gqken,
I am really in no position to give any advice since I haven't had even 1 day of satellite experience. I guess first of all is knowing EXACTLY where your desired satellite is.
I am using SatcoDX's World of Satellites Program for calculating the satellites' az and el but there are tons of other sat trackers on the net.(Although I found that different programs give different results)
Then I did manual search on a random program (got the freq, pol and sr from satcodx) and started moving the dish until I got signal. The key is to be very slow I guess and let enough time for the receiver to pick up the signal after the dish was moved (about 3-4 sec for me)
The first time I aquired the signal it was 39% and after that I did a blind scan and picked about 4 tv channels and 4 radio. Then it was easier. On one of the channels (HOPE) I brought the info screen and moved the antenna. Surprisingly even to myself I got 89% signal quality. Another blind scan got me about 40 channels.
PM me so I won't get ripped appart for giving advices without having much experience
Also read lots of the FTA forum, Peter has given some great advices on
sat installation. Thanks Pete!