Mesa and Finding StarChoice Signal

We booked a month at the same Mesa, AZ park we were in last March. It is convenient, has a great pool and hot tub and is cheap at $450 US per month including electric. We booked the same spot we had last year. We are both tired this year and just want a month of doing almost nothing. Decisions will be made as we go.

I went to Dishpointer to get the dish pointing information for the park and what do you know, the satellite image has our motorhome in it! They updated their image file while we were parked there. You can see the motorhome, the Mazda and the dolly. Cool!

Speaking of StarChoice (or any other satellite service), if you cannot find the bird easily and there is someone else in the park with the identical dish and LNB, here is an easy non-invasive way to copy their settings. First, set the skew as listed on the Dishpointer site. Then aim your dish in the general direction of the bird (you can use the compass setting on the site) and leave the tightening bolts slightly loose. Now go to your neighbor's site and photograph his dish from the front making sure to include the shadow of the LNB as it falls on his dish (see photo below). This can be done from outside his property but if you see anyone you might want to explain why you are photographing his dish.

Now quickly go back to your own dish and adjust your altitude and azimuth so the shadow on your dish matches the photo. You have maybe five or ten minutes to do this before the sun moves too far in the sky. You will now see bars on your setup screen and can easily do the fine tuning required to get a perfect signal, Obviously, the sun has to be in a position to cast a shadow for this to work.