Hose clamp as a protractor for pointing Ku dish to azimuth

[polgyver]

Most Ku dishes come with protractor-indicator for altitude (elevation) setting. For choosing needed azimuth, usually a compass is used. Sometimes it could be useful to have relative reference to other directions, in case a dish would be moved to another sat. The hose clamp, placed on satellite mast, is durable, inexpensive, and does not interfere with other parts, yet provides rough orientation where the dish is pointed. The clamp could be positioned by aligning it with any pointer (indicator) glued to the dish's bracket if the dish is receiving any sat, or, alternatively, Sun position from Naval Observatory Site could be used. Two pictures with description follow.

 

[. Raine]

Good idea.

 

[Anole]

Pretty cute idea.
...but when I read the title, I was picturing an actual 99-cent plastic protractor attached to . . .
.

 

[Tron]

Good idea for those with fixed dishes that are repointed frequently. ..

 

[polgyver]

Pretty cute idea.
...but when I read the title, I was picturing an actual 99-cent plastic protractor attached to . . .
.

That was my earliest idea, to use plastic protractor. Even bought (when vacationing in Florida) nice protractor with radii of 3" (here, in Toronto, Dollar stores sell only small, 1.5" radii protractors). But such a protractor needs solid support. So I got a short piece of plastic board for deck (1" thick), bought a holesaw - 1-5/8, or, 41 mm, for making the hole for a mast (how come in the US, E-bay sells such a holesaw - red - for just $3, and here I paid in store more than triple?). Then the problem for tightening and loosening on the mast arrived. Another thing was the indicator or pointer to reach the protractor's scale from the dish's bracket. Sure, the factory-made scale and 1 degree resolution was tempting, but, in the end, I settled for simplicity. Cheers, polgyver

 

[Gulcher]

Brilliant!