AMC6 Users: Using sun to determine visibility to AMC15
If you are either waiting on a reprogrammed modem -OR- considering receiving service from AMC-15 and would like to determine its visibility on your property, I have a pretty cool method for you:
We are nearing (next week for about 10 days) sun outage season.
This is good because we can start using this physical fact today to determine whether your current dish location has visibility to AMC15. All you have to do is go outside and observe the sun (being careful not to look directly into it for very long) between 2:45 and 3 PM EDT (it happens at almost the same time across the country! (and in Canada); so in California it is a few minutes earlier about 11:45 PDT and in Atlanta about 3 PM EDT.
At this time today the sun will be at the same azimuth as the AMC15 satellite and, today is about 4 degrees higher. At about the same time of day during the outage week or so it will be at same elevation. This 4 degrees can be measured by holding your arm outstretched toward the sun in a fist with thumb extended; the distance between tip of thumb and top of fist is about 4 degrees.
So it can be determined whether a dish in the sun today with a tree line or other obstacle close under it will be in sun next week and whether your dish can see AMC15 where it is mounted.
For more information: www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm
OR, you could get real pointing angles any time of the day/night/year, from a website like »www.dishpointer.com/ . If you'd rather do it yourself, download »www.arachnoid.com/satfinder/ . These are only two. There are dozens of online calculators, and quite a few downloadables too. These tools in many cases can actually help you decide where on your property might be the most advantageous dish location as well.
