[SBE] sat finder

[A9xw at cs.com]

Even if you are not a PBS affiliate but have need for a good satellite 
finder, you may want to read on. 

There are several popular ways to detect and ID the various satellites. The 
venerable spectrum analyzer can look at the L band output and you can compare 
the spectrum to published satellite transponder guides, such as Lyngsat. The 
SatLook, Bird Dog and SatMax all have ID capability, but many feeds and 
satellites do not use the ID data these rely on to determine the feed source. If you 
are setting up a new steerable dish its a bit of a job to peak az/el and skew 
on a bird, determine if the polarity is H or V, and Ku sats with big dishes are 
hard to zero in on because of the narrow beamwidth of the antennas. 

Fear not. A vendor is going to announce a new $600 sat finder that decodes 
the satellite, and uses the Lyngsat database. So no more trying to find Galaxy 
25, 26, 27, etc only to find that they are not new satellites but renamed old 
satellites. 

So hold on to your budget, before spending it on a sat finder a little 
longer. I have asked for a demo unit as soon as available and let you know how well 
it works. 

Regards,
Henry
WYIN