I’ve dived in and purchased a system from Vince at http://www.hwnt.com.au,Hardware and Tare,] for $650 (August 2006) which included a tripod for the dish and an Optus Aurora card.

The Homecast 150IR receiver that was part of the system has recently had a software upgrade, so the instructions provided by Vince at Hardware and Tare to setup the receiver were useless. Somehow I happened to stumble through and had the system working in around two hours, an hour or so putting it all together, and a further hour or so locating the satellite and then setting up the receiver.

Having set the system up a few times now, it usually takes less than five minutes to locate the signal from the satellite.

Dish Set Up Gallery

To minimise the number of connection points, we purchased a Mini Compact “Eze Eye” connection, drilled through the caravan wall and we connected directly to the decoder (see below). Click on any image below to view an enlarged image.

[View with PicLens]

Useful Links

http://www.satsig.net/maps/satellite-tv-dish-pointing-australia-new-zealand.htm,Satellite Dish Pointing Calculator,] for Australia and New Zealand using Google Maps to locate where you are. Double Click the map and all necessary elevation, azimuth and polarisation details are returned to assist in setting up your satellite TV system.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/goldway/tvsatellite.htm,GeezerDave’s,] Satellite web page has some useful information and further links to Satellite TV in Australia.

Downloads

The following files can be downloaded and provide information on the Optus C1 satellite.

[download id="6"]
[download id="7"]