Food Network

[tvropro]

My dishes pole is 18 feet long. I have 6 feet in the ground in concrete. The pole is filled with concrete. It has supported my 12 foot dish for 20 years in winds up to 90 mph.

Here are 2 pictures from my setup to give you an idea of how a long pole works.

Take a good site survey and elevate where needed. Sometimes raising the dish a few feet or pulling back from an offending object can make all the difference in the world. I try to shoot for a full view of the arc when I take site surveys.

BTW the wind in Chicago comes from the politicians not the weather. Thats where the saying comes from.

 

[Turksat]

Wow, that is one big dish. My house is 100 years old, there is no way it can hold anything of this volume, the roof is just a flat tar roof. Unless I find another satellite that is at about same elevation as 97W, (which just clears the building) or on a different direction like
145* to 165* or 4* to 71*,
OR
71* to 145* with elevation over 35* to 30* (W to S) , I won't be able to see anything.

Is there a website where I can put the obstacle I have with its height and area, and have it spit out which satellites I can see?

 

[tvropro]

The picture you see is of my garage and 100% of the weight is on the pole not the garage.

Years ago a friend of mine had a 10 foot mesh dish installed on a flat roof of your type. You can also look at an install I did for a client with a 6 foot dish on a flat roof this past summer

There are pictures here :

http://www.satelliteguys.us/4dtv-discussion/169000-w5-fixed-system-6.html

You can also read the whole story here:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/4dtv-discussion/169000-w5-fixed-system.html

May give you some pointers.

 

[Turksat]

But his setup is not on a pole, it is flat on the roof, plus his roof is concrete, not tar like mine here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/175392-setting-up-my-visionsat-4.html
In order to get to any one of those I would have to rise it at least 10-15ft high. And with that height, it will be almost impossible for me to adjust the dish while on top of that pole.

The building I am facing is this (I used this when I was determining my eligibility for 97W):

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9594/heightdetermination.jpg

 

[tvropro]

His roof is wood with a silver coating on it. It's not concrete. Seems like your not in a good situation to do much. I guess you will be stuck with what you have unless you can put the dish on the neighboring buildings roof and run cables down. I thought getting on your roof would give you clearance of other buildings, it seems like your building is low and the ones around are tall. You must be deep in the urban jungle where your at.

Not everyone can get a good line of site to see all the satellites. Your only other option would be to move. Oh well....

 

[Turksat]

tvropro, thanks for all your help and at least we tried...
Meanwhile, I will be reviewing other satellites that I could possibly get a shot at. However, I still need to get another receiver if I need to get C-band broadcast, right?

 

[Lak7]

I still need to get another receiver if I need to get C-band broadcast, right?

Your Visionsat should be able to do C Band. Go thru the receiver's Sat List, look for Sats that have Transponders with only have 4 digits: "3720", or if the LNB Freq can be changed to 5150.
For 4DTV signals, you need a 4DTV receiver.

 

[Turksat]

Thanks for the info Lak7.
When looking at C-Band channels/satellites, how do I tell if the broadcast is 4DTV? Is it anything that says "Digicipher" (http://www.lyngsat.com/amc11.html) or is there any other encryption I should be looking for?

I might try this C-Band stuff if I can catch a satellite that is viewable from where I am, but just not with 4DTV yet. I just want to start with FTA that is not on 4DTV first (if any..)

 

[Lak7]

how do I tell if the broadcast is 4DTV?

Good question. Lyngsat does not show which Digicipher signals a 4DTV receiver will get.
A 4DTV receiver downloads (via Satellite) a Channel Map for each Satellite you have set up. So you don't have to try and find where channels are located. You just program the Satellite Locations, and the receiver does the rest. (it's not that easy, but easy once you understand how it works)

An FTA receiver, like your Visionsat, will not get any Digicipher Signals
A 4DTV receiver will get some of those Signals.

 

[Turksat]

Things gets even more exciting as we dig deeper... I guess I will go back to Ku Band dishes and my existing receiver for now. It is a shame there aren't many other satellites that work with smaller dishes out there with good FTA channels.

 

[tvropro]

Good question. Lyngsat does not show which Digicipher signals a 4DTV receiver will get.
A 4DTV receiver downloads (via Satellite) a Channel Map for each Satellite you have set up. So you don't have to try and find where channels are located. You just program the Satellite Locations, and the receiver does the rest. (it's not that easy, but easy once you understand how it works)

An FTA receiver, like your Visionsat, will not get any Digicipher Signals
A 4DTV receiver will get some of those Signals.

Fire up a 4DTV and see what comes in. I can tell probably most of the 4DTV stuff really easy. Another way is look at what NPS & SRL sells it has to work with the 4DTV. To the OP how is your line of sight for W5? If it's okay you could get a DSR 410 and do the HITS only route.

 

[Kb Cool]

Thanks for the info Lak7.
When looking at C-Band channels/satellites, how do I tell if the broadcast is 4DTV? Is it anything that says "Digicipher" (http://www.lyngsat.com/amc11.html) or is there any other encryption I should be looking for?

I might try this C-Band stuff if I can catch a satellite that is viewable from where I am, but just not with 4DTV yet. I just want to start with FTA that is not on 4DTV first (if any..)

Actually Lyngsat does show the 4DTV's virtual channel number in "red". It's under
"ONID-TID audio" in the link you posted above.

 

[Turksat]

To the OP how is your line of sight for W5?
If it's okay you could get a DSR 410 and do the HITS only route.

If W5 is at 105W, it may or may not clear:

Is DSR410 receiver? When I search for HITS, it seems like Comcast package, but there is no pricing/signup info.

 

[Lak7]

If W5 is at 105W, it may or may not clear:

Can you get Ku from 105?

 

[Turksat]

I would have to lose my 97 signal to check that.
I know it sounds like I am lazy, but it took me really long time to get this signal right, and I already sold my signal meter. Is it possible to check it with DirecTV dish? I have two on my roof from previous tenants.

 

[Turksat]

OK guys, I may try this because I think I can just raise the dish about 5 feet high on a simple frame.

Based on these two pages, I can probably get a signal on these two AMC4 and AMC18, more likely on AMC4.
TV - Food Network - LyngSat Address
AMC 4 (HITS Quantum) 101W

TV - Food Network HD - LyngSat Address
AMC 18 (HITS Quantum) 105W

But the question is how do I sign up for HITS Quantum and subscribe?

 

[tvropro]

OK guys, I may try this because I think I can just raise the dish about 5 feet high on a simple frame.

Based on these two pages, I can probably get a signal on these two AMC4 and AMC18, more likely on AMC4.
TV - Food Network - LyngSat Address
AMC 4 (HITS Quantum) 101W

TV - Food Network HD - LyngSat Address
AMC 18 (HITS Quantum) 105W

But the question is how do I sign up for HITS Quantum and subscribe?

Unless your a headend you can't subscribe to those feeds. You can get the consumer HITS channels using a DSR 410 from Skyvision. But they don't include the food network. The only one you can subscribe to is on 131 W AMC 11.

DSR-410 Digital Programming

 

[Turksat]

I see, nope, I am not an headend. Thanks for all the help everyone.