Installing a dish - how low can you go?

Pines · 13-10-2006 02:14PM #1

I'm moving into a house whose back wall faces ESE, which I'm assuming is pretty good for satellite reception. I'm not keen on mounting a dish up high if it can be avoided.

How low can it go? Line of sight to the satellite (so maybe even at ground level?) What is the line of sight, i.e. what angle of elevation in winter (when I am assuming it's at its lowest)? Any other factors I should be thinking about when picking a position for the dish?

Heinz · 13-10-2006 02:53PM

The satellites are 22,000 miles away so whether the dish is installed on the ground, wall or chimney makes not difference - alignment is the vital factor.

In fact, ground mounts/tripods are what caravanners use all the time so I'd suggest you have a read of the acknowledged reference document on the subject:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/

watty · 13-10-2006 04:33PM

Depends how far east or west the satellite is.
www.smw.se look for free downbload

About 60E / 70W is less 10 degree elevation here, about the limit unless you are on a tall mountain with huge dish, 28.2E (Sky) is about 22degrees elevation.

So yes for many satellites a tripod on the ground will work. Note that most dishes are "offset" so when vertical, they are actually point upward more than 20 degrees.

Pines · 14-10-2006 10:59AM

Thanks Watty & Heinz.

As a follow on, I'd like to get a good installer to put sky+ in. If anyone can recommend someone reliable (including themselves!) maybe you could PM me, or post it here?

David Robinson · 14-10-2006 11:59AM

Now is an excellent time to find out - if you are lucky enough to get some sunshine! It's sun outage time - this means that for the next couple of days, at specific times in the morning, the sun is in the same direction as the satellites at 28.2°. So you can tell whether a given place is good for a dish, from the shadow.

http://www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm

Be sure to set the year to 2006 before calculating. :cool:

Capt'n Midnight · 14-10-2006 02:13PM

watty wrote:

28.2E (Sky) is about 22degrees elevation.

So yes for many satellites a tripod on the ground will work. Note that most dishes are "offset" so when vertical, they are actually point upward more than 20 degrees.

if you fold a square of paper along the diagonal you get 45 degrees, fold in half again and you get 22.5 - if you don't have a protractor.

for some dishes the angle is on the back of the bracket, but its not very accurate.

Offset dishes are normally from the top of the parabola , so they are nearly vertical. You can also turn it so the offset is from the bottom of the parabols, so the dish is more horizontal (this gets it even lower, but you would have more problems with rain ) you could then dig a small hole and sit the base of the dish in it.

sparks2 · 18-10-2006 09:00PM

can any one surrgest a system for a beginner
sparks2

Ronan|Raven · 18-10-2006 09:42PM

it all boils down to what you would like to be able to view sparks2.

Installing a dish - how low can you go?

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