Minimum view angle

[nhulst]

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

[pmb1010]

I think that picture is illustrative only.
Do no use those values as any steadfast rule.

The bottom line is line of sight changes depending on your latitude location.
So a value of 15 might be fine for someone, but not for someone else.

Use the stationary sat calculator and figure out your most east and west sats based on your view of the arc at your location.

A couple feet might help, but you really need to use a straightedge and a protractor and just use your eye to visualize obstructions...
Look at the graphic. Moving the dish out to the edge of the property did work for that setting.
But you'd need to mount it on a pole at the height of the gutter to compensate height-wise.

[wejones]

.......
3- Dish size: 80 cm
.......
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?
.......

I think that picture is illustrative only.
Do no use those values as any steadfast rule.
.....

I'd go one further, and say that there is no such thing as a minimum view angle. With reception of the sat you're looking for, at reception is straight line, and no angle is involved. You do receive signals out at an angle, which is where the beamwidth comes in, but that is generally unwanted reception, such as from adjacent sats. You don't need ANY amount of "view angle". Basically all you need is for the whole dish to see the sat, meaning that if you have an 80 cm dish, all you need is an 80 cm view of the sky to get reception. I've aimed dishes at sats through 5' holes under nearby trees, over far off trees, between limbs... used rope saws to cut off individual branches that were blocking one sat, etc, etc.
There is no such thing as a minimum view angle. If you use the protractor/straight edge thing PMB mentioned, or any other method, just make sure you check the view of both the bottom and top of the dish. For far off obstructions, it's not important, but for nearby obstructions, I've had the bottom half of the dish blocked when the top of the dish had a view.

And re the mid 50s quality readings, not unusual. Getting a dish bigger than 80 cm is probably the only way to help with that, but you're probably never going to *completely* eliminate rain fade.