[SIZE=4]FTA D-I-Y GUIDE.[/SIZE]
Okay guys, got some time so lend me your ears.
Of importance before we commence is to recall that all satellites are positioned in a geostationary orbit far above (at an altitude of about 35,000km) the equator, an area referred to as the Clarke Belt, to maximize coverage over the inhabited portions of the earth. So for us whose country is around the equator, itās relatively easy to nab some of these birds.
Letās say, as a beginner for instance, that you were interested in receiving Tv & radio stations from Tanzania kwa mfano tu. What to do? The first step is to find out the satellite location of these stations. To do this you go to http://www.lyngsat.com/ (Fig. sat1) [ATTACH=full]130216[/ATTACH]
then click on the Free TV, Africa tab. Thisāll open up a list of all African (or other continent) countries (Fig sat1a), [ATTACH=full]130217[/ATTACH]
Clicking on your country of interest opens up a list showing their tv/radio channels and the satellites on which theyāre located (Sat1b). [ATTACH=full]130218[/ATTACH]
Clicking on the channel name or satellite name opens up a page (Sat1c) showing all the parameters/settings for that channel and satellite. [ATTACH=full]130219[/ATTACH]
Ordinarily, as long as your satellite dish is properly aligned,you donāt have to enter these settings manually (unless perhaps for weak & unstable signals). Usually your FTA decoder is able to automatically pick up and store the settings when you do a blindscan.
Once we get our satellite details, we then open http://satbeams.com/ whichāll show us the footprint of our satellite of interest, i.e the region on the earthās surface where the satellite beam of interest is pointed or focused at. Staying with our example above, we found EATV, ITV, Capital & TBC1 located on Intelsat 906 at 64.2 degrees East. The footprint for this satellite will appear as shown in http://satbeams.com/footprints (fig Sat2 below). An alternative to this is satstar.net whichāll give us the beam as appears on http://www.satstar.net/beams/intel906_westhemi.html complete with recommended dish size. [ATTACH=full]130221[/ATTACH] Zooming in will show you that the West Hemi beam clearly covers Kenya, among other countries. Of importance here is to note that Iāve specifically selected the west hemi beam and not any other because this is the beam specified on lyngsat (the 1st column, beneath the tp/ frequency) as containing those TV & radio stations from Tanzania.
Having established that the beam covers our region/country, we then log into http://www.dishpointer.com/ to get the parameters we require for our set-up, i.e stuff like azimuth, LNB skew, elevation, etc. On dishpointer (Sat3) [ATTACH=full]130224[/ATTACH]
key in your location and satellite of interest to get the set up parameters. Staying with our example of IS906 and assuming a random location of Machakos town, then the Elevation=58.5Ā°, Azimuth=87Ā° and LNB Skew=86.6Ā°. DishPointer Augmented Reality app is available from your respective phoneās app store, very handy.
This done, we then head online once again, download and instal a software called GorbTrack from http://members.chello.nl/~berry.walda/GorbTrack_EN.htm . [ATTACH=full]130226[/ATTACH]
This now will assist us to know if that satellite is receivable at your specific location. After installing GorbTrack, itāll direct you to where to get the list of towns for your country of residence, in our case Kenya. Itāll also be able to tell you if the satellite signal is receivable at the place where you position your dish taking into account obstacles in your area such as buildings, walls and trees. [ATTACH=full]130227[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]130228[/ATTACH]
Itāll still be able to compute the azimuth, elevation as well as the LNB skew, as can be seen in the two figures above.
Once all this is done, you may now go ahead to assemble and install your equipment using those parameters in conjunction with a digital satellite meter.
Additional references:
https://www.jamiiforums.com/threads/african-satellite-world-and-sat-gear.388522/
Cc. @Meria Mata, @Giggz, @coldpilsner, @SnazzyKenyan, @kwido, @Kdawg254, @maks and other FTA enthusiasts.
Queries, clarifications, additions are most welcome.