Line of Sight Assessment / Aiming Question.

[bugfish69]

Line of Sight Assessment & aiming help

I have moved a dish 500 system with twin LNB from my house to my parents house 3 miles away. The skew, azimuth, and elevation are the same for both locations.

When I set this up a couple of years ago I got it aimed correctly right away. Now I am having problems finding 119. I can get a fair signal on 110, but I can not find 119 at all. I have walked through slowly increaseing elevation and have had great patience in aiming. I can see signal from ony 110 and if I go far enough I can see the bellview.

My biggest question is how to determine if the problem is line of sight. My parents house backs up to hardwoods to the south, but I have a little over 100 foot fromt the dish to the woods. Mounting the dish on the house would raise it up but it would only be about 30 - 35 feet from the woods. I have some more distance in their front yard, but how do i tell how far is far enough?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Stargazer]

I would normally say during the springtime that maybe some tree's or leaves grew more this past year just enough to interrupt the signal but since it is winter then this probably is not the case. What you should look at is if the signal for 110 has went down since you initially installed it. This could give you an indication of whether your starting to get more of a signal blockage or not. Since you say that you can get Bell ExpressView satellite which is more to the west means that you may have fewer trees to the west although the dish aims higher the farther west you go if you are in the east. Another thing, did the signal go out suddenly or gradually? Signs of it going out gradually is if it would go out during the rain sooner and if it started pixellating some before it quit bringing in a signal. That is a sign of blockage. If it worked fine without any of those symptoms before then went out suddenly then it could be a failure of hardware.

Did you check the check switch summary screen to see if it still shows 110? I know of some receivers that done a check switch on its own and did not do it right and had to have another one performed. The farther away from the woods an the higher up you go the better off you are on getting a signal. Something else you may want to try is another receiver or lnbf to see if that makes a difference. See if it states in the check switch screen N.C. which means no connection.

 

[Todd Humphrey]

LOS may be an issue even in winter. Evergreens do not loose their needles. You need at least a 15 degree wide opening to receive both 110 and 119, and the dish needs to be able to point in the middle of that opening. To be really safe I only install with a 20 degree wide opening. That provides a safety factor of 5 degrees on both ends of the satellites. Compasses are often wrong due to localized magnetic interferance.
If you can send me an email with a digital picture looking towards the satellites, and your location, I can give a better idea if LOS is an issue.

You can also look at my web page on LOS. It might help.
http://www.dbsinstall.com/whatis/Whatisgood-2.htm

You can find my email at the contact us section of the web site. I would post it here, but spamming spiders can see it. It is on my site in a manner hidden from spiders.

 

[Jim5506]

Approximate line of sight is along the arm that holds the LNB. Sight up that to see of you are clear.

 

[taylor2767]

Is your mounting plumb?

 

[SmityWhity]

As Jim says, if you can see above the trees looking up the LNBF arm, you should be good, but it can be lower than the top of the trees and still be good.

Somewhere there is a web site to figure the distance you need to be from an object to receive the signal, and is location dependent.

Plumb, if your first install had a plumb mast, and the second install had a plumb mast, then the settings would be very close. Of course, even though the Azimuth would be the same, the actual location on the mast would only apply if the mounting of the foot in both locations were the same - which is not likely, so you would have to twist the dish on the mast to correct for relocating it.

I can see signal from ony 110 and if I go far enough I can see the bellview.

You can see the Bellview Bird; hmmmm, it sounds like you are swinging to the east to find the 119 which is westward. I think there are 2 Bellview sats which are at 91 and 83.

Looking from the back of the dish towards the Twin LNBF, you will see the 2 eyes for the 2 LNBF's. The one on your right (westside) is for 110, while the one on your left (eastside) is 119.
NOTE: The 119 Sat is west of the 110 Sat, but the LNBF's are opposite, since the sat signal reflects off the dish and back to the LNBF. The Dish 500 with a Twin LNBF is actually aimed/pointed between the 110 and 119 sats at 114.5 degrees.

I think I would get the 110 sat on the screen.
Then cover up the LNBF for the 110 sat (the holder should be labled), which is on your Right.

If you lose the 110 signal, then you have the right LNBF.
If you do not lose the 110 signal, then you are receiving the 110 signal through the 119 LNBF. In this case swing the dish/LNBF to the west about 9 degrees, which is about 1/16 of an inch on the mast pipe. Work from this point moving it very slightly each time.

 

[ItsMyLife]

My installer told me it's the top of the dish that really needs to have line of site as the signal comes in on a higher angle and gets reflected to the LBN.

 

[bugfish69]

Thanks to all!!!!!!!!

Thanks to all for your help. Your comments and posts on this board were very helpful in getting this installed!

I moved the dish about 40 feet and found 119 fine.

 

[bugfish69]

Thanks!!!!!

Thanks to all for the tips and advice. Your advice and the post on this board helped me a bunch. I appreciate it.

I relocated the dish about 40 feet back from it's previous location.

Getting 105 on 119 and about 98 on 110.

 

[dfergie]

Merged duplicate threads... good to hear you got it going.