Installer says it can't be installed.....wtf.

J3ff

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Aug 19, 2004
289
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So guy shows up today, snow and ice everywhere, I said to myself "I bet he says it can't be done".........

gets out of truck walks around yard, looks through his lil spy glass and says "sorry can't be done, tree in the way"

So I go and look at my neighbor who has direct tv, and sure enough, if you act like the beam comes STRAIGHT in the trees block it, but I was under the impression that the signal comes in at a high angle......

He had a dishnetwork van..........should i ask for someone else to come out? or should I trust this guy?
 
The satellite is actually higher then where the dish appears to be "looking" at. The angle is approximately the same as what the LNB is angled away from the center focal point of the dish.

It may or may not be possible to install the dish in your case. Unless your neighbor lives in exactly the same place as your house (he doesn't), his circumstances can be different then yours.
 
yeah, I thought it came in a little higher than where it is aimed, and it looks like it's possible. He claimed the only way to do it would be to get a pole put in the front yard. I'd rather just cut down the tree :)
 
The directv sat is higher than that of the dish network sats for most if not all of the country. That being said with there being snow and ice everywhere it makes it much more difficult to put in a sat system wether your trying to do a structure mount or a pole mount and if its a pole mount then it wont happen until the spring time unless your somewhere in the south. Trying to dig a hole in frozen earth is like trying to dig your way out of alcatraz with a spoon even with a one or two person augur. The only way around this is to put down a temporary mount on a patch of ground that has been cleared and is level and run the cables across the yard to the house, what this means is that you will have a trip hazard in your yard for the next one to three months depending on where you live and the temp mount even with the ground cleared is not a good short term solution as the ground will shift and settle some from heating and cooling.
 
yeah, I thought it came in a little higher than where it is aimed, and it looks like it's possible. He claimed the only way to do it would be to get a pole put in the front yard. I'd rather just cut down the tree :)

Unless you have a good understanding of how the signal comes down into the dish then thinking it looks like its possible will most likely get you nothing but headaches wich six years of installing customers systems and fixing the " it looked like it was possible" installs of customers and inexperienced / dont give a damn techs has taught me. Now that you have added what he said about the pole then it can be done so thats good but dont go the route of cutting down the tree unless its been a nuisance tree that you have been wanting to cut down, call dish and ask for a second opinion because along with the " it looked like it could have been possible" installs I also had to fix alot of " I cut down the tree because the tech said it was in the way / I thought it was in the way" installs and the tech or the customer cut down the wrong tree or there were so many tree's that it wouldnt have been sensible to cut them all down.
 
What were you getting installed this time... I thought you already got stuff installed a week or two ago?
 
yea, this is a second house......I'll take his word for it..........it's sort of a "vacation" house, but not far from my original one.

I'm just bummed cuz I wanted that price, it seems direct tv can come CLOSE to matching it, but is still like 20 more if I want the same stuff DVR and all....not even adding in HD.
 
I can say one thing from my experience with Dish Installers. Not all are as willing to make the extra effort. Same thing happened in my case few months back. Guy came out and said cannot be done...unless both Dishes were installed on roof. Since my house was just made..I did not want to take a chance with builder warranties on it. Called another installer from same company two days back..installed 2 dishes on ground no problem...never had an issue
Mortal of the Story: Call another and get a 2nd opinion...
 
So guy shows up today, snow and ice everywhere, I said to myself "I bet he says it can't be done".........

gets out of truck walks around yard, looks through his lil spy glass and says "sorry can't be done, tree in the way"

So I go and look at my neighbor who has direct tv, and sure enough, if you act like the beam comes STRAIGHT in the trees block it, but I was under the impression that the signal comes in at a high angle......

He had a dishnetwork van..........should i ask for someone else to come out? or should I trust this guy?

This kind of sums it up "snow and ice everywhere" and the fact that it is Friday. Bet you'll find him at the local pub.

When I had them install my dish at the lake house, the installer forgot the DPP44 and called his buddy who was at the dentist only five minutes away. He sat in the yard for FIVE hours before he drove to the other guys van, who was now at home resting very comfortably. I could not believe it, he even had keys to the other van.

How far are the trees from where your installing the dish? and their guesstimated hight?
 
I'm going to call the original guy who did the system last week and see if he'll come check it out.....he was much more "nice" and did such a great job!

The question is.........do I pay him? or Does dish? How do I proceed without having 10 different mistakes made?

It's either that or I have to go hunt for direct tv deals.
 
This kind of sums it up "snow and ice everywhere" and the fact that it is Friday. Bet you'll find him at the local pub.
Seems there's been a large number of people posting that the installer shows up and with little effort declares "can't get a signal" or "it won't work". Ironically, most get a 2nd opinion and it gets installed with no problem.... :(
 
The directv sat is higher than that of the dish network sats for most if not all of the country

That is the dumbest statement I think I have seen in a while.

The E* Satellite at 110W is just as high and at the same coordinates in the sky as the D* SATC Satellite at 110W is.

The E* Satellite at 119W is just as high and at the same coordinates in the sky as the D* SATB Satellite at 119W is.

So I go and look at my neighbor who has direct tv, and sure enough, if you act like the beam comes STRAIGHT in the trees block it, but I was under the impression that the signal comes in at a high angle

It does...at about 22 degrees higher than what the dish is directly pointed at.

Old picture, but notice the Dish 500 in the background. You can see it is pointed right into the roof, but is actually picking up 148W over the roof - thus the offset.

http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sat6ow2.jpg

That's why the lnb is not in the center (Prime Focus) but is offset.
 
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Same thing

When I had Dish installed two years ago, the installer that came out said it couldn't be done, there were trees in the way. He did take a lot of time to determine this. Dish called me back a couple days later, and sent a supervisor out to check it out.

He came out, looked through his little spy glass and said, should be no problem, the trees in question would have to sway ALOT to have any effect.

The original guy came out a couple days later with the supervisor and it turns out the installer was looking at the wrong part of the sky. Ok, that sounds weird, but I'm not the technical type. Lets just say he adjusted his coordinates.

They both put in both dishes and hooked it up with no problem.

cloverboy
 
Ok, I'll def be getting a second oppinion from the installer at my first place.

I went out and looked at it again. and like it's been said here a few times, if the signal was coming in, in a striaght line, directly to the dish, it'd be blocked, but we know it does not.

I think maybe it was COLD + ICE + FRIDAY + A high roof.....that did me in on this house.
 
Ok, I'll def be getting a second oppinion from the installer at my first place.

I went out and looked at it again. and like it's been said here a few times, if the signal was coming in, in a striaght line, directly to the dish, it'd be blocked, but we know it does not.

I think maybe it was COLD + ICE + FRIDAY + A high roof.....that did me in on this house.

diretv 101 is at 31 elev here and Dish 119,110 is at 22,27 elev, a tons of trees and mountains around we run into a quite a share of no sights.

Don't go with DNS peoples, get in with your local dish dealer. A lot DNS tech's don't want to do poles and they want to walk away from hard installs. Also some time dish send out flyers and call the area where the local dealer is doing good trying take away a share of business from small local guy.
 
I have been installing dish for several years now and have never had a "can't install" situation. guess i am just lucky.

I have been installing since '95. I live in the mountains and yes I get a can't install about every 3-4 months. Most of the time because of trees....most of the time ower cuts trees on the spot or call back after someone else does. However deep in the mountains I have 95% success rate but yes there are times that I get to the site, and shake my head before I start, 'cause I just know.
 
However I agree they are a lot of lazy intallers out there. I have been to sites where the owner said, other guy(s) came out and said no way and again I shake my head and say what were they smoking I see several places, you take your pick. Such is life I guess.
 

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