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If you bring up Google Maps on top of a likely place in the campgound, you can click on the little box in the lower left and change to satellite mode. Zoom down to the spot on your campsite lot where you want to put the dish. RIGHT-click that exact spot on the lawn.

A menu will pop up, click on "What's Here?" and you will see the exact lat. & long. map coordinates of that exact spot! Copy/paste those into the Dishpointer "Your Location" box. In the Dishpointer "All Satellites" box, select the various sats you plan on wanting to see (Echostar). Hit the SEARCH button, and it'll bring up your site map and a green arrow pointing to that exact satellite. You can zoom in or out, and if need be, move the pointer on the campsite to find the best spot before placing the dish.

DishPointer - Align your satellite dish

primestar31 said:

If you bring up Google Maps on top of a likely place in the campgound, you can click on the little box in the lower left and change to satellite mode. Zoom down to the spot on your campsite lot where you want to put the dish. RIGHT-click that exact spot on the lawn.

A menu will pop up, click on "What's Here?" and you will see the exact lat. & long. map coordinates of that exact spot! Copy/paste those into the Dishpointer "Your Location" box. In the Dishpointer "All Satellites" box, select the various sats you plan on wanting to see (Echostar). Hit the SEARCH button, and it'll bring up your site map and a green arrow pointing to that exact satellite. You can zoom in or out, and if need be, move the pointer on the campsite to find the best spot before placing the dish.

DishPointer - Align your satellite dish

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Or he can just open the Winegard app on his phone, tap a couple of buttons and actually see on the screen where the sats are located in relation to any trees, etc., from the potential dish location. The DishPointer web site can't show you that. DishPointer does have a paid app with a similar virtual reality feature to the Winegard app though. Below is a screen capture from that app.

NYDutch said:

Or he can just open the Winegard app on his phone, tap a couple of buttons and actually see on the screen where the sats are located in relation to any trees, etc., from the potential dish location. The DishPointer web site can't show you that. DishPointer does have a paid app with a similar virtual reality feature to the Winegard app though. Below is a screen capture from that app.

Click to expand...

I think I did look at the Windgard app earlier but as it had relatively poor ratings, didn't follow through. Just downloaded it now and I have to say from what I see it looks like just what I need. I'll give it a try tomorrow during the day to see how accurate it is. Our current location will be a good test!

Timbee said:

I think I did look at the Windgard app earlier but as it had relatively poor ratings, didn't follow through. Just downloaded it now and I have to say from what I see it looks like just what I need. I'll give it a try tomorrow during the day to see how accurate it is. Our current location will be a good test!

Click to expand...

I've compared the free Winegard app to the $20 DishPointer app, and I've found the accuracy to be just as good. For my last 10-12 tripod 1000.4 dish setups, I've only used the Winegard app to find the best dish locations.

The Winegard link I posted shows the options. After you open the app and select "Satellite Pointer", you next choose between Bell, DTV, Dish, and Shaw. The satellites for that service are then listed, and tapping the "View AR" button brings up the overlay of those sats on the live camera view when your facing in the right direction. Arrows will guide you toward the correct direction. No Internet is needed to use the app, just to install it. It's a free app, give it a try...

The reason I asked about wifi/internet/4G is my phone is 4G, but my tablet will only work on wifi. The tablet of course is bigger, so I would prefer to use it.

reubenray said:

The reason I asked about wifi/internet/4G is my phone is 4G, but my tablet will only work on wifi. The tablet of course is bigger, so I would prefer to use it.

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As long as your tablet has GPS and compass functions, it'll work ok. My phone has a 5.7" screen, and that's plenty big enough for me.

NYDutch said:

I've compared the free Winegard app to the $20 DishPointer app, and I've found the accuracy to be just as good. For my last 10-12 tripod 1000.4 dish setups, I've only used the Winegard app to find the best dish locations.

Click to expand...

By way of update... we moved to a new site today and were presented with a similar challenge in finding Dish Satellites. Opened the Winegard app you recommended where I could see that the Western arc of the Dish sats-- which was what I wanted since that's where the local network channels were-- were right along the tops of tall trees to the South with very few openings. Even at the far edge of our site there were issues. My neighbor across the road kindly gave me permission to set up at the outside of his site (fortunately I have lots of coax) where the app showed I would just clear the trees.

Fired up the Wally and after the usual "Complete Signal Loss" message (?) it continued on through the acquiring and downloading Guide routines and-- Presto. Everything-- including the networks--came in!

Not that it would have been impossible without the app, but it made the preliminary scouting much more efficient. Many thanks for the input!

On a related front, if I recall correctly, Dish info states to use a maximum of 50 feet of coax. However in a few situations I've had to use around double that. Perhaps Dish is just being intentionally conservative?

I'm glad it worked well for you! I agree, the app is a big time saver when setting up.

As long as you're using good quality RG6 coax, I suspect it will work ok. The signal levels might be a bit lower though. I'm sure Winegard is being conservative with the 50' max to avoid a lot of tech support calls when poor quality extensions are used.