Doubled my signal :-)

[B.J.]

The wife here decided that we need a barn/garage to hold all our tractors and snowmobiles and boats, etc, and the best place for it was right where the 3 pine trees that are blocking AMC6 and a few sats east of that. So I said GREAT, let me get those trees out of the way. Tuned to AMC6, NASA, had 9.9 dB SNR on my TT3200. Went outside with the chain saw. A couple hours later came in. 13.4 dB SNR. {this signal is split between 3 receivers}
Amazing what cutting a few trees can do. This is the best reception I've gotten on AMC6 in years.
Basically, looking from behind the dish, AMC-6 was JUST at the top of the trees, meaning that the entire bottom half of my dish was blocked. So for the first time in years, I'll have a clear shot at my due south sat, so maybe I can do a slightly better job of tweaking the alignment of this dish.


EDIT: Just remembered that those trees were also blocking my 3' Fortec dish from seeing T14, so I aimed at that. BINGO. First time I've seen SCETV in about 3 years.

 

[Fizbi]

If possible, the tree fairy would like you to plant some new trees.

 

[Othea]

Trees

Now just wait until that barn goes up 20 meters in front of the dishes!

 

[freezy]

Ditto, I bet she wants a 2-story so she can have an office/crafts room upstairs

 

[Mr Tony]

sweet. Cut them trees down.
From what I remember BJ those trees on your lot wont miss those couple that got taken down

 

[PopcornNMore]

I always say less trees and more satellite dishes.

 

[B.J.]

Re trees, I'm not worried about deforestation. Got about 45 Acres of trees here so thick you can hardly walk through most of the woods. I think a few trees won't be missed.

Re the garage/barn becoming 2 stories and blocking view, no, this will be an unheated building away from the house. We already have a 2 story unheated garage, the top floor of which WAS intended to be an office for my wife, however that floor filled up to the gills with boxes that came from our first house, and the bottom floor filled up with tractors, snowmobiles, backhoes, and other junk, so there isn't room to park our cars. Basically the new building is just to allow us to park our cars in the garage.
Re the height of the new building blocking the sat view, I checked that out, and it won't, plus I think it gives me an opportunity to mount a dish on TOP of this new structure to help me possibly get a view in another direction I'm blocked. Only problem is that this will mean another 50' of coax, which will get me up above 300', unless I dig a new trench to take a shortcut back to the house. But anyway, the new structure will open up new potential.
But overall, I can't wait to see if removing these trees has given me access to any of the Atlantic sats that I used to be able to see, before the trees grew up.