Quote:
I agree that the mechanical inclinometer is best avoided.
Tilting it backwards can stop the swinging but it is easy to restart the swing when reinstating it.
I couldn't come to terms with mine, but I gave it a go and remain grateful to Vin Blanc for introducing me to the idea of building upon a reference elevation via David Sullivan's website.
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It may be be that your loss of calibration, when using the "clinometer" app., is because you inadvertently touch the recalibrate button.
I have the paid version of Clinometer (currently .50p). This includes a calibration feature, which was obviously written for a purpose. In reality I find that my phone's calibration doesn't generally slip by more than half a degree, whereas my spirit level doesn't slip at all, which makes it my preferred option.
With my setup, I also know that the length of my spirit level's bubble equates to 2 degrees of elevation; hence I can accurately assess 20-24 degrees elevation simply by the bubble's position within its tube, without using any coins. That range covers the majority of my UK caravanning.
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If you cannot be bothered to make the gadgets that Vin & I use then use it on the LNB arm & make an arithmetic correction to the elevation angle.
Precisely! Most people seem to own a smartphone these days, so Clinometer offers a very simple and affordable solution to setting the correct elevation, either via a gadget or some very simple maths. Once the elevation is correctly set then hitting the bird becomes a piece of cake.
Whilst criticising the mechanical inclinometer I had forgotten that Vin uses it !
Vin have I got a bad example or how do you cope the undamped swinging.?
Quote: Originally posted by Swizz on 19/6/2013
Whilst criticising the mechanical inclinometer I had forgotten that Vin uses it ! Vin have I got a bad example or how do you cope the undamped swinging.?
David
It's probably because on both my off-set and cassegrain dishes the little steel "elevation" brackets are mounted at the back and more or less centre of the dish so "swing" is almost eliminated.
On my old 37cm Maxview dish (permanently embedded in bushes in the garden) the bracket slots into a small slot on top of the dish and yes, the inclinometer needle swings like a whip aerial on a ship in a gale!
Fortunately, that dish is a permanent fixture supplying a signal to the caravan when it's parked up in the garden.
Got fed up trying to set up dish last year. Came home and bought an expensive locator from Maplins. Now takes me seconds to sort out every time. Just back from the south of France and it works beautifully. Managed to set up 5 others on site. 3 of whom were Dutch.
Hi Bloke.
Satellite is not just about telly, when we are in the South of France during July, I quite often listen to UK radio via my satellite system, without even turning the telly on.
When I am at home I hardly get the time to sit relax and listen to the radio, so it brings another dimension different to home life.
Hi Manty,
I've been there & done that !
Several years back I got fed up with the cheap sat meter that you can now buy for 5 to 10 £.
I found that sometimes I could not get a picture even if I scanned side to side & lifted the elevation a degree at a time.
Eventually I bought a £325 worth of Wolsey meter. This worked in most cases. It pretended to differentiate between 28.2 E & other sats but as time goes by the frequencies change & this needed an update on the web. None of these worked so I was lumbered with 19.2 E mixing with 28.2 E. not a big problem. However I still got sites where I could find the sat.
I'd thrown time & money at it & still could not reliably get a picture! It might have been obstruction by trees etc.
Time to stop & think.
Where is this freaking dish actually looking? I wondered.
I eventually came up with setting a dish up with a good signal & making a 3 stick system remarkably like Device 2 in
Www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk
With an inclinometer set at the local elevation as provided by
Www.dishpointer.com
I adjusted the middle stick to suite. I then clamped the 3 sticks. So on a new site I reset the DISH get the new elevation.
The middle stick thereafter always looks where the dish was looking.
If, having got the azimuth, looking along it I saw trees I moved the tripod.
I've laboured over this story / journey because I now have both systems.
I would use the meter if I had to refix my house dish up a ladder but using the elevation device then watching the TV IS QICKER & more accurate THAN USING A METER on my caravan.
David
Quote: Originally posted by Manty on 20/6/2013
Hi David mine is not quite as good yours but it does seem to operate anywhere quickly
John
Hi John
Operate anywhere quickly SO FAR ,
Eventually you will meet situations where for example trees will part obscure the signal. Your meter could see a signal but the TV cannot generate a picture, although there may be some signal strength on the diagnostics screen
That is where the gadget on the top rim of the dish is particularly useful.
The slot where the clinometer goes can be used for a visual sighting.
In those circumstances the tripod might be moved to match a gap in the tree line.
David
Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 19/6/2013
Could not agree more with Sool more, even though I spent 7 years working for Sky and 5 years previous to that installing motorised satellite systems.
When it comes to my fortnight campings in the South of France, I leave all my Pro Meters behind at home, some £2.5k's worth of kit, and take along with me a cheapy Digisat Pro meter that is around 10 years old, it's the size of a fag packet and does the job required.
Of course as some are finding now, that there Dish is now not big enough for getting a signal in the South of France when it did in the past, because of recent satellite changes.
And if your dish ain't big enough it does not matter how much you have spent on a meter, you won't get a picture.
Apparently my dish is as I suspected big enough because I am now watching perfectly good TV in the Ardeche with a 0.75m dish. I also helped my neighbour with is 1.2m dish to point it at the satellite I assume he'd tried the coins, string and hope method described in great detail earlier in this thread!
The moral of the story - use the proper equipment and its very easy to set up a dish.
Its 29 degrees outside so I'm off to sunbathe. Just thought I'd give a short update.
Hi David.
Those crazy Germans, taking a 1.2m Dish camping is beyond belief.
I happen to have a 1.2m Unicorn PFA Dish and that is way to cumbersome to take camping, and an Offset version like what I guess your new German friends have would be even more cumbersome.
You have to post a picture of that 1.2m Dish in action.
Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 20/6/2013
Hi Bloke.
Satellite is not just about telly, when we are in the South of France during July, I quite often listen to UK radio via my satellite system, without even turning the telly on.
Thats a fair comment. I just take a little shortwave radio with me.
Hi Bloke, my radio is a tiny Sony SW100 shortwave had it for years, and it was great for down in the South of France, until the BBC switched of the Southern Europe SW transmissions a few years back, I can still get BBC on LW down as far as Lyon, but any further South than that it has to be satellite, or tune the wireless into Radio America or Radio Japan etc.
Probably the best analogue radio that Sony ever made, just a pocket version of the 7600.
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Topic: Setting up a satellite dish.
