Satellite dish alignment: azimuth, elevation and LNB skew
An online tool for aligning a satellite dish: it calculates the azimuth — true and compass — the elevation, the tilt of an offset reflector and the LNB skew to the chosen satellite for any point on the map. It helps you point the dish without a meter: with the phone compass, by the sun at a calculated time or by a landmark on the map line, and it checks whether a building or a tree blocks the satellite.
How to align a satellite dish
Find your city, tap “My location” or tap the map where the dish will stand.
Sky, Freesat, DirecTV, DISH, any position from the list, or a longitude entered by hand.
Offset or prime focus, the offset angle and the diameter — they set the reflector tilt and the tolerance.
By the phone compass, by the sun or by a landmark on the map line; tilt by the scale or the phone sensor; then peak it by signal quality on the receiver.
Find where to turn your dish and how far to tilt it
Find your city, tap “My location” or tap the map.
A catalog of active geostationary satellites with their current longitude.
Don’t know the offset — work it out from the size
An offset dish is an oval, not a circle. Measure the width and the height of the reflector along its rim.
Compass azimuth · elevation
Direction on the map
Tap the map where the dish stands, or drag the pin.
How to point it
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Zero means the LNB connector points straight down. Turn the LNB in its holder while standing behind the dish facing the satellite, then fine-tune by signal quality: 5° off barely matters, 15° does.
Lay the phone screen up on the LNB arm, top edge toward the LNB, and turn the dish the way the arrow says.
The steel of the dish and the mast throws a phone compass off by 10–25°. If the needle drifts, hold the phone 30 cm away from the metal along the same line, or aim by the sun.
At these minutes the sun stands exactly in the satellite’s direction: face the sun and the dish should point the same way; the shadow of a vertical mast falls straight behind it. No compass needed.
Don’t keep the dish pointed straight at the sun: the reflector concentrates its heat on the LNB.
Hold a straight board across the rim from top to bottom and press the phone against it, screen facing out.
Point the phone camera at the sky: the blue line is the belt of geostationary satellites, the yellow circle is your satellite. If a tree or a building shows inside the circle, the satellite is blocked from here.
A phone compass is off by 10–25°, so the satellite’s position on the screen is approximate. Put the sun in the crosshair and tap “refine” — the compass correction becomes accurate to a degree. Don’t look at the sun itself; looking at the phone screen is fine.
Will a building or a tree block the satellite
The beam to the satellite rises at the elevation angle. Here is how high it runs at each distance — anything taller blocks the satellite. To check a particular building, use “Check an obstacle” on the map.
Second LNB (multifeed)
One dish can receive two nearby satellites if a second LNB is mounted beside the main one.
Sun outage
Twice a year the sun passes right behind the satellite and the signal drops for a few minutes a day. Nothing is broken.
No signal: how to search and what to check
Search routine
- Set the elevation by the bracket scale or with the phone sensor, and tighten the elevation nuts just enough that the dish turns with some effort.
- Open the signal meter screen for the satellite on the receiver, or connect a satellite finder. The receiver screen lags 1–3 seconds behind the dish.
- Turn the dish in azimuth slowly — 1° every 2–3 seconds — from 10–15° left of the calculated direction to 10–15° right of it.
- No signal — raise or lower the dish by 1° and sweep the same arc again. Three or four passes are usually enough.
- Signal found — make sure it is the right satellite: neighbors often sit 2–3° away and carry other channels.
- Peak the dish on signal QUALITY, not level: 1–2 mm at a time, azimuth first, then elevation. Then turn the LNB to the calculated skew and peak again.
- Tighten the nuts one by one while watching the quality: a dish often shifts a fraction of a degree as you tighten it.
Check
- The cable and F connectors: the braid doesn’t touch the center conductor, the connector is screwed all the way, there is no water inside.
- The receiver powers the LNB (13/18 V) — it isn’t switched off in the menu.
- The LNB type matches the satellite: circular for DirecTV and DISH, linear for Astra, Hot Bird, Galaxy and most free-to-air satellites.
- The local oscillator frequency in the receiver matches the LNB: 9,750/10,600 MHz for a universal linear LNB, 10,750 or 11,250 MHz for others.
- With a DiSEqC switch, the port number set in the receiver matches the port this LNB is wired to.
- The line on the map doesn’t run into a building, a tree or a hill: summer leaves can block a satellite that was visible in winter.
- The mast is perfectly vertical — otherwise the dish can’t be set accurately in either azimuth or elevation.
- The signal drops in heavy rain or with snow on the reflector — normal for Ku band; a bigger dish helps.
Satellite azimuth and elevation by city
Azimuth is measured clockwise from north: true (map) and compass, corrected for magnetic declination. Tap a city and the calculator above switches to it.
UK and Ireland: 28.2°E, 19.2°E, 13°E
| City | 28.2°EAstra 2 | 19.2°EAstra 1 | 13°EHot Bird | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azimuth | Compass | Elevation | LNB skew | Azimuth | Compass | Elevation | LNB skew | Azimuth | Compass | Elevation | LNB skew | |
| 145.4° | 144.2° | 25.4° | 20.5° | 155.8° | 154.6° | 28.4° | 14.6° | 163.4° | 162.2° | 29.8° | 10.2° | |
| 143.8° | 143.3° | 23.9° | 20.9° | 154.1° | 153.5° | 26.9° | 15.3° | 161.5° | 160.9° | 28.5° | 11.1° | |
| 143.8° | 143.5° | 22.9° | 20.4° | 153.9° | 153.6° | 25.9° | 15.0° | 161.3° | 160.9° | 27.4° | 10.9° | |
| 144.7° | 144.1° | 22.9° | 19.8° | 154.8° | 154.3° | 25.8° | 14.4° | 162.2° | 161.6° | 27.2° | 10.3° | |
| 142.4° | 143.2° | 20.2° | 19.8° | 152.3° | 153.0° | 23.0° | 15.0° | 159.4° | 160.1° | 24.6° | 11.3° | |
| 143.6° | 143.9° | 20.5° | 19.2° | 153.6° | 153.9° | 23.3° | 14.3° | 160.7° | 161.0° | 24.7° | 10.6° | |
| 142.0° | 141.8° | 24.3° | 22.3° | 152.2° | 152.0° | 27.5° | 16.7° | 159.6° | 159.4° | 29.2° | 12.4° | |
| 140.2° | 141.4° | 20.6° | 21.6° | 150.1° | 151.3° | 23.7° | 16.7° | 157.2° | 158.4° | 25.4° | 12.9° | |
| 145.0° | 144.6° | 21.9° | 19.0° | 155.1° | 154.7° | 24.6° | 13.9° | 162.3° | 161.9° | 26.0° | 9.9° | |
| 142.7° | 142.3° | 24.5° | 22.0° | 152.9° | 152.5° | 27.7° | 16.3° | 160.4° | 160.0° | 29.4° | 12.0° | |
| 140.6° | 140.6° | 24.8° | 23.7° | 150.7° | 150.7° | 28.2° | 18.0° | 158.2° | 158.2° | 30.1° | 13.6° | |
| 145.2° | 145.2° | 19.8° | 17.9° | 155.1° | 155.1° | 22.4° | 13.1° | 162.2° | 162.2° | 23.7° | 9.5° | |
| 139.4° | 140.6° | 21.5° | 22.6° | 149.3° | 150.4° | 24.8° | 17.6° | 156.5° | 157.6° | 26.6° | 13.7° | |
| 136.6° | 138.3° | 21.6° | 24.9° | 146.3° | 148.1° | 25.3° | 19.8° | 153.4° | 155.2° | 27.4° | 15.9° | |
United States: DirecTV 101°W, DISH 110°W and 119°W
| City | 101°WDirecTV 101°W | 110°WDISH 110°W | 119°WDISH 119°W | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azimuth | Compass | Elevation | Azimuth | Compass | Elevation | Azimuth | Compass | Elevation | |
| 218.0° | 230.5° | 35.5° | 228.1° | 240.6° | 30.4° | 236.9° | 249.4° | 24.6° | |
| 151.0° | 139.6° | 46.4° | 165.5° | 154.1° | 49.5° | 181.4° | 170.0° | 50.5° | |
| 199.6° | 203.8° | 39.8° | 211.7° | 215.9° | 36.6° | 222.4° | 226.6° | 32.2° | |
| 191.2° | 189.5° | 54.8° | 207.8° | 206.1° | 51.8° | 221.4° | 219.7° | 46.8° | |
| 160.4° | 150.8° | 49.4° | 176.2° | 166.6° | 51.1° | 192.4° | 182.8° | 50.4° | |
| 217.0° | 228.8° | 36.7° | 227.3° | 239.1° | 31.6° | 236.3° | 248.1° | 25.8° | |
| 185.1° | 181.6° | 55.6° | 202.5° | 199.1° | 53.5° | 217.3° | 213.8° | 49.0° | |
| 187.7° | 185.2° | 51.6° | 203.4° | 200.9° | 49.3° | 217.0° | 214.5° | 45.0° | |
| 221.2° | 228.6° | 52.0° | 232.8° | 240.2° | 45.3° | 241.6° | 249.0° | 37.7° | |
| 208.3° | 213.9° | 46.9° | 220.8° | 226.4° | 42.2° | 231.2° | 236.8° | 36.2° | |
| 173.8° | 166.3° | 43.9° | 187.8° | 180.3° | 43.8° | 201.3° | 193.8° | 41.8° | |
| 152.1° | 137.2° | 31.6° | 163.5° | 148.6° | 34.0° | 175.5° | 160.6° | 35.3° | |
| 220.5° | 234.5° | 32.5° | 230.2° | 244.1° | 27.4° | 238.7° | 252.7° | 21.6° | |
| 190.9° | 191.0° | 37.7° | 203.1° | 203.2° | 35.6° | 214.3° | 214.5° | 32.3° | |
| 127.4° | 113.4° | 10.0° | 136.3° | 122.4° | 13.3° | 145.7° | 131.7° | 16.1° | |
| 103.3° | 94.1° | 22.6° | 108.2° | 98.9° | 31.3° | 114.2° | 105.0° | 39.9° | |
Calculated on the WGS84 ellipsoid with atmospheric refraction; declination from the WMM-2025 model on 2026-10-16. LNB skew: plus means counterclockwise as seen from behind the dish.