Direct TV-Clear View of the Sky?

[CacheClone]

We have Direct TV with a Winegard Trav'ler roof-mounted dish. We are new to the RV/Direct TV thing, so I have never had to manually aim a dish.

When everything is working correctly, the control box for the dish inside the camper reads "*101 *110 *119". I'm assuming those are the longitudes of where in the sky the satellites are located, with 110 being the center one.

When we pull into a campsite, I try to keep track of which way is south. However, when we get set up, I sometimes find that I have misjudged, and an open area of the sky is in the wrong place.

I dug out my old Boy Scout compass to be a little more scientific, but now I'm not sure what I need to do.

Assuming I'm in the midwest, longitude 93-ish. Where on the compass do I need the open area of the sky do be? And now wide?

My guess is that since 110 degrees (the middle satellite) is 17 degrees west of where I am, I would need to add 17 degrees to 180 (due south) on the compass and make sure the area at 197 degrees (southwest) is clear plus 9 degrees on either side for two outlying satellites.

Does this make sense, or am I doing this wrong? Making it too complicated?

Thanks for your help.

[2oldman]

CacheClone wrote:
Assuming I'm in the midwest, longitude 93-ish. Where on the compass do I need the open area of the sky do be? And now wide?

Your DTV receiver will tell you by coordinates or by zip code. Generally you point to Texas.

Most times it isn't how wide it is, it's how much HIGHER the signal comes in that is surprising. I shoot the 101 and get 99 and 103, but that's HD, which yours..may be??

I didn't know you could manually aim a trav'ler.