Dish location?

[tombutler2000]

Hi,

I'm looking at getting a dish, ideally a motorised system in order to pick up as many sats as possible. Our house faces slightly east of due south, almost 'facing' Hotbird at 13E (see image in link below).

I dont really fancy having a 80cm or 1m dish on the front of the house. I was thinking about having the dish installed at the side of the house on the back corner (see image), with the dish just above the gutter line. Since our roof slopes away in the direction of the chimney and not vertically up I am hoping that the dish can swing west and pick up other sats. I know it's difficult to give an accurate answer from a 2d photo, but I wonder if this is feasible. I am expecting there may be cut-off point as the dish swings towards the chimney.

Incidentally from the dishpointer site I should be able to pick-up Astra2 at 28E (?) and miss our neighbours roof.

S0d's law would have it that probably the tallest tree on our road is opposite our house and driveway. It's height probably reaches the top of our chimney stack. If the dish is at the back corner of the house, do you think this will block a signal.

Do professional installers have hand held devices which determine which sats can be picked up, signal strength etc?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

T

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...er2000/sat.jpg

_http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm50/tombutler2000/sat.jpg

[cauliflower69]

A professional installer will have a satellite meter that is pre-programmed with certain transponders for each satellite.

Before any jobs are carried out they should do an on site test and let you know what you can and can't get from where you want it

Finally whats wrong with either of the chimneys?

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by tombutler2000

Hi,

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

One way of finding out what you want to know is to go to dishpointer.com and find the elevation angles for the satellites you intend picking up, up to 30W should be sufficient. Then get a spirit level with an adjustable bubble and check what elevations you would have a clear line of site to from your proposed position. This is what I did with mine and I get what I predicted.

Another alternative positioning possible is at the bottom of your garden, it looks quite long? Depening on the length of the back garden and the height of your houses you may be able to get what you want from there. Just concrete a scaffold pole into the ground (100% vertical) and you are away. Easy to reach if there are any problems too.

BTW, I would definitely NOT consider putting a 80cm/1m dish on a chimney stack, not unles you want half a ton of bricks landing on your head on a gusty day!

Robbo

[kerrywez]

Fully agree with Robbo, the chimney is likely to come crashing down if you put a biggish dish on it and his advice about the pole down the garden is very sound also, but it is imperative that the pole is absolutely plumb, otherwise you will suffer loss of signal at one or other of the outermost satellites.

It is also best to have the dish where it is easy to get at and if, and it is more likely than not, you need to readjust the dish, after high winds, it is very easy to do so if the dish is at a level that can be worked on from the ground.

Very best regards Wez

[nvingo]

That dishpointer site looks like it will help me determine the lowest point I can mount the dish on the gable end and clear the neighbour's chimney stack.

What about mounting yours on a pole attached to the far end of your garage, looks like it would have a decent view south and up from there. You could even construct a ladder/platform on the garage roof for maintenance access.

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by nvingo

What about mounting yours on a pole attached to the far end of your garage, looks like it would have a decent view south and up from there. You could even construct a ladder/platform on the garage roof for maintenance access.

Yep, also a good possibility, OP you just need to check your elevation angles.
If the angle to the roofs is any more than 30 degrees, forget it. If all obstructions are below 20 degrees it should be fine. But remember the satellites are in an arc.

Robbo

[tombutler2000]

Thanks for the replies. I have taken some snaps of the back of the house to help everybody. On the first image below I have marked where I hope the dish could be mounted, at the back corner of the house, just above the gutters. I wonder if this would be susceptible to movement and high winds, might be a pain to adjust motor if this occurs. Also included the dish on the garage. The third location as suggested would be roughly be where I took the photo from, at the back of the garden. It's about 30m or so to the house from the back of the garden.




I think I should be just OK (for Astra and Hotbird) if I were to place the dish 3 metres off the ground (at the back of the garage as above), with the peaks of the roofs say about 18 metres away and guessing 9m off the ground. This would give me elevation roughly off 19 degrees to the peaks of the roof tops. Based this on a right angled triangle with straight sides of 18 and 6 (9 - 3 since the dish is 3m off the ground). Rough calculations I know, but the following site seems to also suggest I should be OK with the dish on the garage.

http://http://www.aps-platform-servi...tant/index.php

Please let me know if my calculations are flawed. I therefore assume I should have no probs at all from the back of the garden (famous last words?). Given the choice I would prefer the dish not be placed near ground level at the back. Spent 4 days over the last bank holiday weekend clearing the back portion of the garden with a view to landscaping it, creating a chill-out are. Having a 1m sat dish may spoil the aesthetics though.

Some other images from the back of the garden:



Cheers.

[cauliflower69]

True about the bricks (sorry i live in Ireland) and am used to concrete blocks

Forgot yee use bricks.

[robbo71]

Yes, I your calculations are about right, I used inverseTan(6/18) and got 18.43 degrees.

From the bottom of the garden with the dish 1m off the ground it would be about 15 degrees so not a great deal better.

What is missing from your calc though is the distance to the house wall and the height of it, as from your photo it looks like that may get in the way a little. Also, what is your aprox location?

BTW if the wall is not in the way, your 18.5 degrees obstruction should be fine, depending on your location you should easily get 45 degrees either way maybe more. Also as you go either side of 13E, the distance to the obstructions is more, so the angle is less. So I suspect that on top of the rear end of the garage roof as described would be OK.

As I said before, if you get a spirit level, or an angle meter, you can roughly eye up all the angles to the obstuctions without having to do much calculation. I have an angle gauge myself, and it's good.

See below
Robbo

@ cauliflower, no worrys mate, yeah we are mostly brick here, I've seen some of the houses your way being built on the old Discover H&L channel.

[tombutler2000]

Cheers for the feedback.

We have a longish garage, 8m or so long, with back face of the house approx a further 3m away from the back of the garage. I actually measured to the the top of window above the back door, giving a height of 2.5m. From the above photo it looks like another 2.5m or so to the gutters, giving a total of 5m.

So assuming the dish is a min 2.5m off the ground thats gives a angle of 14 degrees or so to the top of the walls. (11m to the wall and by another 2.5m up). That should be fine.

Located at approx 53.4 deg N and 2.25 E, Manchester. See, it doesn't p it down in Manchester all the time!