Satellite Dish Installation

[Jack Sanders]

I'm considering buying DirecTV, with the DIY installation. Southwest
(and west) is where all the trees are. How will trees interfere with
signal reception? Is there some way for me to determine if reception
is satisfactory before buying the system?

Jack Sanders

my opinions, not necessarily the management's

[Ron Natalie]

Jack Sanders wrote:
>
> I'm considering buying DirecTV, with the DIY installation. Southwest
> (and west) is where all the trees are. How will trees interfere with
> signal reception? Is there some way for me to determine if reception
> is satisfactory before buying the system?
>

You need to see fairly low on the horizon towards the Southwest in
the east here (I see you are in Maryland). If you have neighbors
with DSS dishes already installed, you can see the direction they
have to point.

My suggestion is to buy it from someplace that will take a return.
You can take a TV out side with you (and I suggest you do this
it makes it much easier to point in any case) and go through the
pointing procedure before installing it and see if you can get
a reasonable signal.

There's a alt.dss group if you have more specific questions.

[Bruce Cochran]

The signal will not go through the trees. You can
look at the following DirectTv page
http://www.directv.com/general/dishpointer1.html
and get the azimuth and elevation where the dish
will need to be pointed to get the signal. This should
let you determine if the trees will be a factor. You will
need a clear line of sight for a satisfactory reception.

Jack Sanders wrote in message <6dep3t$r...@post.gsfc.nasa.gov>...

>I'm considering buying DirecTV, with the DIY installation. Southwest
>(and west) is where all the trees are. How will trees interfere with
>signal reception? Is there some way for me to determine if reception
>is satisfactory before buying the system?
>
>
>

[Mark A. Peters]

That's what I thought too, until I tried it. The most convenient place for
me to install my dish was on a four-by-four holding up one corner of an
awning, about seven feet off the ground. The required azimuth and elevation
pointed the dish right through the branches of a stand of trees about fifty
feet away. The _best_ signal strength I could get there was about 30 out of
100 as measured by the on-screen signal strength meter built into the DTV
receiver. Despite this, the picture quality was excellent, and aside from a
few moments of data loss during a huge wind and rain storm last winter, it's
never been less than excellent.

It may be significant that I'm in northern California where the weather
isn't really a factor in reception.

Mark Peters

Bruce Cochran wrote in message <6detvb$mtu$1...@client2.news.psi.net>...

>The signal will not go through the trees.

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