Marriage Saving--There's An App For That!

Seriously, there is an app for that; it's called DishPointer.  And it only costs $9.99!  For those on the road who use satellites to receive either a TV or Internet signal, DishPointer is this wonderful little app that lists all of the signal receiving satellites in the sky.  You choose what satellites you need to hone in on, which in our case would be satellites 83, 110, 119 and 129 (one for the Internet and three for DISH TV service with HD.)  Using the internal GPS of a smart phone and the camera option, you simply choose your campsite and if it is surrounded by tall trees you hold up your cell phone with the app running and a dotted red line that indicates each individual satellite you have chosen will show up on the camera screen which will show you whether or not the trees are blocking the satellite signal.  Believe me, in our household, this is a marriage saver!!!


While the program is pretty basic, just having a rough idea of whether or not the line of trees would block our signal path would allow us to know if we should pick that particular campsite.  It will also show us which direction the line of sight to the satellite is so that we know about where we'd have to set up the satellite dish tripods to receive a good signal.  This would also work fairly well for those with roof top mounted satellite dishes, especially here on the East Coast where very tall pine trees are common.

What you are seeing in the photograph above is that from where I was standing I could set up our Internet receiving satellite dish (satellite 83) because there is clear sky around the satellite. We could NOT receive the signals for our DISH TV satellites as they are below the tree line. However, from a different location on our site we are able to get a clear, straight shot to those particular satellites.  As you move the smart phone, the screen moves also, following the satellites path.  Once we are set up, I have taken the phone and walked around in other areas of our campgrounds to see what campsites would have a clear line of sight to the satellites in case of future visits and then mark those sites on the campground maps that we are given upon our arrival at the campground.

I do not have any relationship to this company, nor am I being paid for my recommendation--I just really like this little app and have to thank Bob and Brooke for showing me how it works on their iPad (and boy, wouldn't I like to have one of those little toys, too!)