1- Your location: Cedar Rapids, IA 41.88 / -91.71
2- Receiver make and model: Fortec Star
Mercury II
3- Dish size: 80 cm
4- LNBF type: ULN1
5- Motor if any: None
6- Now to your question:
I currently have my dish installed in the back yard. There is no obstruction due to foliage, but the house does influence the minimum view angle. I took a couple of swipes at the
installation before reading up in detail (silly first-timer!
) and I have a good working installation on the second try. Now, I've gone back and done the math...
On the first try, the dish had a minimum view angle of 28 degrees, and I never received anything--barely made a squawk on the analog signal meter. Now, with the dish set up higher, the minimum view angle works out to 23 degrees, and most of what's up there comes in solid. (I've done some tweaking of the az/el/skew and I have the results if anyone is interested.) However, I never get a signal quality above the mid-50's, which means that it doesn't take much rain to push the signal quality down into the 40's where the picture drops out.
Sadoun's guide here shows a minimum view angle of 15 degrees:
Dish Pointing Tips
Is this a hard-and-fast rule or a guideline? Would it be worthwhile to try and get the dish set up a couple of feet higher to get a couple more degrees of view angle?
If at this point you're thinking "Just move the dish to the front yard," I can only say that's a battle over aesthetics that is unlikely to be won
