Procedure to locate Es'Hail satellite and adjust parabolic antenna in the correct AZ / EL?

  • What method do you recommend to adjust an 80cm offset dish towards EsHail sat? I need to adjust AZ and El. Of course a rough adjustment can be done via compass and a elevation gauge, however that will not be precise enough.


    I have no more any DVB sat receiver so i can't use such a method anymore.


    Are there sat locators with a DVB demodulator that can be purchased at a reasonable price that can be used to locate the commercial DVB transponders?


    Can you share your method to adjust a parabolic antenna for Es'Hailsat please?

  • used satellite director application on android to detect rough location.. then started to listen 10.706 beacon on sdr and moved the antenna on different directions for sensivity..

    then tighted the bolts.. tool a few mins in total..

  • For my 1.1M dish, here in UK, I do the following


    0) Connect a cheap satellite meter in line

    1) Find 28.8 East (Astra et al). I Confirm by checking BBC News (V) and BBC Four(H) get a locked front end, but it's pretty obvious it's 28E2.


    2) Nudge the dish towards south until the satellite meter stops screaming at me :)


    (and I did this in the dark last night when I lost the bird!)


    But that might not work for others - 28.8E is very strong for me

  • I tried a regular sat-finder with beep and needle Octagon SF18 (cold solder points, needs some soldering) and had problems . Astra 28,2E was too strong. I find a solution in this device: http://www.durasat.de/messgera…sf-4000-bt-satfinder.html

    The SF-4000 BT has an DVB-S and DVB-S2 decoder with bluetooth connection to an app. It indicates on your smartphone C/N , level , MER, BER . Just program 4 of the Badr4 frequencies in the device, connect a USB-powerpack via the included adapter and now you can optimize your system

  • Ok that is important because then you cannot use the transmitters of the primary mission of the satellite as guide when pointing the antenna.

    In the early days there were engineering beacons that you could use but they have switched over to the narrow beams that are only receivable in the arab region.

    Same for the DVB transmissions. Those cannot be received in Northern Europe with small dishes.

    So you need to tune to the amateur transponder frequency and use that for fine pointing.

    You are right, just calculating the AZ and EL and then pointing there is not going to work. It can be used as a first guess but then you need to just move around that position and optimize the signal.

  • Hello, Can I just say a few words about setting a microwave system to receive a remote RF source.

    1) First of all FORGET about finding your Satellite.

    You must do a System Calibration process first.

    You have a dish, . . . . yes. It has a specification , . . . . . . . yes.

    FORGET it. It is potentially very wrong.

    2) You must do a BORESIGHT calibration of your dish. ? ? . . Ok, you think that your dish is 26 degrees offset angle. . . . WRONG. But what can you do to check it ? Well you need a very reliable signal source of known position. Ah, what if we were to use the SUN as the signal source? Is that not the most accurate source we have. YES, so first of all attach an Azimuth Indicator to your Dish structure reading in degrees. For elevation, have an electronic spirit level to measure the elevation angle of the dish. NOW, here comes the magic to do your dish boresight calibration. At a particular time of day measure your Sun Noise at its peak. Now note immediately YOUR Az and El measurements. Using astronomical tables, compare your readings with the ACTUAL values for you position on this Earth at the particular time of your measurement. NOW calculate the OFFSET ERRORS IN BOTH AZ and EL. Now record these values. SO, you now have your boresight Az and El errors for your dish. You now have the calibration offsets to apply to your dish to ensure your pointing accuracy is high. NOW, before we leave using the Sun as a SIGNAL SOURCE, What is your SUN NOISE ? We must check this to confirm that your receive system is working to the expected performance level for you particular configuration. OK, go check and see what it should really be with an efficient system. There are many software programs available to check. IF you get a low Sun Noise , then you must address your front end design. MATCH, SPILLOVER, ETC, ETC. Whatever you have to do, get close to the theoretical performance.

    SO, now you have a credible receive performance, AND you can now calibrate the dish for boresight errors.

    NOW, for the first time we think about finding a satellite !

    It's easy now. You now have a receive performance that is close perfection, AND you can remove your boresight errors. AH, for the first time you will be able to point exactly at the satellite.

    Success at last !

    PS, you can have errors of several degrees in boresight with respect to the manfacturers values. My dish has a 4 degree error in Azimuth, Hmm, the beam width is 1.8 degrees. Its a no brainer ! Go calibrate your dish boresight !

    Cheers

    Ed GM3SBC

  • For reception of BADR 4 BSS Beam in northern europe a big dish (>2m) is necessary.

    Even in south east DL 120cm is recommended - with my 85cm I am at the edge - some weaker transponders are "unstable" at "bad weather".


    73 de Johannes

  • For reception of BADR 4 BSS Beam in northern europe a big dish (>2m) is necessary.

    Even in south east DL 120cm is recommended - with my 85cm I am at the edge - some weaker transponders are "unstable" at "bad weather".


    73 de Johannes

    It really depends on the actual location which he does not seem to want to reveal (hmmm...)

    Here in JO22MC (center of Netherlands) the transponder 15 (11996) is received with about 7.5 dB S/N on a 80cm dish.

    But of course in Scandinavia it will be much weaker.

    Depending on the actual location there are different satellites that could be used as guidelines for first pointing efforts, e.g. Astra2 at 28.2 or Astra3 at 23.5 but without any more detailed location info it is difficult to recommend anything.

  • but without any more detailed location info it is difficult to recommend anything...

    naturally every situation must be analyzed in the specific conditions. In any case, these two economic instruments allow you to make a very accurate aim in a few minutes. The analog instrument is very sensitive while the Sat Finder tells me if I'm aiming for the right satellite. The best solution compared to professional tools.

  • naturally every situation must be analyzed in the specific conditions. In any case, these two economic instruments allow you to make a very accurate aim in a few minutes. The analog instrument is very sensitive while the Sat Finder tells me if I'm aiming for the right satellite. The best solution compared to professional tools.

    Yes the analog indications are the best. In the old days when SAT TV was still analogue FM it was so easy to point to the satellite, now with those digital receivers that show a meaningless "quality" and "AGC" value that always lags by a few seconds it is much more difficult.

    However, the point is that you in Italy are lucky because you can receive the primary missions of those satellites, but in Northern Europe that is not possible or not so easy (there are a couple of BADR transponders that cover more to the North).

    And for someone in say Brazil or Thailand even that is not possible.

    So the location of the station really is important. In worst case only pointing to the amateur signals is possible. However, that is now possible because the beacons are on. Before Feb 14, one had to use other methods.

  • I8LYL former I0LYL

    I use very simmilar equipment. I point the dish to about 28E and look for a very strong signal (Astra 2, 28,2E) and then I got to the SAT-receiver, programed with the data of DEUTSCHE WELLE on BADR4 and turn the dish slowly to the west until I have a lock. And then I can make fine tuning (elevation, Skew etc..)


    But this method does not work in northern or western europe, because BADR4 does not cover these regions (except you have a large dish)

  • I am in southern part of scandinavia so that explains why I cant receive any of the BADR broadcast television feeds :( . I DID however find a very strong signal at 28,2 degrees (Astra 2) of course. I have a 80cm dish. Will it be ok to beam a bit on the side on 28,2 - when the meter on the satfinder I use starts to fall a bit? Or is pointing accuracy very critical to hit EsHailsat ham transponder even if I have such a "broad" beam pattern that an 80 cm dish will give me?

  • Easiest would be to set AZ and EL to optimally receive Astra2, then tune to the amateur transponder frequency and turn the dish slowly towards the west until you see the stations on the transponder (or at least the beacons) and optimize on those. The EL probably doesn't have to change for this small dish.

    It is easy to find if your dish is optimally aligned once the bolts have been tightened by gently forcing the edges east-west and up-down and see if the signal improves when moved from the neutral position. If so, loosen the bolts and re-align.

    When you have no access to the receive signal strength when you are handling the dish it is all a lot more difficult, so at least try to arrange that. 2nd best would be to have someone watching the receiver and issuing directions by shouting or using some handheld radios/phones, but this is a lot trickier than watching the signal strength while adjusting it yourself.