Satellite Pointer

starting …
Azimuth–
Elevation–
LNB skew–
Range–
Compass
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target –
Tilt
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target –
left
right
raise
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How to point a dish ↓

How to point a satellite dish

Three numbers put a dish on any geostationary satellite: azimuth (the compass bearing), elevation (how far up), and skew (how far the LNB is rotated). This tool works them out for your exact position, then uses your phone's compass and tilt sensors to guide the dish onto them.

  1. Set your location. Tap ◎ to use GPS, or type coordinates under ⚙. Accuracy of a few hundred metres is plenty — a kilometre of error moves the aim by well under a degree.
  2. Pick the satellite. Tap the name to search all 500 active geostationary satellites by name or orbital slot.
  3. Set the skew first. Rotate the LNB in its holder before you climb — it is far easier on the ground, and a badly skewed LNB costs signal you will then chase in vain.
  4. Set elevation. Lay the phone against the dish's mounting tube and use the tilt arrows. Loosen the elevation bolts, set the angle, tighten.
  5. Sweep the azimuth slowly. Loosen the mast clamp and turn a couple of degrees at a time, pausing three to five seconds — receivers need that long to lock. Keep going until the compass arrows go green, then fine-tune on the actual signal meter.
The single most common mistake: an offset dish does not point where it looks like it points. Read the next section before you decide the tool is wrong.

Offset dish or prime focus — the 20-degree trap

Most domestic dishes are offset: the LNB hangs below the dish on an arm rather than sitting in the middle on legs. The reflector is a slice cut from the side of a much larger parabola, so the beam leaves it about 20 to 25 degrees above the direction the dish face is physically tilted.

That is why an offset dish aimed at a satellite 20° above the horizon looks like it is staring straight ahead, or even tipped slightly downward. It is not wrong. Enter your dish's offset angle in the Dish offset field and this tool shows both numbers: the beam angle, and the mechanical tilt to set on the tube.

A prime focus dish — the LNB mounted centrally on struts, typical of larger dishes and most L-band and hobby setups — points where it looks. Leave the offset at 0.

Azimuth, elevation and LNB skew explained

Azimuth

The compass bearing to the satellite, measured clockwise from north. Because every geostationary satellite sits above the equator, everyone in the northern hemisphere aims somewhere in the southern half of the sky, and everyone in the southern hemisphere aims north.

Elevation

The angle up from the horizon. It depends on how far you are from the satellite's longitude and how far you are from the equator. Near the equator, satellites overhead sit close to 90°; from northern Scandinavia the same satellite may sit under 20°, which is why a clear southern horizon matters so much at high latitudes.

LNB skew

Broadcast satellites transmit two linear polarisations at once, horizontal and vertical, to double their capacity. Those planes are defined at the satellite, and because you view it from an angle, they arrive rotated. Skew is the correction you dial into the LNB. Get it wrong by more than a few degrees and the two polarisations start leaking into each other, which shows up as a good signal level but a broken picture.

Skew is zero only when the satellite is due south (or due north) of you, and grows the further east or west it sits. This tool gives skew as degrees clockwise seen from behind the dish, looking towards the satellite.

Why your phone's compass lies near a dish

The tilt reading comes from accelerometers and is accurate to well under a degree. The compass comes from a magnetometer, and a magnetometer is a rather naive instrument: a dish is a large steel reflector, the mount is steel, and a motorised mount adds permanent magnets. Errors of ten to twenty degrees within a few centimetres of that hardware are normal.

So use the phone for what each sensor is good at. Rest it against the tube to set elevation. Take the azimuth standing several metres away: face the bearing, pick a landmark on that line — a chimney, a pole, a treetop — then walk back and aim the dish at the landmark. Calibrate with a figure-of-eight motion first, and step away from cars and railings.

Aiming with the sun — no compass at all

Once a day the sun crosses the exact bearing of your satellite, and shadows do not care about magnetic fields. Stand something vertical on level ground at that moment and its shadow lies precisely along the sight line: mark it with a stick or a chalk line and you have the azimuth recorded in the ground, good for the whole season.

Twice a year the sun also passes directly behind the satellite, matching bearing and elevation at the same instant. Point the dish so the feed's shadow falls dead centre on the reflector and the alignment is sub-degree accurate. Those same days cause sun outage on television reception around midday, when solar noise swamps the transponder for a few minutes.

Popular orbital positions

Each position below has its own page with azimuth, elevation and skew worked out for the cities in its footprint — useful for checking whether a satellite is high enough above your horizon before you buy anything.

Questions people ask

Why does the dish need to be so exact?

Beamwidth shrinks as the dish grows. A 60 cm dish at 11 GHz has a beam roughly 3° wide, so being 2° off already costs you half the signal. Larger dishes are sharper still and less forgiving — a metre dish demands about a degree.

My signal level is high but nothing decodes.

Classic skew error, or you are on the wrong satellite. Neighbouring orbital slots are only a few degrees apart, and a dish will happily lock onto the wrong one. Check the satellite's name in the receiver, not just the bar on the meter.

Does rain break the alignment?

No — but heavy rain absorbs signal at Ku and Ka band, which looks like a bad aim. If the picture returns when the shower passes, your pointing is fine; a bigger dish buys margin.

Can I use this in the southern hemisphere?

Yes. The maths is the same and the tool handles it — you will simply be aiming north instead of south, and the skew reverses sign.

Does it work offline?

Yes. The page installs a small cache on first visit, so it opens again with no network at all — useful on a roof or in a field where the signal has gone. The satellite positions are built into the page, and the calculation and the sensors never touch the network.

Does it work on Android as well as iPhone?

Both. Android reports its compass without asking for permission and can install the page as a real app from the browser menu; iOS asks for motion access on the first tap and installs through Share, then Add to Home Screen. Vibration on lock works on Android; iOS has no vibration API for web pages, so it plays a short tone instead.