site survey question

[florida]

I am trying to determine if I have any obstacles to an installation. I am in South Florida. I would mount a motorized dish to the concrete wall of my house, such that the dish will be about 10 or 12 feet high. To check for obstacles, I should look southward for obstructions at 45-60 degrees or so from a plane where the dish would be parallel to the ground? Do I need to consider lower angles in Florida?

[Corey]

Click on this link

Satellite Look Angles Satellite Heading Calculator Azimuth Elevation Skew Tilt LNBF Latitude and Longitude values

and enter your latitude and longitude, then pick a few satellites you want to be able to view.

For your location, I'm guessing about 80W 25N, and wanting a reasonable view of all of the satellites you could reasonably see from your location (about 40W - 120W), you need to have from 243 degrees azimuth at 37 degrees elevation, to 180 degrees (due south) at 60 degrees elevation, to 116 azimuth 37 degrees elevation. Like everyone else, you need to be able to see fairly high when the satellite dish is pointing due south, and not so high as it swings west and east.

If you only want to see a few satellites, then you won't need as much range.

[William Eng]

Be careful when you drill into your walls. It would be best to consult the blueprints to your home first to make sure you don't drill through electrical, cable, gas, etc lines. My brother was once helping a neighbor drill a hole for an outdoor grill; only afterwards when he inspected the hole did he realize that he missed the gas line by half an inch!! You see the signs "call before you dig"; same thing applies here.

[William Eng]

One more issue if you plan to install the dish on your roof. Make sure you properly ground the whole unit. Florida aka "lightling capital of the world"

[wejones]

Originally Posted by William Eng

Be careful when you drill into your walls. It would be best to consult the blueprints to your home first to make sure you don't drill through electrical, cable, gas, etc lines. My brother was once helping a neighbor drill a hole for an outdoor grill; only afterwards when he inspected the hole did he realize that he missed the gas line by half an inch!! You see the signs "call before you dig"; same thing applies here.

That reminded me of something I did once. Since I had worked with high voltage things, I had little fear of mere 120V circuits, so one time I was up on a ladder re-wiring some circuits in the false ceiling in the house I used to live in. My wife came by and asked "did you turn off the circuit breaker to that line?" that was in my hand. Rather than get off the ladder and get my voltmeter, which I usually did to satisfy her fears, I just demonstrated by touching the wire to a nearby cold water pipe. Yep, the wire was hot. There was a spark so bright that it temporarily blinded me, but what was worse, it burned a 1/8" hole in the pipe, which began spraying water all over me, while I was still up on the ladder (most likely on the "this is not a step" step). It all worked out OK, but I now get my voltmeter whenever my wife asks me to.

[florida]

The house is concrete block, no gas. I do not believe anything ever runs inside the block, the exception being wiring for outdoor lighting or outlets. Water pipes run under/through the foundation.