Really Rocket Science

 When we first wrote about the DishPointer AR Pro app a few months ago, this is one of the instances where it can become an indispensible tool for field technicians: quickie site surveys.

Here's a real example from Afghanistan:

I found out about this thing while doing research to find out the directions to a bird while here in Afghanistan. I stumbles across DishPointer's website, which was a lifesaver, and saw mention of this app. As soon as I got back to where I could access the market I made sure to get this app. I can't begin to say how wonderful it is. Being over here, we don't have any birds that are actually for us. We use Hotbird 6&7, which are for Europe. This App still helps me see if I have line of sight and it helped to align a dish in no time. (I know you see the difference in time in the pics, We had a bad LNB that was making it more difficult to get a good signal.)

The fact that the app stores all the birds for offline use is a truly wonderful thing out here. If I had this before, I could've been able to tell within 5 minutes that one of the sites we were at was simply not able to see the bird. We could've been in a dangerous location for a mere 15 minutes instead of the 3 days we were there trying to no avail. From now on anytime I go out for an install I'll make sure my phone is part of my toolbag, and of course this app will be installed.

Getting a site survey done quickly in a combat zone using a $20 app? That's the type of cost-benefit analysis we like to see.

The DishPointer AR Pro is available via iTunes App Store.