checking tree clearance

[mdlyons]

A friend of mine wants to get a motorised dish set up in his new flat. However, there are a number of trees just in front of the only area which he may put the dish on the flat.

There are some sky minidishes already on the flat pointing in the general direction of the trees so I think most of the sats should be ok.

Is there anyway of checking whether there is enought clearance to get other sats? As he does not want to shell out for the gear, unlesshe knows it will work. The main sats required are 1w, 13 16 19e.

I have a spare mini dish and I thought about wiring it up and waving it from his window( where the dish would be) and seeing if what I could get on 13 and 19 east. Would this be worth it as I assume if these were ok they 16 definitely would, and probably 1w as it is higher in the sky.

Any ideas would be welcomed.

 

[Robbo]

Hi,

_www.dishpointer.com will give you the elevation angles required for the satellite you want.

There are various methods to see whether you have the clearance.

In the past I have used a spirit level with an adjustable bubble to 'eye along' to see whether there are any obstruction. Or if you had an inclinometer or Angle Guage (eg Wixey) you could use that.

Using a minidish to check your view is also a good way of doing it. Although merely waving it around may be a bit tricky to say the least. Mounting it on something a bit firmer would be much easier.

The minidish may be a bit too small for 1W though, 5W should be achievable though, but you may need to skew the dish a little, if the LNB doesn't have enough skew adjustment on it.

Robbo

 

[Topper]

I have a spare mini dish and I thought about wiring it up and waving it from his window( where the dish would be) and seeing if what I could get on 13 and 19 east. Would this be worth it as I assume if these were ok they 16 definitely would, and probably 1w as it is higher in the sky.

Any ideas would be welcomed.

Ok well by 16 I assume you 16 deg East, that can be problematical with many dishes not just a skydish.
As regards waving it from the window, all you are likely to do is hurt your wrist! You have to align to within 1 degree both vertically and horizontally in order to lock a signal and that is not always so easy to do. By all means have a play and see what you can get.

 

[mdlyons]

Managed to pick up 5e, 13e, 19e and 28e whilst holding the sky dish, so we are going to go ahead with the installation as most of the arc should be fine.

Cheers for the replies.

 

[Topper]

Managed to pick up 5e, 13e, 19e and 28e whilst holding the sky dish, so we are going to go ahead with the installation as most of the arc should be fine.

Well done :-handclapGood fun isn't it