Can I Use a Compass?

[pascaldemo]

Hello everyone...I'm brand new to this forum and would like to ask a question.

My wife and I are traveling the US and have been on the road for 14 months now. I have a permanent roof mount Wineguard Move N View satellite and use Dish as my provider. I would like to use my magnetic North Compass to locate the direction of the satellite so I can make sure there are no objects in the way (trees, etc) before setting up my RV. Can you tell me if this can work and should the compass needle be turned to South East? Sorry for being in the dark about this but knowing this information would save me tons of work moving from site to site before finding a spot that gives me a good signal...or, if there is another quick way to get this information, I am all ears!

Thank you.

Pete

 

[bross]

You first need to know the azimuth angle to the satellite you're looking for from your current location. You can find that by entering your current zip code into the point dish screen in menu under system setup, installation.

Once you know that, turn the compass until the needle points north. Look at the degrees on the compass face with the needle pointing north and that is the direction to the satellite.

A compass will work for giving you rough idea of the direction of the satellite, but a better tool is a clinometer. With a clinometer you can see the actual line of sight to the satellite. Here's a link to the one I use. Suunto Suunto Tandem-360PC/360R Compass and Clinometer - eBay (item 300313030055 end time Jun-04-09 15:34:55 PDT)

 

[dishcomm]

Hello everyone...I'm brand new to this forum and would like to ask a question.

My wife and I are traveling the US and have been on the road for 14 months now. I have a permanent roof mount Wineguard Move N View satellite and use Dish as my provider. I would like to use my magnetic North Compass to locate the direction of the satellite so I can make sure there are no objects in the way (trees, etc) before setting up my RV. Can you tell me if this can work and should the compass needle be turned to South East? Sorry for being in the dark about this but knowing this information would save me tons of work moving from site to site before finding a spot that gives me a good signal...or, if there is another quick way to get this information, I am all ears!

Thank you.

Pete

obviuosly you have internet access. so here we go.,. Here are two links which should be very helpful

This one Satellite look-angle calculator will allow you to enter the name of the city in which you are located. Also you can enter a single satellite or a multi sat set up.
This one .....http://www.dishpointer.com/....you can enter an adress and get a google map satellite image of the location entered and a pointer gives you guidance.