A site should be selected which has an unobstructed view of the orbital arc, or the part of the arc that contains the satellite(s) of interest. In Australia the orbital arc "rises" in the north east horizon, rises to a peak elevation at due north then "sets" in the north west horizon.
Dish mounts should be fixed to a stable, level surface. A properly levelled slab or plumbed pipe set in concrete is usual. Arguably some imprecision in a manual Az/El mount can be tolerated because some iteration in the antenna pointing procedure can be used to zero in on a signal. However with a polar mount or a motorised Az/El mount deviations from horizontal or vertical will cause problems in correctly tracking the orbital arc.
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