129 Satellite

[zippyfrog]

Now that the trees are fully filled with leaves, this is the time of year my 129 satellite signal drops. During the winter and spring, my signal for 110 and 119 are in the mid 60's and some transponders on 110 are in the 70's, and in the winter 129 is around 52-55. As the trees fill in, 110 and 119 are the same signal strength as the winter, but right now 129 is down into the 20's and any little bit of drizzle or wind cause signal loss on 129.

I know these are trees that degrading the signal because on some clear windier days I will turn on the "point dish" portion of the receiver and just watch the signal jump all over the place.

Is there any way to figure out which tree is causing the signal blockage? The west side of my property is lined with a mixture of pin oak trees (lots of thick leaves) as well as walnut trees. So these aren't small trees where I can just move branches and see when the signal jumps up. I have tried some of the iPhone apps where you can use your camera and the app super-imposes the satellite locations on the photo, but I have found those to be very inaccurate when I used them to point the dish.

Today it is beautiful, no wind, no rain and my signal is right at 22-25, so it isn't impacting my Dish viewing at all. But I really want my signal to be stronger and remove the issue that even with the slightest wind I lose signal.

Is there any way to know what tree is causing the blockage? Do Dish technicians have more advanced hardware that can tell that type of information? I did the install myself back in 2009 and the trees are quite a bit different than they were back then! (I thought about getting an EA dish and pointing it at 61.5 and 72 but I see I don't have a line of site to hit those satellites)

 

[Voyager6]

This could help but it costs $20. I don't know if there are any other apps out there to view sat positions.
Align your satellite dish | DishPointer.com

 

[Magic Static]

Or just go to dishpointer.com and mark your dish with a pin and see whats in the line of sight to 129W.

 

[Bobby]

Or just go to dishpointer.com and mark your dish with a pin and see whats in the line of sight to 129W.

Yep, you could locate the exact tree that way by zooming in after pointing...

 

[zippyfrog]

Thanks for the help - I will try Dish pointer and see what happens.

 

[midleman]

Zipfrog

I just had the exact same problem with satellite 129 and trees. I fixed the tree problem with an analog solution. What I did was that I used a flashlight that has an adjustable beam that I placed on the bottom of the support arm receiver head so that it would point toward the satellite. I did this late dust so it was dark enough so I could see the parts of the tree that was interfering with the signal. I took a mental note of the area but if you have a camera that is good in low light is another way to record i . Then started the hard work by trimming the area, I used a pole saw and a ladder for the areas I could reach. I had a friend, who is a tree trimmer come in and finish the job. While we were cutting I had the signal strength meter on so I could monitor the progress. I raised the strength from 25- 30 to 45- 55. It wasn’t pretty or hi tec but it work.

 

[zippyfrog]

One more question on the 129 satellite - I have never had this happen before. I was measuring the signal strength of each transponder on 129, and surprisingly transponder 9, which has the spot beam for my HD locals, is coming in at 25 and I am getting a fine picture. Not as high as the winter, but a picture shows up and the receiver can lock on the 129 satellite. However, if I go transponder 17-32 (which I believe are the ConUS transponders) the signal for those are between 2-8 signal strength. That doesn't make sense to me. If the tree was the problem, wouldn't the spotbeam locals not work? Isn't the line of sight to 129 the same for all transponders?

 

[JSheridan]

One more question on the 129 satellite - I have never had this happen before. I was measuring the signal strength of each transponder on 129, and surprisingly transponder 9, which has the spot beam for my HD locals, is coming in at 25 and I am getting a fine picture. Not as high as the winter, but a picture shows up and the receiver can lock on the 129 satellite. However, if I go transponder 17-32 (which I believe are the ConUS transponders) the signal for those are between 2-8 signal strength. That doesn't make sense to me. If the tree was the problem, wouldn't the spotbeam locals not work? Isn't the line of sight to 129 the same for all transponders?

Yes, the LOS is the same but spot beams are usually several points of signal quality higher than CONUS signals.

 

[zippyfrog]

Thanks - just wanted to make sure before I go cutting some branches!

 

[Almighty1]

I have a question, for LOS, how close do the trees have to be before it blocks the signal?

 

[zippyfrog]

I have a question, for LOS, how close do the trees have to be before it blocks the signal?

On Dishpointer.com there is a "show obstacle" option where you can measure when the obstacle is x feet away from the dish, the line of sight is blocked when the object is y feet high.

 

[NYDutch]

My rule of thumb is that the dish needs an opening in the trees large enough to ensure the entire dish is covered by all three satellite signals. Technically, the dish only needs to see enough signal from each sat to cover a circle about the same diameter as the dish reflector height, but that's cutting it a bit too close for comfort. Bottom line for openings through trees in this case is "bigger is better".

 

[Jim5506]

I have a question, for LOS, how close do the trees have to be before it blocks the signal?

Line of sight from the satellite antenna to the dish reflector, so, I'd say as long as the outer edge of your reflector and the corresponding edge of the satellite antenna is clear of the trees there is no problem.

You are probably talking about a window the size of your dish reflector for each satellite, then remember that they are spread along a 20 degree arc in the sky..

 

[Almighty1]

What I meant was would it have to be a minimum of a x # of feet away like if the trees are like 100 ft away, would it still cause a block of the signal? I don't have a loss of signal but just curious how it works since the DISH is small and to the satellite, it's probably the size of piece of salt.

 

[Jim5506]

If trees are between the reflector and the satellite, they block signal regardless of the distance to your dish.

Microwave radiation from satellite transmitters travel pretty much in a straight line.

Every leaf that eclipses your dish reduces signal, like a shadow, the closer the leaf is to the dish the larger the shadow.

Many leaves reduce it until the receiver can no longer reconstruct it.

 

[Almighty1]

Interesting, the earth is round so it does move. I'm glad I don't have the issue yet as I live right between two big mountains with lots of trees.

 

[zippyfrog]

Going back to my 129 issue from earlier in the month. Currently I have the Dish 1000.2 with the LNBF that has the 119, 110, and 129 satellites. Is there another physical dish (the reflector part) that is a larger size that I could use, with the same LNBF and LNBF arm, that would help with the signal strength? A bigger area to capture the signal to reflect back to the LNBF?

 

[boba]

Going back to my 129 issue from earlier in the month. Currently I have the Dish 1000.2 with the LNBF that has the 119, 110, and 129 satellites. Is there another physical dish (the reflector part) that is a larger size that I could use, with the same LNBF and LNBF arm, that would help with the signal strength? A bigger area to capture the signal to reflect back to the LNBF?

You can't just change reflectors, dish is designed as a complete system.. A 1000PLUS is a larger system.