[amsat-bb] G5500 Bearing

[John Fickes]

At night I use the North Star. I live at 42° latitude so I raise the
elevation of the antennas to 42° and azimuth to 0° and the antennas should
be pointed at the north star. If not adjust accordingly. I have a AlfaSpid
rotator so the adjustment is done from the operators position,except for
looking down the mast. And of course you would use your own latitude. The
Sun is good to use during the day,same thing,let your rotor take your
antennas where it thinks the Sun is and adjust accordingly, but I think
they're pulling your leg about the welders googles, please save your eyes
and look at the shadow of your boom on the ground. If your pointed at the
Suns center your booms shadow would be a single point on the ground. The
longer your booms shadow are, the more broadside you are to the Sun.  And
the moon at night would be the same as what I do with the north star, point
and look down the boom. Any of these will work and get you close enough for
satellite work. The beam width of your yagi's will make up any difference.
Have fun.

                    73 John  WØJW

On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Mark Johns via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> I don't lose a lot of sleep over this, since the line of zero-degree
> declination pretty much runs through my back yard. But considering that the
> 3 db beamwidth of an M2 436CP16 or similar antenna is at least 40 degrees
> (and even wider at 2 meters), the required level of precision is not really
> that great. Point it truish northish and be done with it. If you're working
> at microwaves, you'll need to do some work. But not so much for LEOs.
> --
> Mark D. Johns, KØMDJ
> Decorah, Iowa USA  EN43
> -----------------------------------------------
> "Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit,
>
>  you would stay out and your dog would go in."
>       ---Mark Twain
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rupert Hamblin <rupert.hamblin at gmail.com>
> To: "amsat-bb at amsat.org" <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 4:30 PM
> Subject: [amsat-bb] G5500 Bearing
>
> Hi Guys,
>
> First of all, wishing all Amsat followers a Happy Christmas !
>
> My quick question....
>
> So I'm in the final stages of setting up my G5500 rotator & antennas, to
> get the whole thing
> Aligned I want to set a reference to North. I'm thinking this should be to
> True North not magnetic North. Can you confirm
>
> Regards
>
> RH / G0TKZ
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> _______________________________________________
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> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
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