The 119, she is an elusive prey

[walkerjs]

One year ago this month I fired Comcast and went with DirecTV, purchased a three room, triple LNB RCA dish/receiver rig from Best Buy because I didn't know any better and set up an appointment with a local installer. When the guy finally came he hemmed and hawed about the tree line, my apartment complex's dumbassed rules about dishes, (they grudgingly tolerate them, but have all kinds of stupid stipulations in their lease which everyone who lives here blatantly ignores...I think somone read them the FCC ruling not too long ago, but they still try stuff) and spoke of having to charge me extra for building a bucket mount and routing cables. This for a "free install". So I told him thanks but I won't be requiring his services. I constructed my own bucket mount, found the direction of the sats (which were many degrees off from where he thought they were) and tuned them in. Well, the 101 and the 110. For some reason I could get absolutely no joy on the 119. No matter, I don't have HD and I don't care for the international channels so I lived with it. I figured that the trees that the "professional" installer hemmed and hawed about was probably blocking that bird.

He also said that those trees would grow. That aspect I knew was a fact of life, but I figured I'd get away with it for awhile.

Well, one year later and the Time of Arboreal Reckoning has arrived. I noticed that we were getting more frequent rain-fade outages during the T-storms of summer. Sure enough, the signal meter on the 110 was showing peaks of 60 at the best. Looking at the trees, and they are indeed visibly fuller in this very wet and bountiful summer. No problem, I've always had a "time to elevate the dish" plan. This plan was executed yesterday, and I have now mounted the dish 2.5 feet higher than it was. As expected, signal strength on the 110 was restored to a peak of 90-93.

But still no 119. So is it reasonable to assume that since I'm not getting a signal strength of 100 on the 110 (I get 100 on the 101) that the 119 is still blocked by the treeline? Here is a picture of the dish/trees:

Yes, I know those trees are an unalterable fact of life, but while I can pretty blatantly attach a pole to my balcony, there's NO way I'm gonna get away with mounting it on the roof, nor do I want to.

Oh, and yes, it is grounded.

 

[litzdog911]

Well, it's a bit tough to tell from the photo, but the trees do look higher to the right side of the treeline where the 119-deg satellite would be. Where are you located? On the East Coast the 119-deg is lower to the horizon than on the west coast.

Maybe if you jacked that thing up even higher

 

[charper1]

Are those public or private trees?

 

[walkerjs]

Are those public or private trees?

Interesting question. Though I would gather that since they are on property owned by the apartment complex they are most definitely private trees, even if they are not in any tenant's fair use area. I don't think I could get any local government agency to get them trimmed back if that's what you're going for.

Hmm...though I wonder if mounting some sort of rod atop one of them to allow nature to favor one of them from an electrical standpoint.....nah!

Oh and I'm located at around 39 degrees north and 75 degrees west.

 

[grydlok]

Interesting question. Though I would gather that since they are on property owned by the apartment complex they are most definitely private trees, even if they are not in any tenant's fair use area. I don't think I could get any local government agency to get them trimmed back if that's what you're going for.

Hmm...though I wonder if mounting some sort of rod atop one of them to allow nature to favor one of them from an electrical standpoint.....nah!

Oh and I'm located at around 39 degrees north and 75 degrees west.

zipcode

If your in central va market the elevation for 119 is 28degrees.

 

[charper1]

If your in central va market the elevation for 119 is 28degrees.

Man, that is low!

 

[walkerjs]

zipcode

If your in central va market the elevation for 119 is 28degrees.

That probably 'splains it. I'm a few hundred klicks north, so it's probably even lower.

Oh well, hope Direct doesn't move anything I care about to the 119, or I'm gonna have to jack that dish into the stratosphere!

Thanks all.

 

[mhutsell3]

I am having this same problem with 119, matter of fact the D* guy was out today and said the same thing without hooking up the first meter. Where do you get this information about what degree the satellite is elevation? I would really like to know this one. I had the same thought this morning about placing a lightining arrestor atop on of the trees without a ground.

Any thoughts please. My Zip Code is 46947 - Logansport, IN.

Thanks,

 

[zionzr2]

I seem to be getting 119 just fine....well the signal meter says so! its the other 2 that arent as good. Still plenty fine though

 

[Plywodstatebum]

Ya know walkerjs if your afraid to give your Zip Code its realy hard to get any help. We promise not to come over and drink all your beer,.

 

[walkerjs]

Ya know walkerjs if your afraid to give your Zip Code its realy hard to get any help. We promise not to come over and drink all your beer,.

Zip code? Hell, I gave you GPS coordinates within a degree! Besides, the zipcode calculator gives an elevation of 37 degrees, which is only ballpark.

At any rate, I'm pretty much 100% sure that the 119 is completely blocked. Last night we had thunderstorms blow through, and while the wind was blowing the tree about in the picture, you could actually detect it with the signal meter for the 110. Tree sways left, signal on 110 goes down to 40; tree sways right, signal goes up to 95; tree sways left, down to 38; tree sways right, up to 93. Wind stops blowing, tree stops swaying, signal stabilizes at 89.

So I have a tree problem. I'll either see what I can do about getting it trimmed, or look into a goofy pole mount I'm thinking of designing which will allow me to mount my dish over the roof without actually affixing it to the roof.