Quick dish placement question(s)

sir-bob

Hi there all, I've spent the last week trawling the forums and I think Ive got the jist of it now My question is regarding where to put a motorized dish, on the front or the back of the house. The front of my house faces about 140 degrees, south east.

I've got the compass out and I figure if I stick the dish on the front I should be able to go up to 30W and full east. My only worry is that the street curves to the left so this could block some of the west signals.

The other option is on the back of the house, this is where it gets a bit sketchy. A bit of pythagoras later, I reckon with a 24" T and K stand off and a 6' pole above gutter height I could get a minimum elavation of around 5 degrees and full east to west line of sight above the roof, this is good. Except for the chimney stack which sits at about 35-40 degrees.

Im thinking of using a 90cm or 100cm dish so having it that high is a bit worrying, not so much the movement but the stress it will apply on the motor as the rear of the house picks up a lot of south westerly winds.

One last question (honest!!) Any reccomendations on a dish, I figured at the rear a 90cm mesh Raven would be OK. I'd prefer a 1m solid dish but I'm a bit worried about the wind. Thanks in advance.

Attached Images

house sat.JPG (11.6 KB, 21 views)

rolfw

The front will certainly be easier, the road would have to climb pretty steeply to cause a problem on the Western satellites, as you won't be going probably any lower than 17 degrees.

I'll be testing the Fraccaro Penta 85cm dish in the near future, had a look at one at a recent trade show and it is a well made and pretty sturdy dish, may be worth considering.

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sir-bob

Im kind of coming round to that idea myself, unfortunatley I dont think Ill be able to stretch to 30w. I've had a look in google earth and I think I'll max out at 25W. Is it worth trying to go any further? Love the look of that dish btw, return of the squarial!!! I suppose due to the shape it will have less of a profile when it comes to the wind.

Robbo

Hi,
According to this calculator _http://www.satsig.net/maps/lat-long-finder.htm.
your dish elevation for Hispasat is 25.8. (unless I typed something in wrong)

When setting my dish on Hispa I used an adjustable spirit level. By setting the adjustment to the correct elevation, I was able to 'eye' along the spirit level to see if would clear neighbours house. (rather crude I know, but worked)

May be worth a physical double check at the actual intended dish location.

sir-bob

Todays quick lesson, if you're sat in front a PC, with 2 big floor mount speakers, screen, printer, mobile phone etc then don't try to take a compass reading House actually faces 130 degrees, bear with me here. That would mean that 30w would run 10 degrees off of the front of my house? Looks like its probably going to be the front then. Is there anything past 30w worth picking up. Had a look on lyngsat and there doesn't seem too much.

sir-bob

Thanks for that link Robbo, after checking that out it does seem that I made a fatal mistake. Compass's use magnetic north and satellites use true north. Again with the learning. 30w is out of bounds on the front of the house and the chimney covers 1w from the back of the house (unless I use an 8' pole). Looks like I'll have to be happy with 20w through to full east .

sir-bob

I've just had a look at those dishes on fleabay, the 68cm claims to have the gains of an 80cm. Do you reckon this would be adequate for a motorised setup? Or would it be best to go for a 85cm. The smaller size might keep the wife a bit more happy.

rolfw

You could use the 68, but I have yet to test their claims.

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I'll wait with anticipation,rolfw, been looking at those little gems for later on this year. Be interested to see how they perform.

rolfw

Well it is of course subject to them remembering to send me one.

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Robbo

Not sure what mounts you can get, but could you mount your dish/motor on the corner that virtually faces south? Would this enable you to get 30W?

sir-bob

Sorry, should've said, my house is an end terrace, so the south side is the neighbours house. North, north east side there is nothing.

Robbo

You might be able to stick a minidish up somewhere to get 30W. I have done something similar, except I've motorised the minidish looking east with a separate 90cm dish looking at 30W.
I have just bought a Diseqc switch to switch between the two, but have not had chance to test whether it will work OK with the motor yet.

With the minidish though, modification of the LNB casing (with a hacksaw) may be required so that the skew can be adjusted to be suitable for 30W.

sir-bob

Had a ferckle in the garage, 15 minutes later, 1 old protractor, a nut and some thread, hey presto. A home made inclinometer. Looks like the best place to go for would actually be in the garden. Minimum elevation would be 20 degrees and occur 230 degrees azimuth so I "may" have problems with anything past 40W . Thanks again for that link Robbo, its really helped me get my head round some of this.

Robbo

No probs! Hope you get something going.