Isn't it amazing what you can find on the web, although not much help if you
are setting up the dish on Wednesday. BobS
--
Tees off to reply.

"Roger" telstardotsixoneseven0threeatt@claradottnett wrote in message
...
I posted this to uk.tech.digital-tv but subsequently thought it might be of
interest to other potential d-i-y satellite-TV 'ers here too.

Lidl started me off with their inexpensive kit, 79.99 complete with dish,
which worked fine. Its weak point is the flimsy dish mounting bracket.
The snag setting it up d-i-y was selecting a location for the dish that
was
not obscured by individual conifer trees, clear line of sight to the
satellite being essential.

For anyone uncertain of a suitable location for a satellite dish, possibly
because there are tall buildings or trees close by, the sun can provide a
useful guide in the next couple of days. (Monday 11 & Tuesday 12)

Twice a year, spring and autumn, the arc of the sun across the sky is
practically identical to the arc on which lie the positions of the
geostationary communication satellites.

At the time of the eclipse (sun-out) for each satellite, sun and satellite
are at the same position in the sky, so anywhere where the sunlight falls
will have a clear view of the satellite and tree/building shadows will
indicate adverse locations.

The table of sun-out times is found from he
http://www.noctua.demon.co.uk/sunouts/sunouts.html
Click the link for your nearest city to get the times for each satellite.

e.g. for Birmingham:
http://www.noctua.demon.co.uk/sunout...m_sunouts.html
shows sun-out time for Hotbird as 11:49, Monday 11 th & Tuesday 12 Oct.

It may be useful to take some digital photos of possible locations at the
times of eclipse of selected satellites as a record of the positions of
tree/building shadows for future reference.

Roger