. I used to have a telescope on a motorized polar mount (I now have a Dobsonian instead), and I had a little chart I was supposed to use to estimate where to aim to account for the fact that Polaris wasn't really north. I never used the chart, because I didn't do anything that requirred that much accuracy, I just wanted things to stay in view when the motor turned.

So anyway, if you use Polaris exactly, you won't be aligned perfectly with the earth's axis, but you'll be off by 3/4ths of a degree.... but this could be a good thing, because you don't WANT to be aligned perfectly. You actually want to be off by about 0.6 degrees. So you could be very close to perfect using Polaris, if you used it at the right time, ie when Polaris was at the hour angle corresponding to your longitude, but if you do it at the wrong time, you could be off by up to 1.3 degrees. It's been so many years since I've even looked through a telescope, I've long forgotten how to do that, but you can probably find tables at the naval observatory site that would tell you what time to do it, that is if it was worth the effort. I still think using a digital level of some kind on the rotation axis is the most accurate way of getting the right elevation, provided that your mount has a good place for the level to sit on. Although Polaris could get you pretty close to the proper Azimuth.

Anyway, it's great to take your Arctic Cats out into the middle of an ice covered lake late at night, stop and look up at Polaris. I don't think I'll do that any more though. Not since I went though the ice a couple years ago. Went through the ice twice actually. Once on purpose rescuing my dog, who went through, and couldn't get out, and a 2nd time when my snowmobile went through. I was lucky both times in that I was close to shore, but it's no fun either way, particularly having to walk a mile home both times soaked to the chin. Anyway, I'm a bit nervous about driving on lakes anymore when nobody is around to help.
Boy, I did it again.... way off topic again. Sorry. I just don't know when to shut up.
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skysurfer
skysurfer
TantalusFld said:
My South sat is 85° doesn't seem to be anything on it. Using 87° peak and then move over a little I just never got it right.
Click to expand...

that's okay. Short of a portable signal meter that locks onto DVB-S2, you are correct that there is nothing on 85 deg W. 87 deg W is close enough if all you have access to is a DVB-S signal meter or receiver.

you can get your elevation in the neighborhood by using 87W and then use your extreme sat to get the polar axis set closely. If you don't like yoru results, you can go back to due south (85W), figure out how many counts 87W is from 85W, and move your dish those few clicks and do a final due-south-sat elevation touch-up iand redo your extreme sat again since the elevation change should have changed where the polar axis needs to be.
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Pixl
Pixl
B.J. said:
Anyway, it's great to take your Arctic Cats out into the middle of an ice covered lake late at night, stop and look up at Polaris.
Click to expand...

So I could ride a Polaris out in the middle of a frozen lake at night and look up or down and see Polaris.:)

Actually I wouldn't go out on the lake at night anymore after my wife and I dropped two sleds thru the ice in 60ft of water. We crawled back to shore, pretty scary. Sheriff dept practiced dived on the sleds a month later and brought them up. I dried them up, got them started, and used them for several years before I gave up the sport. Even still rode frozen lakes, but not at night anymore.

I now like satellites over snowmobiles as a hobby.
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Pixl
Pixl
skysurfer said:
you can get your elevation in the neighborhood by using 87W and then use your extreme sat to get the polar axis set closely.
Click to expand...

Sky, this is pretty much what I did, and getting it in the neighborhood was about it. Might have been dumb luck that I sighted it at the right time and got it in one try. Polaris worked for me.
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B.J.
B.J.
TantalusFld said:
So I could ride a Polaris out in the middle of a frozen lake at night and look up or down and see Polaris.:)
Click to expand...
Just don't try aligning your dish on the snowmobile.
TantalusFld said:
Actually I wouldn't go out on the lake at night anymore after my wife and I dropped two sleds thru the ice in 60ft of water. We crawled back to shore, pretty scary. ....
Click to expand...
My snowmobile through the ice thing wasn't in deep water. The lake had frozen over in mid December, and I had been across the lake several times, but then we had a freak rainstorm, and a bunch of water came down a stream and messed up the ice near where a stream went in. It then froze over again, and I had forgotten about the rain, and went out on the lake not knowing the ice was only an inch thick near shore. If I had kept going, I would have been OK, but I tried turning back toward shore after I got out about 100', and went through. I was lucky that it was only about 3' deep where I was, but I slipped getting off the sled, and went up to my chin. Had to walk a mile home in 12 deg weather. After warming up, I took my tractor down, went out in the water again, with fishing waders on, and tied a long cable and chain to the thing and pulled it out. It started right up, although it didn't ever go completely under, because the near empty gas tank kept the back afloat, and I had managed to get the skiis part way up on the ice to partially support the front.
When my dog went through, that was over my head, but I broke my way through the ice making a path to get to the dog, then used the ice to pull myself back to shore. I didn't realize that it was as deep as it was, or I may have tried some other way of getting to the dog. The dog used to like to swim, but never went near the water again after that.
Both experiences made me not want to go through the ice again. Every year, several people go through the ice up here, and kill themselves. The wierd thing is that people drive their snowmobiles on the open water on purpose. Last year two guys tried going across almost a mile of open water, taking a shortcut to the other side. One of them made it. The other one wasn't found for a couple weeks.

Anyway, I notice you're from Traverse City Mi. I used to work with a guy from there. He went back there when he retired. He has a cabin on a small lake there. You might be interested in a SSTV image I recorded off HAM radio years ago. It was from a ham radio they had up on the MIR space station taking pictures of the ground it was passing over. I recorded a nice picture of Traverse Bay on one pass.
You can see the solar panels and part of the MIR space station in the picture too.

http://www.megalink.net/~wejones/mir-mich.jpg




I think it was taken in Jan 1999. At least that's the date on the file.
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Pixl
Pixl
BJ,

Quite an interesting story of your snowmobiling adventure. What part of Maine are you in. I've been to Bar Harbor a few times. Great place!
And thanks for the picture of Traverse City from the Russian space station. Amazing the Ruskies were doing ham radio from up there. I'm putting the pix on my desktop.

Jim
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B.J.
B.J.
TantalusFld said:
BJ,

Quite an interesting story of your snowmobiling adventure. What part of Maine are you in. I've been to Bar Harbor a few times. Great place!
And thanks for the picture of Traverse City from the Russian space station. Amazing the Ruskies were doing ham radio from up there. I'm putting the pix on my desktop.

Jim
Click to expand...

Bar Harbor IS a great place, but we're nearly a 4 hour drive from there, in western Maine, so we seldom get there. I can see the mountains in NH from my house.
Re the "Ruskies" doing the ham radio, although they used it too, there were a lot of Americans who flew on Mir too, and they are the ones who took up the ham radios. If I remember right, I think the SSTV was done on a Kenwood HT that had a mode where it could do SSTV, and they just pointed it out the window and let it run by itself. You'd get maybe three or so pictures per pass. They've had similar capability on the ISS, but I haven't tried much with it. Only thing I ever downloaded from ISS was a slate saying something like hello from the ISS, ie not a live picture. But that was a couple years ago, maybe they have better images now, but it's only rarely in SSTV mode.
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Greg Mueller
Greg Mueller
The easiest way to find Polaris is by using the "Big Dipper"
Using the two stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper opposite the handle, draw a line between them and extend it out. The first star you come to is Polaris

Polaris-found.jpg
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Ham Radio 2.0
· posted in Ham Radio 2.0

The Best Black Friday Deals for Off-Grid Comms Right Now!

Time for another AWESOME video from Ham Radio 2.0!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFoqfrcM8pw


Direct YouTube Link - The Best Black Friday Deals for Off-Grid Comms Right Now!
Ham Radio 2.0 Website
Ham Radio 2.0 on Facebook
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

AI Hiking Advice Nearly Turns Deadly on Mount Shasta #shorts

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!


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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

Google's AI Ultimatum for Schools

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!


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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

Religious Exemption from Using AI?

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!


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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

The Binance Crypto Heist

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5TCAV3Cek


Direct YouTube Link - The Binance Crypto Heist
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Lon.TV
· posted in Lon.TV

HP’s Answer to the MacBook Neo? OmniBook 5 14 Review

Time for another AWESOME video from Lon Seidman of LON.TV!


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Direct YouTube Link - HP's Answer to the MacBook Neo? OmniBook 5 14 Review
The Official LON.TV Website
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ewindowman
ewindowman
Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum

Dish Bankruptcy - Business as Usual

Looks like dish is Bankrupt. Filling tomorrow Tuesday June 30th
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nelson61
nelson61
Washington Post

SpaceX has held talks with Boost's parent company EchoStar in recent months about launching its own signature wireless service through a deal with the company, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
Musk, the SpaceX CEO, has discussed the deal personally, meeting with EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen last month, according to the people. The potential deal may result in SpaceX acquiring Boost Mobile or SpaceX gaining access to its network, which it leases from AT&T and T-Mobile US, the people said.
Access to those lease agreements would be a coup for SpaceX. The back door would allow Musk to make a play for a U.S. wireless market that equity research firm MoffettNathanson estimates is worth $235 billion. But the proposed service may need consent from those carriers for the service to actually launch, the people said.
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Scott Greczkowski
Scott Greczkowski
nelson61 said:
Washington Post

SpaceX has held talks with Boost's parent company EchoStar in recent months about launching its own signature wireless service through a deal with the company, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
Musk, the SpaceX CEO, has discussed the deal personally, meeting with EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen last month, according to the people. The potential deal may result in SpaceX acquiring Boost Mobile or SpaceX gaining access to its network, which it leases from AT&T and T-Mobile US, the people said.
Access to those lease agreements would be a coup for SpaceX. The back door would allow Musk to make a play for a U.S. wireless market that equity research firm MoffettNathanson estimates is worth $235 billion. But the proposed service may need consent from those carriers for the service to actually launch, the people said.
Click to expand...
Can't remember where or who I saw predict this. :D

It wouldn't surprise me to see Elon soon own all of DISH / Echostar in the future.
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Bruce
Bruce
Scott Greczkowski said:
It wouldn't surprise me to see Elon soon own all of DISH / Echostar in the future.
Click to expand...
Again, why would Musk want a TV Service, specially one that is losing over a million subscribers a year.

Phone service…maybe, but not TV.
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Scott Greczkowski
Scott Greczkowski
Bruce said:
Again, why would Musk want a TV Service, specially one that is losing over a million subscribers a year.

Phone service…maybe, but not TV.
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I know he wants TV. He wants to deliver EVERYTHING to EVERYWHERE.
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Bruce
Bruce
Scott Greczkowski said:
I know he wants TV. He wants to deliver EVERYTHING to EVERYWHERE.
Click to expand...
Again, if so, why would he want Dish/Sling of all the providers?

He could deliver anything without actually owning, for example, watching the Lions game in my Tesla Y on it's screen via the YT app, while on the way to my future in-laws on Sunday.
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Bruce
Bruce
www.lightreading.com

SpaceX boldly goes into 'huge' 5G network rollout with Qualcomm

After trying satellites and small cells, Elon Musk's SpaceX is to build a terrestrial mobile network across tens of thousands of sites with Qualcomm.
www.lightreading.com
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Bruce
Bruce
nelson61 said:
Washington Post

SpaceX has held talks with Boost's parent company EchoStar in recent months about launching its own signature wireless service through a deal with the company, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
Musk, the SpaceX CEO, has discussed the deal personally, meeting with EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen last month, according to the people. The potential deal may result in SpaceX acquiring Boost Mobile or SpaceX gaining access to its network, which it leases from AT&T and T-Mobile US, the people said.
Access to those lease agreements would be a coup for SpaceX. The back door would allow Musk to make a play for a U.S. wireless market that equity research firm MoffettNathanson estimates is worth $235 billion. But the proposed service may need consent from those carriers for the service to actually launch, the people said.
Click to expand...
If Musk really wants to buy Boost, he might get a great price once Dish Wireless is out of Chapter 11.

Boost just lost 182,000 subs in the 3rd quarter-

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M
man00
Is Dish like Iran in one way...they both will totally collapse by end of week :)
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Foxbat
Foxbat
Other than the price, my experience with Boost is not that different than what I experienced with my years with Cricket. I will be curious to see what happens if SpaceX takes the reins.
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S
slow_poke_pete
Bruce said:
Again, if so, why would he want Dish/Sling of all the providers?

He could deliver anything without actually owning, for example, watching the Lions game in my Tesla Y on it's screen via the YT app, while on the way to my future in-laws on Sunday.
Click to expand...
dish has new sats dtv does not
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Scott Greczkowski
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Song Name Game Part 3!

Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
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Shooz - Styx
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dishstaller
Too Much Time on My Hands - Styx
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sdfntx
sdfntx
Time Has Come Today - The Chambers Brothers
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long_time_Dish
No Time - The Guess Who
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hwkn
TIME Won't Let Me-The Outsiders
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dishstaller
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club

I think we could all use a laugh - Rodney Dangerfield on Carson

Good...simple humor. Enjoy


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E92AtfTLge4

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJy0WnejlF4
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dishstaller
dishstaller
Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.
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dfergie
dfergie
I loved it when Rodney was on the Tonight Show...
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Foxbat
Foxbat
dishstaller said:
Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.
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Thanks, I wasn't sure if you had the wrong Subject or the wrong YouTube link.
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osu1991
osu1991
Was a Don Rickles fan. I've dvr'd most of his appearances on Carson from the antenna tv replays.

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dishstaller
dishstaller
More Dangerfield rapid fire on Carson.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scEQFHQHHhU
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dishdude
dishdude
Rodney Dangerfield is great. One of his best one liners - "My wife likes to talk to me during sex, last night she called me from Florida!"

Jackie Gleason is another one of the greats.


View: https://youtu.be/ciUV77AzIB4
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dfergie
dfergie
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU!
Last reply · posted in Movie Talk

Godzilla Minus Zero


View: https://youtu.be/n-NDYWPXpKg?si=hcI4ueMkFCreZ8Qq
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primestar31
primestar31
dfergie said:

View: https://youtu.be/n-NDYWPXpKg?si=hcI4ueMkFCreZ8Qq
Click to expand...

Wait, didn't this one come out a few years ago? It was all in Japanese. It was also VERY good!

OK, looked it up, that was Godzilla Minus One
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Bruce
Bruce
primestar31 said:
Wait, didn't this one come out a few years ago? It was all in Japanese. It was also VERY good!

OK, looked it up, that was Godzilla Minus One
Click to expand...
At theaters, only in Japanese, on Disc and Netflix, available in English.
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Foxbat
Foxbat
New trailer has dropped:
​
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dishstaller
long_time_Dish
long_time_Dish
Looks good! I'm interested...
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