Hi, recently bought the HX50 from a reputable supplier in the UK and a 1.2 Prodelin dish from SA to install ourselves in the Kafue National Park in Zambia.  We bought a simple sat finder and have put in all the info to the provider's data sheets etc. lat, long, been given azimuth etc. etc. but after days of moving the dish a millimeter in every direction, re-checking a thousand times, we have still failed.  We have been advised to get an expensive sat finder.  Can anyone recommend a sat finder that is not too expensive but that you have had good results from?  Or has anyone got any better ideas on what is going wrong.  We get 29 at best.  No trees etc. nearby or for about 200 yards.  

Dear Pippa,

Before you spend more money, I would suggest you to try to escalate the issue with your service provider and double and triple check that they have given you the right information.

Make sure especially about the following:
1. Mechanical elevation of the dish required.
2. Signal parameters - frequency and symbol rate!!!
3. Polarity.

Sometimes, the signal parameters are changed (changing frequency and symbol rate), and the NOC people provide the wrong information for the customers, that spending too much time trying to point a dish with very basic equipment and very basic experience. Just try again, before you go on and purchase a new equipment, to insist with the NOC people to double check the information given and to receive a proper support.

Dear Oasis
Okay the technicians are back at the site today.  We re-checked all the lat and long using Satsig and came up with what Bentley gave us.  Took you advice and then have re-emailed them to ask about the frequency, symbol rate etc.  Now on Satsig it says Eutelsat W3A frequencies are 11699.8 and 11700.4.  However on my RBR sheet sent to me is is 13873 and the symbol rate is 3500000 - could they be wrong?      

Page https://www.satsig.net/eut2beac.htm says that W3A has horizontal beacons at 11699.8 or 11700.4 MHz.
The upper beacon is switched off right now.
I can see the lower beacon on Horizontal down in the UK like this:
https://www.satsig.net/pointing/w3a-horizontal-beacon-11699800000.gif
Note my LNB frequency error is about 1.7 MHz.

If you are looking for a carrier in Africa and have been told "13873 and the symbol rate is 3500000" it is likely that the 13873 is the modem tuning frequency expressed in units of 100kHz.  What LNB are you using and what is its local oscillator frequency ?
SAtellite frequency will be LNB LO frequency + 1378.3 MHz.

Best regards, Eric.