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**tvropro** · 12-27-2009 08:44 AM

My dishes pole is 18 feet long. I have 6 feet in the ground in concrete. The pole is filled with concrete. It has supported my 12 foot dish for 20 years in winds up to 90 mph.

Here are 2 pictures from my setup to give you an idea of how a long pole works.

Take a good site survey and elevate where needed. Sometimes raising the dish a few feet or pulling back from an offending object can make all the difference in the world. I try to shoot for a full view of the arc when I take site surveys.

BTW the wind in Chicago comes from the politicians not the weather. Thats where the saying comes from.

**Turksat** · 12-27-2009 11:59 AM

Wow, that is one big dish.

My house is 100 years old, there is no way it can hold anything of this volume, the roof is just a flat tar roof. Unless I find another satellite that is at about same elevation as 97W, (which just clears the building) or on a different direction like
145* to 165* or 4* to 71*,
OR
71* to 145* with elevation over 35* to 30* (W to S) , I won't be able to see anything.

Is there a website where I can put the obstacle I have with its height and area, and have it spit out which satellites I can see?

**tvropro** · 12-27-2009 01:22 PM

The picture you see is of my garage and 100% of the weight is on the pole not the garage.

Years ago a friend of mine had a 10 foot mesh dish installed on a flat roof of your type. You can also look at an install I did for a client with a 6 foot dish on a flat roof this past summer

There are pictures here :

http://www.satelliteguys.us/4dtv-dis...-system-6.html

You can also read the whole story here:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/4dtv-dis...ed-system.html

May give you some pointers.

**Turksat** · 12-27-2009 02:05 PM

But his setup is not on a pole, it is flat on the roof, plus his roof is concrete, not tar like mine here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air...sionsat-4.html (Setting up my visionsat)
In order to get to any one of those I would have to rise it at least 10-15ft high. And with that height, it will be almost impossible for me to adjust the dish while on top of that pole.

The building I am facing is this (I used this when I was determining my eligibility for 97W):

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9...ermination.jpg

**tvropro** · 12-27-2009 05:30 PM

His roof is wood with a silver coating on it. It's not concrete. Seems like your not in a good situation to do much. I guess you will be stuck with what you have unless you can put the dish on the neighboring buildings roof and run cables down. I thought getting on your roof would give you clearance of other buildings, it seems like your building is low and the ones around are tall. You must be deep in the urban jungle where your at.

Not everyone can get a good line of site to see all the satellites. Your only other option would be to move.

Oh well....

**Turksat** · 12-27-2009 09:37 PM

tvropro, thanks for all your help and at least we tried...
Meanwhile, I will be reviewing other satellites that I could possibly get a shot at. However, I still need to get another receiver if I need to get C-band broadcast, right?

**Lak7** · 12-28-2009 07:10 AM

I still need to get another receiver if I need to get C-band broadcast, right?

Your Visionsat should be able to do C Band. Go thru the receiver's Sat List, look for Sats that have Transponders with only have 4 digits: "3720", or if the LNB Freq can be changed to 5150.
For 4DTV signals, you need a 4DTV receiver.

**Turksat** · 12-28-2009 10:39 AM

Thanks for the info Lak7.
When looking at C-Band channels/satellites, how do I tell if the broadcast is 4DTV? Is it anything that says "Digicipher" (
http://www.lyngsat.com/amc11.html

) or is there any other encryption I should be looking for?

I might try this C-Band stuff if I can catch a satellite that is viewable from where I am, but just not with 4DTV yet. I just want to start with FTA that is not on 4DTV first (if any..)

**Lak7** · 12-28-2009 02:32 PM

how do I tell if the broadcast is 4DTV?

Good question. Lyngsat does not show which Digicipher signals a 4DTV receiver will get.
A 4DTV receiver downloads (via Satellite) a Channel Map for each Satellite you have set up. So you don't have to try and find where channels are located. You just program the Satellite Locations, and the receiver does the rest. (it's not that easy, but easy once you understand how it works)

An FTA receiver, like your Visionsat, will not get any Digicipher Signals
A 4DTV receiver will get some of those Signals.

**Turksat** · 12-28-2009 03:02 PM

Things gets even more exciting as we dig deeper... I guess I will go back to Ku Band dishes and my existing receiver for now. It is a shame there aren't many other satellites that work with smaller dishes out there with good FTA channels.