I had the installers come by today but there was a line of sight problem. I live in a very big condo community in a forest like setting. All satellite dishes are put on the roofs of all the buildings in the complex. There are a ton of Dish Network and DirecTV dishes up there including my current Dish Network dish but when the Installers went up on the roof of my particular building in the complex and they said it wouldn't work because the Voom dish has to be pointed in a different direction than DirecTV or Dish Network. And the only place they can do it on my particular building's roof would be facing trees. So the only other alternative was to install the dish on the building across from mine which was about 125 feet away from my building and cables would have to be run all the way across the roof. I have to get special permision from the board of directors in my complex in order for this to happen. And it sounds like a really long shot. I'm really bummed. Has anyone run into a similar situation or have any suggestions? I called Voom about this, and they couldn't come up with anything...
Line of Sight Problem
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I had a similar problem last month. I have DirecTV and wanted to give VOOM a shot. Where I live (Phoenix) the VOOM sat is at azimuth 102 degrees (just south of east). There are a couple of large trees about 100 feet away but I thought there was enough separation that I would luck out. The install technician (wearing his DirecTV logo shirt) said he would need to mount the dish on a mast to clear the trees. I asked him, how tall of a mast would I need, and he said about 4 feet tall (??!). What possible difference would raising the dish 4 feet above my roof make when the trees are 100 feet away?
Does anyone have any thoughts/comments on this? In my more paranoid moments I'm thinking he just told me that so that I wouldn't drop DTV in favor of VOOM. Am I crazy? (please limit responses to the subject at hand)
I'm bummed, too, that I'm VOOMless. DTV's meager HDTV content doesn't cut it for me anymore.
Does anyone have any thoughts/comments on this? In my more paranoid moments I'm thinking he just told me that so that I wouldn't drop DTV in favor of VOOM. Am I crazy? (please limit responses to the subject at hand)
I'm bummed, too, that I'm VOOMless. DTV's meager HDTV content doesn't cut it for me anymore.
I wondered about that, kinda of (dtv installing voom). I too had/have a tree problem. The installer, with his 15 yr kid/helper, walked all around the house saying trees were in the way at every point. He said "sorry" and split. I later walked along my fence and found several clear shots to the voom sat. So I called voom (got right thru - really!), and they rescheduled. The voom lady was really shocked the installer didnt do a "site check" to see if fence mounting was an option. I said, "no, he just was intent on roof mounting". So this time, I'm getting 150' of rg6 cable and running it myself, before the install date. Running it right to the line of sight openings along the fence.
What I really wish is that voom would just ship the equip to me and let me install. Thats what I did with dtv. Dtv sent me the equip, and I canceled the installer to do it myself. But voom says all warranties are void if I do the install, and I have to pay up front (full price) for the equip (no promo). I now really just think my installer didnt want to do it, unless it was a simple no brainer roof install.
What I really wish is that voom would just ship the equip to me and let me install. Thats what I did with dtv. Dtv sent me the equip, and I canceled the installer to do it myself. But voom says all warranties are void if I do the install, and I have to pay up front (full price) for the equip (no promo). I now really just think my installer didnt want to do it, unless it was a simple no brainer roof install.
arkusmarkus said:
Not an exactly correct statement. It depends on how wide the opening between trees is. Also even with trees if they are not bushy and thick it is possible to get enough signal thru them. Only problem is is moisture is on the leafs and branches and-or if wind blows them into signal path.
I have had installs thru trees that work fine for years. And I have had some that appear to work fine, until the first wind or rain storm.
In fact when I was installing BUD dishes back years ago. I had an old man that put a thin wood fence around his dish to block its view. I could not believe it a but it got signal thru dry wood. Then it got wet and bye to signal.
THis guy then built what appeared to other condo owners a covered small plastic greenhouse. He used blue plastic that you could not see into. His dish was inside of this fake greenhouse and it worked like a charm.
