Multiple dishes on the roof... is there a best way?

[madpoet]

Ok, so by the middle of next month I'll have a Voom dish and a DirecTV dish up on my roof (I guess on the roof anyway...). I'll also have an OTA antenna I'm guessing, at the very least the one Voom provides. The DirecTV receiver will feed 2 rooms, and Voom/the OTA will feed 1 room that is the same as one of the DirecTV rooms. Make sense? Voom gets installed first. Is there a best way to make this happen?

Thanks,
MP

 

[Sean Mota]

It sounds fine.

 

[madpoet]

Ok . Next question then. My elevation for the bird for my locals on DirecTV is a whopping 23 degrees at 243 degrees. Ouch. I'm sort of on the side of a hill, with more hill to the west of me. Is there an easy way to tell if it's going to be able to clear it?

 

[rudolpht]

Short of a protractor, compass and a yardstick it's hard to say (but that combo works ). I also found looking at sun position and shadows on house made an intuitive setting to how my 3 dishes needed to be situated.

 

[madpoet]

Heh, ok. Thanks. I'm hopeful, but I'm thinking I may be out of luck. Oh well. At least Voom is almost due south and at 40 degrees for me!

-MP

 

[mike123abc]

Well this is the time of year to check. The sun is almost directly behind satllites this time of year. So when the sun is at the right position check if your Dish has shadows on it or not (or where your Dish is going to be).

 

[madpoet]

When you say right position, do you mean elevation or orientation? Sorry, was never great at trig .

 

[mike123abc]

Orientation. The sun is almost on the same elevation as the satellites. So, when it is in the right direction, it is just about the same height/elevation as the satellite would be. So, you can then see if there is a shadow on the spot.

 

[madpoet]

Ahhh, ok. So when the sun is at 243, I should have a shadow. I think I can figure it out!

 

[mike123abc]

You do not want a shadow, if there is no shadow that means that your dish can see the satellite.

 

[madpoet]

Oh, shadow is bad. Ok