Chain saw food and LOS

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drhydro

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 19, 2004
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Howdy folks,
As some of you may remember i have been trying for months to get the westernmost (lowest) part of the arc to come in on my BUD. I was able to get from amc-6 all the way down to g10 with great quality, and down to ia7 with ok quality.

At one time last winter i was able to get all the way down to amc7 and was able to watch analog c band on it, but that only lasted a couple of days and then we had a storm come thru with high winds and i lost the lower sats, amc 11, g1, amc 10 and amc 7.

I figured i must not have tightened stuff down enough and the winds blew my dish off a little. Since then (early january) i have been trying (without success) to re aim my dish to get those sats back. Many, many hours of no success, and the wife looking at me like I am nuts when i head out to the BUD with my trusty wrenches and signal meter.

Well, to make a long story short, yesterday we took down 10 50-75' pines that i thought might be in my LOS. When looking thru the center of my bud past the lnb i could see the tops of the trees and i thought that they could be blocking some signal.

Well, as it turns out, they were blocking a lot of signal lol. As soon as i cut them down i went in and checked the Japan channel on ia 7. Before we fed the chain saw the sq on that channel was ~50%, now it pegs the meter :D

Once again i can see all the way down to amc7 and am able to watch analog there, but no digital yet. All of my futzing around the last several months must have thrown my arc tracking off a little, as pulling down on the dish gives me better quality on the lowest sat. No problem tho, that just means i have to give the mount a slight turn to the east and i should be tracking the arc dead on again.

What was driving my nuts was that i had the lower sats once during last winter, and i couldnt figure out why i couldnt get them back. What i now realize was that I got those sats to come in when i re-aimed my dish after a severe ice storm. I figure the weight of the ice must have bent some of the trees just enough to let me get a good signal, and a couple of days later when the ice was either blown off or melted, the trees sprung back up and blocked my signal. Darned Mother Nature and her practical jokes :D

Anyways, always remember: Chain saws are an FTA'ers friend :D
 
I love when the chainsaws come out...

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!! :D
 
questic said:
I love when the chainsaws come out...

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!! :D
Even better is hearing the skidder fire up ;) These logs werent wasted btw, they are going to be milled and the lumber put to use for my garage.
 
quick update:
I adjusted my polar mount more to the east and now am tracking the arc perfectly. Still no luck on AMC7 tho, looking thru the dish i can see a tree top dead smack in the way. It doest help that at my longitude AMC7 is at 10 degrees of elevation lol.
Time to feed the chain saw some more, but i will prolly have to wait till later in the fall.
 
Remember this is sun outage season so you can use the sun's position in figuring out how much you need to lop off the trees. During sun outage days your BUD needs to have the unobstructed early mornig sun shining on it to get those low in the East birds.
 
Remember this is sun outage season so you can use the sun's position in figuring out how much you need to lop off the trees. During sun outage days your BUD needs to have the unobstructed early mornig sun shining on it to get those low in the East birds.
 
Remember this is sun outage season so you can use the sun's position in figuring out how much you need to lop off the trees. During sun outage days your BUD needs to have the unobstructed early mornig sun shining on it to get those low in the East birds.
 
WTF?? Triple post?? Oh yea its sun outage season :) (just stuck a link up in the DN forum that has times and dates for sunoutages... Includes state by state... so if you want to get an idea of what birds and time frames that would be the place to go)
 
Lorenzo said:
Remember this is sun outage season so you can use the sun's position in figuring out how much you need to lop off the trees. During sun outage days your BUD needs to have the unobstructed early mornig sun shining on it to get those low in the East birds.
Thanks Lorenzo, i had forgot about that method for finding obstacles in LOS. Now I just to wait for a nice clear late afternoon :-D
 
goaliebob99 said:
WTF?? Triple post?? Oh yea its sun outage season :) (just stuck a link up in the DN forum that has times and dates for sunoutages... Includes state by state... so if you want to get an idea of what birds and time frames that would be the place to go)
Thanks for the heads up Bob. Extrapolating from that chart it appears that i should get sun blockage on 137 west at around 5:45- 6:05 in the evening from Oct 5- Oct 15 at my location in Vermont.
 
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