Channel Master makes a little box that goes inline for about $39.00. It's just a
through put with a tap that powers (from the receiver) a simple RF amp/det that
drives a meter and piezo device. It will not degrade your receive performance.

To answer your second question, it's possible but not that practical unless you
want to do it for the sake of saying you did it. You'd have to accurately know
your azimuth (flux gate compass), lat/lon with GPS, calculate in your magnetic
variance, lash it together with a few servos, write a program to sense and aim,
hoping to get the right satellite, hope you have a clear shot at the bird, and
maybe it will work. Or, just buy one that does just that, for about $800.

http://www.accessorywarehouse.com/index.html  click on Satellite TV and
Accessories for a reference.
Rick

rad0 wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am looking at the inexpensive signal meters for the DSS satellite systems,
>
> and I was wondering how they work exactly?  It looks like they are
> placed in line, is this how they are powered?  (I guess this is how the
> LNB is powered),  'but'   if so, can you still 'practically'
> watch the television when there is an inline monitor?
>
> I want to build a self aiming satellite dish, and I thought I could use a
> quick
> calculation for the initial aim, based on lat/lon; then used the signal
> strength
> to tweak to max signal.
>
> questions:
>
> first
> Does anyone know of a homebrew design for these inexpensive signal monitors?
>
> second
> What do you think of my recipe for aiming the little dish, lat/lon calc then
> tweak using
> signal strength?
>
> Thanks
>
> This project would combine all the talents of the pic, using it to calc,
> monitor a signal,
> then move motors...not a bad days/minutes work for the little thing
>
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