Dish Location

[tonyp56]

We've been having some wind in Oklahoma the last week or so and yesterday I spotted three satellite dishes that were either partially pulled off of the roof or completely hanging by the coax cable. (and one of them was installed the same way that the original poster's) All of them were "professionally installed" (I know this because I know the people that have the dishes) anyways, I know that sometimes there is no other way to get signal, but I've seen dishes on top of a house that was in the middle of no where (no trees, houses etc.) and still had the dish on the roof. I really don't understand why so many people like their dishes on their roof. 1) When it snows and if you you have any snow fade you have to get a ladder out to clean it off, 2) wind, no matter how big the screws you use, will and do rock the dish back and forth, which is bad on your roof material, and eventually will cause the dish to need to be re-adusted, and you CAN'T remove the dish from your roof without doing some patch work because you now have holes from the screws that can and will leak, 3) if you ever have to replace your roof (should have to every 10-25 years) you will have to either re-install the dish or pay to have it reinstalled, along with worrying about something getting tore up (the dish, cables etc.) in the process of re-roofing your house. IMHO a dish should never be put on a roof unless absolutely and positively neccessary, which IMO is very seldom.

 

[VOOMER]

dishes on roof

Tony that seems to be a trend with some installers!

Seems that some think if it is on the roof top that they have 100% chance of getting a signal. I suppose a lot of them are trained that way thinking it is the easy way.

I worked with a local retailer and have seen their techs jobs and guess what ...every job they had done the dish was HIGH on the roof.
Makes no sense to me ,and if i can get it down low that is where i put it.
Seems this all got started somehow and a lot of people will ask "DONT YOU HAVE TO PUT IT ON THE ROOF?":shocked

 

[Dish Dude]

The recommended standard is on a post or on wood siding, but cannot always be done. But 90% of the time there is no reason to put it up high on the roof. Believe me we have tons of wind in ND and if installed properly there isn't any issue with an install like this one

 

[SimpleSimon]

I dislike roof installs myself, and rarely do them.

My own dishes (500 & 300) are eave mounted and not "done right". I filled every hole with deck screws into the 1x6 eave board. I'm a lazy SOB, and figured if they came loose, I could remount them easy enough. The 300 has a 2' extension arm to get it high enough over the roofline to keep snow on the roof from freezing on the LNB arm (line of sight issues forced the location). So far (2 years), they've withstood several 50MPH windstorms and blizzard conditions without a hiccup.

OTOH, my DirecWay is wall-mounted with a tri-mast and strong enough for my 235 pounds to hang from it. I'm only lazy when it makes sense to be.

 

[larrystotler]

The only problem I see with the install is that fact that the location will make it likely that snow would pile up, but since I am about 1000 miles north of you, it may be more of a problem in my area.

As for signal strength, I have noticed that the newer 322/522 receivers show at least 10 point less than a 301/311/811 style receiver when hooked to the same line. Weird.

 

[PILMAN]

We have a superdish and I always thought that dishes needed to be mounted on a roof for better signal, but I guess it's not a line of sight technology? Not too sure what factor the dish actually plays by reflecting the beam other than reflecting it. We had ours mounted to a pole which was put in the ground (not cement) and the cables were hid very well. The install went smooth and I never lose signal when it rains unless it's extremely bad. Even during the hurricane the dish never moved so they must have done a good job putting the pole in. But had that thing been on the roof it probably would have caused damage especially due to the large size of the dish.

 

[tonyp56]

As for signal strength, I have noticed that the newer 322/522 receivers show at least 10 point less than a 301/311/811 style receiver when hooked to the same line. Weird.

My 811 is 10 points lower on 110 and 5 points lower on 119 than both of my 301s, even if I use the same cable that goes to my 811 for one of my 301s.

 

[TuxCoder]

We have a superdish and I always thought that dishes needed to be mounted on a roof for better signal, but I guess it's not a line of sight technology?

Of course it's line of sight technology (and very much so), but with a major difference from most other RF (or IR, etc...) technology. Usually, other than satellite communications, line of sight is improved by installing antennas higher up. This is because the "line" is very much horizontal, between two terrestrial stations. With satellite of course, the line is not very horizontal--it's at an angle determined by your latitude. The lower end of the line is of course at your end (your house). So, in many cases the dish can be on the ground with an unobstructed "view" of the satellite. And as you know, literally nothing (well, ok, "air") can be between the dish and the satellite for reception, whereas trees, houses, and hills can obstruct an OTA antenna's "view" of the towers to an extent before its reception is hurt badly enough.