Sky through a window

M

mulls74

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
80cm fixed dish
My Location
Lingfield, Surrey
Apologies if this has been asked before - I did a search but couldn't find anything.
Basically I was wondering if it was possible to pick up Sky in central England using a standard minidish but through a window? It is plain glass, single glazed.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
If the window faces south-eastish, then yes its quite possible. You may want to use a zone 2 dish (60cm) to allow for the signal absorption by the glass.
 
i'm about to give this a whirl in the near future. will report back. cts
 
Hi mulls74 & cts
It has been posted on many boards that people are getting good reception through windows, even double glazed ones. Depending upon circumstances, ie location and type of glass, dishes from 45cm up to 80cm have worked.
Personally, last year when the subject came to the for again, I used a 45cm minidish on my swivel computer chair in an experiment. Looking through the 15mm gap double glazed window of my lounge and then through the PVC twin wall roof of my conservatory I obtained signal from some of the satellites ranging from 30*west to 39*east. Not all of the satellites or all of the transponders on the ones that I did pick up. It was also a fine summers day.

Basically you have to try it and see if it is at all possible from your location. There was a poster on DS located in Aberdeen who regularly reported that she was getting good reception from $ly through the window of her flat with a mini-dish, cannot remember if it was a zone 2 dish or if the window was double glazed.
Also, as Analoguesat mentioned, the window must be in the correct orientation for the dish to see the satellite.
 
Thanks for the replies. So does the window have to be facing right at the satellite? Or would it be OK as long as the dish has a line of sight to 28 deg through a generally south-facing window?
 
mulls74 said:
Thanks for the replies. So does the window have to be facing right at the satellite? Or would it be OK as long as the dish has a line of sight to 28 deg through a generally south-facing window?
Click to expand...

The more square on the better - if the signal is slanting through the glass you will get some signal reflection. Satellite transmission are just like light, although the frequencies are different
 
The other possiblity if you have a garden is to mount the dish on a low post and hide it with slow growing bushes.
 
I get Sky fine, on 40cm minidish, pointing through a double glazed window, 20 degrees away from normal to it!

(added) I don't know what the "cutoff angle" might be, looking through my kitchen window, as obviously I can't rotate it to perform the experiment! But, I'd have thought somebody with a minidish and a spare sheet of glass could find out .....
 
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