satellite finder

One thing I have found is that there is sometimes a lot of lag time between the time your dish may locate the bird and the time that the receiver may show the signal receipt. I use an inline Sat Beeper that gives immediate feedback as you sweep across the sky for location. The tone goes up and down as the signal strength increases. It used to come years ago in the dish install kits but does not any more. I picked one up on Ebay last year. I find it easier to use that the little meters. The Birdog meter is probably the best way to go or the other meter mentioned looks promising also. Hope this may help. Happy Trails Bert

As TechWriter suggested, I purchased the AccutracIII, and couldn't be happier. Only problem is they seem to be discontinued. Only listing I could find is this one:
AccutracIII

therink wrote:
I had one of those but found it to be useless. I now use an app on my phone called Dishpointer Pro. You hold the phone up in the sky to locate the exact location of the sats and gives you real good view of where to place dish in relation to trees, obstacles, etc. It is awesome and makes setting up the tripod and dish a cinch.

X2! Best app for finding a needle in the haystack! Or a sat in the trees!

Happytracks wrote:
I have a Dish antennae set on a tripod. In setting up the tv to receive the signal from the satellite, the tv has a meter that gives the signal strength as you search with the antennae. The Azmuth, Skew and Altitude are already set. What is the advantage of the Satellite Finder?

If it's a triple-LNB dish like a 1000.2 or 1000.4, then I recommend the Accutrac III+ sat meter.

The big advantage of the Accutrac meter is that it can display the signal strength of 3 sats at the same time. This makes sat acquisition pretty easy.

I also use the Dishpointer app on my iPhone, but only to get the general location of the 3 sats.

To help you to find a hole in the tree leaves canopy, if you happen to be sitting under one. My satellite antenna finds the satellite all by itself, provided it can see it. Tree leaves can prevent that from happening!

Depends on the sat finder you are using. If it one of those cheap 19 dollar ones, they are a waste of time and money. If it is a Birdog, then it is a god send. It locates the correct satellite and allows you to peak the signal before you even connect the receiver.

I had one of those but found it to be useless. I now use an app on my phone called Dishpointer Pro. You hold the phone up in the sky to locate the exact location of the sats and gives you real good view of where to place dish in relation to trees, obstacles, etc. It is awesome and makes setting up the tripod and dish a cinch.