Non-motoring > Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Dulwich Estate Replies: 22
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 11:41 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Dulwich Estate
I want to re-site my dish so that I can get access to it easier. At present it's about 9m in the air and very discretely fixed to a chimney. The new location has a good line of sight but it's obstructed by two telephone wires leading to the house from a telegraph pole. The cables would be about 7 metres away from the dish.

My first guess is that the degree of obstruction to the signal would be too small to notice. But then I remembered that about once a year when I'm watching satellite TV and an aircraft at about 2,500 feet, approaching Heathrow, passes over just the right spot the TV blinks for a second or less.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Sat 7 Jul 12 at 11:43
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 11:53 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Zero
Its unlikely that two telephone wires would provide sufficient obstruction to the signal, nor would the low voltage passing through them have any effect.



The aircraft was sufficiently large to block the signal and/or cause multipathing and out of synch signals.
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 15:40 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Dulwich Estate
"Its unlikely that two telephone wires would provide sufficient obstruction to the signal, nor would the low voltage passing through them have any effect."

That's what I'm hoping for and was looking for confirmation. Crawling over a roof, clipping wires all over the place (*like the professional cowboys don't do!) and drilling through 9 inch masonry twice are not tasks to be entertained lightly if it's all going to be for nought.

* I've looked at some so-called professional dish fittings and cannot believe they get away with it - a dish maybe 5 feet off the ground or cables flapping about in the wind and especially the brick burst out where they drill from inside and take off half the brick facing on the outside. They don't seem to bother with a rainwater drain loop either. Bodgers.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Sat 7 Jul 12 at 15:40
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 18:23 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Kevin
If you're going to all the hassle of re-siting the dish why not buy a new (possibly bigger) dish and new LNB? They're cheap enough.
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 18:25 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Runfer D'Hills
All satellite dishes should be buried underground. Eyesores all of them.

So there..

:-)
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 19:21 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Dulwich Estate
Kevin - that's what I'm doing. I didn't want to complicate matters by posting that part.

Humph - ideally, I agree with you, that's why it's up high on a chimney between roof valleys and invisible to everyone except the Murdoch Eye. Problem is, I never realised that if it needs attention, upgraded LNB and so on, I need scaffolding. Once it's accessible, but slightly around a corner, I'll be saving £200 every time I touch it.
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 19:47 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Kevin
>I didn't want to complicate matters by posting that part.

Dulwich, you've been on c4p long enough to realise that even the simplest questions get complicated here.

;-)
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 19:49 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - MD
>> >I didn't want to complicate matters by posting that part.
>>
>> Dulwich, you've been on c4p long enough to realise that even the simplest questions get
>> complicated here.
>>
What size screws are holding the bracket? (0:-:0)
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 19:54 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Zero
hope your not using that cheap shotgun cable
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 21:04 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Kevin
>What size screws are holding the bracket? (0:-:0)

:-)

Screws? Surely stainless steel bolts would be better?

I think that the size would have to take into account the diameter of the dish, the maximum anticipated windspeed, the distance between the centreline of the dish and the wall mount, and the construction of the wall.

It really isn't as simple as Dulwich expected is it?

Where is NC when you need him?
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 19:22 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Kevin
>All satellite dishes should be buried underground. Eyesores all of them.

I have a 1m motorised dish mounted on the back of the house looking over the roof. Totally out of sight unless you're a burglar ;-)

The best installation I've seen was in East Texas.

A dilapidated wooden shack about 20ft square in the Davy Crocket National Forest. A through-the-wall aircon unit balanced half in and half out of an open window and a huge 3m motorised dish in what passed for the front garden.
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 19:54 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Zero
>> >All satellite dishes should be buried underground. Eyesores all of them.
>>
>> I have a 1m motorised dish mounted on the back of the house looking over
>> the roof. Totally out of sight unless you're a burglar ;-)

What other birds to you aim at Kevin?
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 20:26 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Kevin
>What other birds to you aim at Kevin?

It's been aimed at Astra 28° for months Zero because I'm not allowed to operate the remote any more and Sky covers everything she wants to watch.

There used to be lots of free stuff on the Eutelsat birds but most of it is now encrypted. What isn't encrypted tends to be foreign news channels and unwatchable game shows showing naked Italian girls.
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 21:32 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Runfer D'Hills
>>game shows showing naked Italian girls.

Um...these satellite dishes, how sort of much are they again?
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 21:53 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Zero
you see enough RAI when you are on your working travels...
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 22:21 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Runfer D'Hills
Heh heh !

You know what, I don't bother with the telly in Italy anymore. Joking aside it is usually dreadful rubbish. I catch up with the news on Sky or CNN or BBC if available but that's about it.

I once put it to an Italian colleague that the reason they seem to go out in the evenings more than us is not so much to do with their climate and culture but to escape their diabolical TV stations !
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Sat 7 Jul 12 at 22:22
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 23:32 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Dulwich Estate
Now, after the intermission - Back to the post.

Z - no cheap shotgun stuff here. I took advice on this very forum a while back and wouldn't consider anything less than the premier cru of satellite cable.
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New Sat 7 Jul 12 23:50 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Armel Coussine
>> I don't bother with the telly in Italy anymore.

Perhaps it's different these days with satellite and cable, but until recently there was hardly any watchable tv outside this country, US emphatically included.

Not only were the programmes garbaggio, but the picture quality was crap too.
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New Sun 8 Jul 12 00:06 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Kevin
>US emphatically included.

US Public Service Broadcasting, which relies entirely on donations and subscriptions, is actually quite good.

Imagine the BBC without half million pound directors and the bully boy license enforcers.
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New Sun 8 Jul 12 00:17 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Armel Coussine
>> Public Service Broadcasting, which relies entirely on donations and subscriptions, is actually quite good.

There's other good stuff too. But there's a hell of a lot of TV in the US. What percentage of total broadcasting is good or even bearable? Not to mention the jiggly 500-line analogue they used to have.
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New Sun 8 Jul 12 09:50 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - diddy1234
i placed my sat dish at just above head height on the outside wall above a gardening patch.

its not in the way and no one knocks themselves on it.

its very easy to align / maintain. i upgraded the lnb to a four way lnb for use in other rooms.

sky - no way. i use freesat.

for sat dishes they just need a clear line of sight to the astra sattelites, so height is not an issue but can be for some people.

i also installed freeview and a distriburion amp.
i only mention freeview because it was harder to install and site the TV aerial for best signal strength.

none of the problems with satellite install.
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New Sun 8 Jul 12 10:16 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Robbie34
There's nothing wrong with shotgun cable as long as you don't have a long run.

I recently installed a second dish for Astra 2 to use with my Humax Foxsat PVR and I have 100% signal strength and 100% quality. Even the channels from Eurobird have over 90% quality, although not quite as good as my 1.2 metre motorised dish.

The shotgun cable was far easier to pass through the wall run through the lounge.
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New Sun 8 Jul 12 10:42 
 Satellite Dish - Obstruction or not - Zero
>> There's nothing wrong with shotgun cable as long as you don't have a long run.

Its fine for short runs with a couple of caveats, avoid sharp bends (the outer sheath collapses into the inner core) and the ends need to be really water tight, it is particularly susceptible to "wicking" and water ingress.
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