Primate aiming thru trees losing signal

[Randy Trammell]

Hello, have customer installed system.I am that customer(confession).Installed system in December (no leaves on trees) now signal on 119w is around 45 and no service.Aiming though small gap in woods.Have Dishpro elliptical dish with twin LNBF only 119 side connected to single receiver.Never did get a signal on 110.With protractor and compass, compensating for deviation there is an opening in the canopy.
With the elliptical dish I cannot visually tell where it is aimed. so here is the question: Assuming I want to only pickup the 119, would an 18" round dish with a single LBNF have any better reception through an opening in the trees ?
I believe I could better determine which branches are in the way with a round dish.

Thanks for assistance.
PS ( I prefer the trees to the current programming but would happily trim a few branches if I have a chance at restoring peace at home (nagging).

 

[John W]

The Satellite is usually at a little higher elevation than you think it is so that little opening may not be in the correct place. I would say that a larger dish may help you get the signal

 

[HokieEngineer]

If you cant make the "hole" in the trees any larger by trimming them, whatever sucess you have will be short lived. They'll grow and you'll be S.O.L.

If you are getting 45 signal level now, you could try and get a 24" or 1 meter dish. That'd probably work for awhile.

 

[korsjs]

it is a little higher and a little to the left.

 

[Dish Dude]

if you never did get 110 signal, try adjusting like he said, but if it is still not there grab a chainsaw you don't have LOS from your location

 

[Jared Twomey]

if you are only needing the 119, you can not use the skew on the dish, set it at 90
that way you have a better idea as to where your signal is coming in at.

 

[rcwilcox]

dish placement

Go to this website
http://perso.numericable.fr/~gjullien/satellite.htm

Then when it says the time is right go to the dish and see exactly what branch(es) is/are offending and trim. This is precision but timing is critical and sometimes the best you can do is off for by a few degrees so try to get as close to zero in difference and be precise on the time. If you use accurate time and enter your latitude and longitude accurately this will work like a champ.

If the link doesn't work search on Google by using "place satellite by using sun or moon"

 

[Barry Erick]

I can't pick up 119 from where my super dish is, so I have a seperate Dish 300 with a DP LNBF on it, mounted on a tree and shooting through openings. What I did was use a aiming program for general non-offset satellite aiming to see that things were open. I did this when I was with DirecTV for their 119 and single dish. Used it for years and the tree has never lost a signal from moving. I re-peak it once a year, and when I went with dish, simply mounted a 300 on the post and aimed. Look for a non-DBS satellite aiming program with Google and see if you have a good look angle from where you are. If you look at mine, you will swear it is looking into a tree, but it is looking over it in a very open area. Fools everyone. I've been going to post a picture and will do one of these days.

Let me correct one thing. .. the dbs dishes elevation does make up for the elevation offset. You can use the dish aiming program from the website or your receiver for the correct look angle as long as you select the 300 or 500 dish.