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@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@gmail.com To: "amsat-bb@amsat.org" amsat-bb@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 _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available 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. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available 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. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb