Ok, I have been looking for this circuit on line now for a while and I finally found it. (Thank you Kostas 711 in Patras City, Greece.) Turns out it is a pretty simple circuit. Part of it is a voltage regulator and filter to isolate the voltage supplied by the receiver and using it to power an op-amp which will run the meter. The rest of it isolates the carrier frequency from the satellite, rectifies it, and feeds it to the amp input. The amp output drives the meter. Voila! Now I know why these things are so cheap. The most expensive component is the meter. I saw some other DIYers looking for this online as well so here it is just in case they Google me.
I still would like to try to build it myself and use my volt-ohm meter for the display, perhaps without the op-amp. Maybe just a couple of caps, rectifiers, and a choke, Use a couple of RCA jacks for the output to the meter. Voila!
I’ve also created my own satellite look angle calculator for Windows. I found the formulas for the elevation, azimuth and skew by looking through some learning material on the subject. They didn’t have the development of the formulas but they had some sample problems.
I also found some data regarding magnetic declinations to add in, since I use a compass to do my site surveys. Right now the calculator only does the North American continent and DirecTV and Dish satellites. I am working on an upgrade and would also like to develop it for my Palm phone. The iPhone and Touch would be fun to do too, but I do not have a Mac for development. Perhaps later.
