Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta is out and you should put it on your PocketPC PDA/Handheld running Windows Mobile 5 or 6 now.

Why? It’s the only browser for mobile handhelds which fully supports Javascript and Ajax - and that’s required to show Google Maps applications such as DishPointer. The only other alternative for using DishPointer on the go would be Apple’s iPhone or iTouch.

The Opera Mobile 9.5 browser is still beta, so install it onto the device memory rather than on a storage card. But the good thing is, because it’s beta - it’s free! So download now while you can. The older version 8.65 comes only as a 30 day trial and costs $24.

Only Pocket PC’s running WM 5 or WM6 are supported. The new Opera will not work on Pocket PC 2003, Symbian, S60 and Smartphones

I had my hands on Apple’s new 3G iPhone today and did some dish pointing tests with it. I must say it works brilliantly. First, DishPointer loads up pretty fast on the 3G iPhone - providing you have the right (and unlimited) data tariff with your provider. Then all the DishPointer functions work as they should be, e.g. the map loads up, you can enter your address, the line is drawn, you can zoom in and out, etc. Just dragging the marker doesn’t work as the Iphone starts moving the whole page around. But I’ll see if there is a workaround for this.

Anyone who counts himself lucky to own this great iPhone 3G can use it now as a mobile satellite finder. I can see this being very usefull in particular for satellite installers and mobile uplink operators.

The disadvantage is that the IPhone is a bit pricey. And currently there are not many alternatives to run DishPointer on a handheld/PDA as most of the mobile browsers don’t support all the Javascript and Ajax functions to make the map work. But that’s maybe about to change as the new Opera Mobile 9.5 browser promises many new features - we will see when it comes out this month.

There is a short news article about DishPointer in this months What Satellite and Digital TV print magazine (United Kingdom).

The german Infosat magazine has a two-page article about DishPointer in their current issue, July 2008, No. 244.

In the article titled “DishPointer - Clevere Ausrichtung per Internet” the author Herbert Bisges describes in simple terms how to use DishPointer in order to align a satellite dish and gives a thumbs up to DishPointer - thanks Herbert!

There is an independent review of the MaxPeak digital satellite meters on Dr. Dish TV (DrDish Magazine - 07/2008). The review starts about a third into the programme, just after a short talk with Polytron, the distributor of the MaxPeak meters in Germany. The meter gets full marks and the “Tested and Recommended Award” from Dr.Dish.

I’ve been using the MaxPeak Satellite Meter (SAM) for over a week now and have done two satellite installations with it. With both installations, finding the satellite and fine-tuning the alignment took about 2-3 minutes:

After looking up the location on DishPointer and noting down the elevation, skew and a visual clue on the alignment line, all I had to do is to set the elevation and the skew of the dish, and then point the dish straight at the landmark. The meter immediately locked on to the satellite (the speed at which the MaxPeak meter locks on to the satellite is amazing) and gave me the signal strength, signal quality and signal error (pre BER and post BER) readings - see image below.

By moving the dish very slightly left/right and up/down I could maximize the signal quality bar and minimize the error reading. And that was it actually, I’ve never done an installation faster and more accurate than this.

Pointing your satellite dish at a satellite 22 000 miles away can be a frustrating task. DishPointer with Google MAPS made it a lot easier by providing visual clues.

Now with Google Earth, it’s even a lot of fun. Switch on the Terrain and 3D Buildings layers and see in 3D how the signal comes down all the way from the satellite to your house. Are there any buildings in the way? Where is the best location for the dish for a clear line of sight? Can you receive the satellite at all? You’ll get the answers to all these questions.

Using the 3D Satellite Dish Pointer
Underneath the map, click on the Google Earth Icon once you’ve positioned the marker and selected the right satellite. If you have Google Earth installed on your machine (if not, download it from here), the DishPointer line will open up in Google Earth. Make sure that the Terrain and 3D Buildings layer are switched on.

The red line shows the satellite signal. Your initial location (say, you are a news broadcaster and that’s where you stopped with your satellite uplink truck) is no good, the building is in the way. There is no clear line of sight to the satellite. But you can move to another location with the following steps:

Right-click on the description “Alignment line to 91W”, select properties and then drag the end node to your new position. Finally, click ok.

That’s better. At your new location the line is clear, you’re ready to go.

What else can you do?

Load up as many satellites as you like and see how the satellites are nicely aligned on the horizon along the clarke belt.

See which satellites are on the other side of the earth. The signal would have to go through the earth to reach you - which is impossible. That’s why you can’t get these satellites.

Hope you’ll have a bit of fun with this and maybe gain some new insights into satellite reception.

Freesat UK launched today offering free channels, including BBC HD and the exclusive ITV HD. Here is a quick guide on a self-installation to get Freesat using DishPointer:

Assuming you’ve got all the equipment together, go to the main page and enter you house number, street address and postcode (note that the second part of the postcode will be omitted).

A satellite image of your house should pop up. Now choose 28.2E Astra from the satellite drop down box. This the satellite Freesat is broadcast from.

Now move the marker to the location where your satellite dish is.

Find a landmark along the alignment line.

Now go to your dish and point it right at that landmark. Then slowly adjust the elevation. Bear in mind that the quoted elevation is the elevation of the signal but due to the reflective nature of the offset dish, the elevation of the dish is about 25° less (e.g. if the elevation is 25° the dish face would be horizontal, if the elevation is even less, the dish would be pointing downwards).

If you selected the right channel from your Freesat receiver, you should be able to to see a picture now.

Just updated the site to a new layout and logo but had to remove the channels and satellites tabs due to a small glitch. I haven’t fixed that yet but will do so shortly. Update: The satellites list is back on.

Here is another chance for you to win a great satellite product. Our sponsor Sadoun is giving away one Fortec Star Classic NA FTA Satellite Receiver worth $99.00. 1st place winner: Grand prize winner will receive the Fortec Star Liftetime Classic NA Digital Free to Air Blind Search Satellite Receiver. So how do you enter to win? Easy! Simply post a comment at the bottom of this message and say “I want to win!”, followed by whatever random banter you wish to include. Be creative, be silly, be serious, tell a fun story.. whatever. Just post something - the more positive and entertaining the better! At the end of March 16, 2008, the winner will be selected “randomly” and notified by email. Rules:

• Limited to residents of Continental United States and Canada
• Must be at least 21 years of age to enter
• One entry per family/residence for each item
• Multiple submissions automatically disqualified
• Officers and employees, including their relatives, of Sadoun Satellite Sales are not eligible for entry.
• Deadline: March 16, 2008 - 20:00 UTC.
• Entrants agree by act of registration to permit their name to be posted on this site if they are chosen as the winner.
• Winning entry selected at random. Odds of winning varies dependant upon number of entries. This is a free drawing. No purchase necessary to enter. Void where prohibited by law.
• Winner notified via email. Make sure your email is correct. If a selected winner is ineligible, fails to claim a prize within 7 days no alternate winner will be selected.
• Incomplete entries or entries with errors will not be processed. Entries submitted after deadline will be disqualified.

Good Luck! Alan **The competition is closed now** The winner is #95 Chris. Congratulations! You will receive an email shortly asking for you postal address.

So far, the widget would default to the geographic location of the IP address (well, at least kind of - depending on how accurate the mapping was). Due to several requests this has been taken off now and replaced with the default address which is specified during the widget setup. If you’re a webmaster and you didn’t specify a custom address then please do so now on the widget page. Note that this does not effect the DishPointer main page - here the default address is still based on the geographic location of the IP address.