Which Dish

[elbo]

i need help in selecting a dish as well as lnb for viewsat pro.
i live in northwest michigan. roof mount, lots of trees, have clear shot to southwest.

[rainman]

for ku reception I would recommend a 36" dish or a 1 meter.

[Jim-S]

Dish Pointing Tips

Do you have a clear view about 30 deg up to the south, if you want a motorized dish you will need clear view east and west about 45 deg to the east and west this is really a rough way to do it. You can hold your arm up at about that angle (30 to 45deg) and move your arm to the east and then to the west in an arc motion.

Jim

[elbo]

Finally installed MII system and wouldn't ya know it, nothing. i have not yet begun to fight. I have a feeling that me, my chainsaw, and a few trees are going to tangle.

[Vitruvius]

Have you looked at relocating the dish to an area that may get clear arc for you?

[elbo]

i haven't really done a lot of fine tuning as of yet. the trees aren't neccessarily my only problem. i do have that lack of knowledge thing going against me.

[Vitruvius]

Remember, if you want, you can bury the coax cable in the ground and locate your dish on a pole about 20 feet away.... This can take you to a spot that may avoid the trees and gives us a little more oxygen....

[spongella]

Previous response was a good one, yes, moving a dish sometimes as little as several feet makes a difference. And, the dish does not point at the satellite directly, it's actually about 15 degrees lower than the satellite is.

I had some high trees and high bushes that I was certain would block the satellite view, but after moving the dishes to at least a dozen different places I found the best spots. Some of the high trees actually did not block the path, as the sats were much higher in the sky than I perceived.

Of course if you have a motorized system and want to receive many satellites, the installation gets more complicated. Sometimes you may get most, but not all the sats you want. Then it's time to move the dish around. If you have a tripod, you can temporarily anchor the setup and check different areas. Took me about 2 - 3 months to get my expectations satisfied, and am still looking for that perfect spot, ha ha.

Sponge.

[pmb1010]

if you can see the sun shining these days (late Sept/early Oct), the sun is currently tracking very close to the satellite "arc".

So, you could put up a 30" cardboard circle at or near where your dish might be placed. If the sun shines on it all day long, the likelihood of you getting satellite reception is pretty good.

Note - cloudy days won't work for this test.

[elbo]

thanks everyone for the tips. i haven't spent as much time as i would like to tune this baby in but with everything i've been reading on these forums, i have a feeling that my problem may lie somewhere other than my mount location. i will try to get some pics posted in the near future. maybe one of you will spot something that is not so obvious to me.

thanks again