Satellite dish positioning

Has anyone tried using a satellite dish low on the northeast side of a flat?

Looking at some on-line alignment info, it looks as though for the Freesat satellite the dish needs to point almost exactly parallel to surface of the wall, which might attenuate the signal pretty badly depending on things like possible refraction.

Do any of the satellites further east than the Astra 2 A-B-D also carry Freesat signals? If so, the dish could be pointed further from the wall.

The point of this idea is to keep the dish off the roof and out of the way of roof repairers, aerial installers, and the like.

Reply to
Windmill
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So long as it is parallel to or angled slightly away from the wall, you shouldn't have a problem - the beam width is very narrow.

No.

Yes, dishes on rooves are not a good idea ...

Reply to
Terry Casey

On Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:03:20 GMT someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@Onetel.net.uk.invalid (Windmill) wrote this:-

Shouldn't do so. Many buildings have satellite dishes in this position on the walls.

Satellite dishes should not be mounted on a roof. The signal has come a long way already, a few extra metres make no difference. They also have a higher wind loading than a TV aerial and are more likely to damage a roof.

Reply to
David Hansen

My dish was about 6' above the ground looking straight along a wall for a long time. It worked fine until a neighbours tree grew too high (took about 5 years)

Reply to
Vortex7

A guesstimate based on eyeballing a Google map suggest that the wall is in a plane about 40 degrees counterclockwise from due south, i.e. about

140 degrees. The satellite data says it is at 143 degrees, which would put it 3 degrees behind solid sandstone :-(

However I belatedly thought of looking for other dishes, and can see one. So maybe......

Reply to
Windmill

The problem is that the satellite might be out of view, just barely, _behind_ the side of the wall.

I asked the City if they had any maps showing building orientation, but seemingly not.

Reply to
Windmill

Have you tried one of the sites that superimposes the direction to satellites on top of Google Maps? E.g.

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Richard

Reply to
Richard Tobin

At this time of year the sun is roughly in the same position as the constellation of satellites for Freesat/Sky etc about 0920 GMT (1020 BST)(*). Anywhere that is clearly sunlit at that time should be able to see the satellites. Dish mounts do let you peek a dish around a corner.

(*) Fairly sure I've got the time right, if I haven't some one will no doubt correct me.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

This will vary across the country (and of course with the date), so don't rely on it if it's marginal.

-- Richard

Reply to
Richard Tobin

(1020

Pay attention to the qualifiers "at this time of year" and "about" in relation to the time and "clearly" in relation to the illumination.

The bearing will be correct no matter the time of year but I agree the elevation will change quite a bit between the equinoxes ("at this time of year") when the sun is more or less in the same place and mid winter/summer when it will be below (winter) or above (summer) the position.

I got the time wrong. For here with a longitude of 2.5W it's more like 1035 BST (I looked at the shadow on our dish...). If I've worked it out right 1020 would be for a location with a longitude about

1.5E.
Reply to
Dave Liquorice

The satellite data will be WRT true north but, if the map data originates from the Ordnance Survey, it will be WRT grid north, so you may not be comparing like with like ...

... and you did say 'about 40 degrees'! How accurate is 'about'? After all, a 3 degree discrepancy could mean the difference between success and disaster ...!

You may find this useful:

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uses Google maps but, if you enter your OS grid reference or PostCode, you also have the option of using OS maps.

If the position is not quite accurate, you can drag the dish location around the map. At maximum zoom, the OS shows the outlines of buildings, which might be particularly useful to you ...!

Reply to
Terry Casey

That's not true, unless you read the time from a sundial rather than a mechanical clock. The eccentricity of the earth's orbit and the fact that the sun does not stay exactly within the plane of the equator mean that sun time varies from human time by up to 16 minutes, which corresponds to an error in the bearing of up to 4 degrees.

See

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Richard

Reply to
Richard Tobin

heading, which by inaccurate eyeball was approx. 140 degrees.

Reply to
Windmill

the line-of-sight to the satellite is about 0.1 degree more than the angle of the rear, NE side, of the building (just guessing, it barely converges with the rear of the building over a distance of about six stairs spacing; maybe 500 feet).

Amazing coincidence.

So if the dish is fixed a few feet from the wall it _should_ work.

Thanks for the pointer.

Reply to
Windmill

It's a very very close thing, but there is one (only one) other dish along the whole length of the street i.e. in about 100 rear-facing flats. So either possible, or the dish owner has been disappointed.

Might have to build a contraption to space the dish away from the wall.

Reply to
Windmill

Amusingly it tells me that my nearest satellite installer is in Mississauga, Canada !

Reply to
Windmill

This is probably a bad idea since I know almost nothing about how radio waves propagate at sat-TV frequencies, but is there any chance of getting a reflection of something at the other side or at the end of the block? I also assume you're not on the ground floor since you would already have thought about mounting the dish on the ground away from the wall, right?

Sam

Reply to
Sam Wilson

I don't think that works. For expert advice try uk.tech.digital-tv.

-- Richard

Reply to
Richard Tobin

In article , Sam Wilson scribeth thus

Just wouldn't be strong enough to do that, let along at being just the right angle etc!...

Reply to
tony sayer

Pretty much straight line, I think. Otherwise the airport surveillance radars which show ATC/S where on the taxiways planes are on a foggy day or after dark wouldn't be much use. (I think that's called X band , or some such, running at frequencies vaguely similar to satellite Ku band.)

Quite probably, but AIUI the direct signal is already very weak, having travelled 22,400 miles. I'm sure one could use a reflection if one used a 30 foot dish, say, but......

One floor up.

I'm pondering where best to put the dish so the protruding [ shaped attachment to the neighbouring drainpipe doesn't get in the way. But I don't know the elevation above our horizontal of synchronous satellites at our latitude. About 30 degrees, I'm guessing. Obviously I will learn this along the way!

Reply to
Windmill

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