How did you do your site survey?
I had thought a roof mount would be my best bet, but was surprised to find a sweet spot right behind the house. It looks like some of the dishes would hit the side of the house, but they don't, which was kind of counter-intuitive to me as a newbie.
All I did is get up on the roof where my Dish Network dish is and scan the sky with a compass. I don't know for sure what dishes I can see and what I can't. The house faces south so the back yard is a no go. The front yard is OK for some dishes; however, there are small trees around our house that make it hard to get a clean shot unless I'm on the roof. The tower was just an idea to keep from putting holes in the roof.
AdamJonny,
I wanted to give you a little enlighting information here about the FTA sats (or any sat in general). The arc where the satellites orbit, is a lot higher in the sky than you realize. So, some of the trees that you are worried about may not be as large of an issue as you think.
Twice a year, the sun follows this arc nearly precisely. This occurs once in the spring and once in the fall. When this happens, you can look at the suns position at a given time and know where a specific satellite is located. The sun continues to move, but the satellite is always in that location.
If the sun isn't behind a tree at that time on that specific day, then that particular satellite is always in a clear view from the point where you where standing.
You can determine the appropriate days and times of the day with this calculator...
h++p://www.satellite-calculations.com/SUNcalc/SUNcalc.htm
You will have to replace the ++ in h++p with tt to make this a live link. I wasn't sure if it was acceptable to post a live link here.
AcWxRadar