Elevation Angle for Line-of-Sight

[Cold Irons]

What I think is a quick question - or point me to the right thread or web site.

If I'm at my Dish location, what is the approx. Elevation Angle to see the 110 and 119 Sats? I'm in VA zip 22485.

Long story short - started getting Sat dropouts often. Point Dish indicates that 110 is AOK (622 sig strength ~100), but 119 is bad (sig strength ~47 & dropping to zero occasionally/often). Happening on all 3 recvrs in the house. So it must be dish alignment, bad LNB, bad switch, or trees growing too tall (any other suggestions....?).

Anyway, Dish Service can't get here for a service call til the end of next week (which really sucks) - so I'd like to rule out the big pine tree that's near the LOS of the dish. Figure I'll cut it down this weekend if it seems to be in the way - but unsure of what elevation to use so I can see if its a problem or not.

 

[Cold Irons]

Uhmmm...nevermind - found it on the E* websight (sometimes it's too easy to have access to forums....).

At my zip, it appears to be 31 degrees.

 

[boba]

Standing behind the dish the 119 signal comes from the right hand side of the dish and is reflected back to the 119 feed on the left hand side. Is the pine tree on the right side of your dish?

 

[Cold Irons]

Not sure - I'll be looking at it this evening. I guess it would have to be something like that to allow 110, but not 119. My guess is that it is not the tree - I'm assuming I've got some HW problems - but figure I'll take a look this evening & see. If I can just cut the tree & cancel the service call, that'll save me taking off from work.....

 

[Cold Irons]

Well - the tree IS toward the right side of the dish, but looks like the LOS is still above the tree. When I shot a 30 degree elevation, it pointed just (barely) above the tree. Presumably the Dish Tech will be able to verify that when he comes. Looks like I'm in for a new LNB (I'd guess).

Of course, it also looks like I've only got another year until the tree is blocking the dish......to bad it's a pine tree, or it'd already be seasoning for the wood stove.

The good news is that a quick e-mail to ceo@dishnetwork.com yesterday - complaining about the one & a half weeks til they could get a Tech to my house - seemed to work. Got a call at home yesterday that moved my appointment to Monday vs. Friday of next week.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I wonder why you didn't just get your aiming numbers out of your receiver - it's right there on the same screen as the signal strength.

Oh - and when eyeballing for LOS, remember that the dish has a 22 degree offset. That is, it appers to be looking much lower than it really is.