My Setup RollerCoaster
I think it’s time to share the roller coaster of my setup and how well I did to get transmissions from Goes-17.
First of all, it was time to order all the required hardware to get the project underway, noting I already had a few things to get started, The things I had was a Raspberry Pi, 32GB SD card.
The things I needed were a USB extension cord, SAWBird LNA, and the dish that would grab the signal. I had ordered the stuff I had needed, but due to the SAWBird LNA being an overseas product I would have to wait a few weeks to get it, something to do with covid-19 I guess.
Fast forward 3 weeks, yes 3 weeks not as bad as I thought, was it time to get testing. I had already picked a place for it to get started, using the AR satellite app I had an idea of where to point my dish and that’s where the plan to use this location came up. With building permission approved before I ordered everything I got the dish up and started testing.
This seemed like a really good place to set this up, but then I started having issues getting a signal, so I informed Mike I was having issues and they recommended I use Satellite pointing website, after entering in my information and calculations where I needed to point the satellite it turns out the tree was in the way after all!
From what I gathered on the AR mobile app it said it would clear the trees, but not knowing or at least remembering the compass and sensors on a phone are not accurate meant I wouldn’t get a good true position.
At this point I was starting to panic, at the time I thought my hardware was faulty so I decided to do a simple test I knew or thought would work for sure.
Yep, the satellite dish is on an office chair. You may laugh but after some moving around and adjustments I started to get a signal! Going from 2000ish vit and 50 drops all the way down to around 200 vit and zero drops!
Once that was set up I needed to get Goesproc setup and working. After making a config I started it. and 15 minutes later I got my first disk! Woohoo!
So now that I knew my equipment wasn’t faulty it was time to sort out another location on where to put the satellite dish, I had to find a good place that literally almost had to have a line of sight. I found a possible location on my conservatory roof but that means I also needed to purchase a new stand or way to mount the satellite dish up there. After looking around I found this.
It was meant for a PA speaker not a satellite dish, but the way the pole was made the mount fit like a glove.
I got everything set up on the roof and everything went according to plan, I managed to get a decent signal. But that night there was a lot of wind and the next minute I heard a loud sound, worried I went out to check, the satellite dish had fallen off the roof! But as a cat that lands on its feet, it managed to land on the tripod stand. Not thinking there was any damage I had to bring it in, which was a good call on my part because the plastic bag I had wrapped around it to make it water-resistant got a hole in it.
Where the dish landed 
Scrape marks on the pole 
Crack in the primary reflector
In the morning I checked for more damage and sadly found a bit more thankfully it hasn’t affected the performance. I had to again bring it down and get it all redone, waterproofing, etc. I also had to weigh and tie it down and after doing that it seemed more sturdy, I haven’t had the wind in a while yet so we will have to see, I also have plans to put a vibration sensor on the mount to check for movement later on.
I finally managed to get a system set up this may be the final location, that is subject to change if things don’t go well in the wind.
All tied down and weighted down 
Looks can be deceiving, the reflector is clearing over the tree
Well, that’s it from me, hope you enjoyed my roller coaster, which by the way is considered still ongoing, but the main headache has been resolved and I have a main system setup.
