Line of sight issue - house in the way

[cracklincrotch]

I want to set up the "new" 12' monster I picked up but the only place the wife will let me put it is behind the house. Fine. My 7.5 is there now but I do have LOS issues with it.

I want to plant the big one out back to keep her happy. The house is in the way and the dish is big and heavy so I can't lift it far to get it mounted.

The question is, is it critical that the bottom rim of the dish can see a particular satellite? Or is it enough that I make sure that I can see the sat from the top of the pole/dish mount? This will determine how tall the pole should/must be.

Attached is a screenshot/photo of what I'm facing. I'm six feet tall and it was taken at eye level.

 

[Mapleleaf69]

you might be ok but then again you might not get all your sats on the arc. i have a similar problem with my dish. i had to install it at the back end of my driveway and im about 10 to 12 feet away from the neighbours 2 story house and i still get from 72w to 121w over looking his house. his trees kill my 72w feed but i can pick up 87w to 125w and from 127 beyond his trees out front kill the rest. in the fall and winter im clear of everything as soon as the leaves are gone.id mount it up to just make your wife happy and take what sats you get. if your wife is like mine and she sounds the same take what ever you can get to stay on her good side. you really cant get a big screen in the dog house and trust me i tried and then the dog bite me cause he thought the remote was a bone, lmao
good luck my friend and let us know how you make out.

 

[toucan-man]

Is there any way to do a temporary install to see what you can pick up -- verify with your receiver?

I was a bit too lazy to do that, and I have a terrible view of the sky in my backyard, so I used the solar outage last fall to find the ideal spot for my BUD. The sweet spot in my yard is pretty small.

Although I can't answer your question about the bottom rim of the big dish, I can say that my Ku dish on 97W is blocked by the eve on my garage on the one side of it, and it still works fine, even though maybe 1/6th of that dish cannot see the sky.

 

[fastscirocco]

I think you can figure it out by using the formula "tan(angle) * Distance to the house"

 

[cracklincrotch]

Is there any way to do a temporary install to see what you can pick up -- verify with your receiver?

I was a bit too lazy to do that, and I have a terrible view of the sky in my backyard, so I used the solar outage last fall to find the ideal spot for my BUD. The sweet spot in my yard is pretty small.

Although I can't answer your question about the bottom rim of the big dish, I can say that my Ku dish on 97W is blocked by the eve on my garage on the one side of it, and it still works fine, even though maybe 1/6th of that dish cannot see the sky.

I don't know that there is a "temporary" way to install a 12' dish as a test. If anybody knows of one I'm all ears.

Even if at eye level I can't see a sat, the dish will extend six feet higher, and to the sides, than eye level and at that point it would pick up a signal. Whether it's enough or not is the question. The dish mount would have to be at least 7' off the ground to accommodate the bottom 6' of the dish so I suppose LOS would be better at the top of the dish, being 13' off the ground at the top.

 

[toucan-man]

I don't know that there is a "temporary" way to install a 12' dish as a test. If anybody knows of one I'm all ears.

Mine was only a 10 footer, so I thought about building a crude wooden tripod base with long boards at the base, add some legs, and then bolt a piece of scrap pipe to the legs that I had. Could drag it around to test different locations. A 10' mesh reflector doesn't weigh very much, so I thought, maybe it would work on a calm day. Probably would have, but I never tried.

When I got the actual pole and set it into the ground, and then my carpenter friend braced it with a tripod arrangement, I noticed it became amazingly stable. Think circus tent, he pounded stakes into the ground, then screwed the upright legs of the tripod to that. So who knows, you might be able to do something like that before you commit to cementing the pole into place. I mean, what a bummer to cement a pole into the ground that doesn't work.

Where I live there are several 10' BUDS attached to the back of homes, on long poles extending from the ground to the roof and beyond, the BUD is way up there. None of them are in service, and I suspect they are still up there because they would be such a pain to take down. But you could think about which is the greater good, consulting a divorce attorney, or mounting your 12' BUD to a place where you'll need mountain climbing gear to work on it, but your neighbors will really think you're committed (or need to be).

I don't envy your choices.

 

[cracklincrotch]

The neighbours already think I'm nuts.

I'll have to think about your suggestion of a tripod. If it worked for you with a 10 footer I don't see much reason it wouldn't work with a 12.

 

[truckracer]

Your neighbors will get over it... mine did..they thought i was a mad scientists or something.
now they understand what my dishes do and think its kind of cool. One neighbor recommended a coax from my property buried in conduit from a modulator so he could watch whatever i was watching at the time so he could see my cool channels he can never see on cable LOL...

 

[cracklincrotch]

I didn't say they cared. I've asked. They don't. They just think it's totally weird.