Need help selecting new dish 500 location

[daffydoug]

I'm a long-time Dish customer living in NY state. A few years ago I had to move my Dish 500 due to the rapid growth of a silver maple, and then everything was as good as new. However, now my 119 signal strength is dropping and I will need to trim that big maple tree. To find out which huge limb to fell, I wish I had some way of seeing the line of sight of the actual signal path (without buying an expensive piece of equipment).
If I attach a tube to a level, how do I point it? The target numbers for my zip code are:
Azimuth 238
Elevation 28
Skew 122
I also hope that if I could view the actual signal path, perhaps I might discover a better location for the Dish 500, but that's probably a pipe dream... tree trimming is almost certainly my only hope.
Any help will be greatly appreciated! (but please do not make the obvious comment about just chopping down the tree; I'd cancel Dish first.)
Doug

 

[Jim5506]

If you have a smart phone, you can down load one of the many satellite finder apps from Google Play or the Apple store. Simply go outside, run the app and look up to the sky as if your phone was a view finder - the satellites will appear on the screen when you are pointed toward them adn you get a goot approximation of their location in the sky.

Just installed Android Satellite AR, told it to look for echostar sats, pointed it to the sky and an arrow directed me where to look.

Uses GPS and camera to find sats.

If you don't want to transmit your coordinates over the web, you can manually enter your approx location.

Very neat.

 

[oljim]

Go to dish point on your dish rec, select 119 put in your zip code and it will give you AZ and EL to 119

 

[oljim]

Go to dish point on your dish rec, select 119 put in your zip code and it will give you AZ and EL to 119

 

[bobvick]

Could you get a better signal from the Eastern Arc 61.5 and 72? If so, rather than having to butcher your tree and or keep moving that Dish 500, see about an upgrade to a 211 series or Wally receiver. Being in New York State, I would think you might get a bit better signal quality off of the EA as well.

 

[Tony S]

Also, keep in mind that the actual position of the satellite is higher than where the dish is pointing. (The satellite signal bounces off the dish and then hits the LNB). Therefore, the actual signal path from the satellite is quite a bit higher than where the dish is pointing.

 

[Bobby]

If the OP is actually in Rochester, his SD locals are on 110. His HD locals are on 61.5. I'd convert to eastern arc and be done with it. All he needs is 61.5 and 72.7 and he'd have it all... That would mean changing out his 500 dish to a 1000 dish with EA LNB....

 

[daffydoug]

Thanks Jim but no smart phone. I'm a security guard and you probably can't imagine how poor I am... if I smoked, drank or had a girlfriend I'd have to rob banks to make ends meet! lol
Bobvick - 61.5/72 would 100% work except for budget reasons - I have a DP322 and DP311 and don't want to pay more. Ditto to Bobby - your suggestion is terrific and might be what I do in the future.
TonyS - The dish is aimed as best as possible already... I think I'll mount a tube at 22 degrees to a 2x4 and place the board on the face of the dish, holding it parallel to the skew, and have a peek through the tube. I expect I'll have a ton of db's on 119 if I just lop off one huge tree limb.

 

[bobvick]

Thanks Jim but no smart phone. I'm a security guard and you probably can't imagine how poor I am... if I smoked, drank or had a girlfriend I'd have to rob banks to make ends meet! lol
Bobvick - 61.5/72 would 100% work except for budget reasons - I have a DP322 and DP311 and don't want to pay more. Ditto to Bobby - your suggestion is terrific and might be what I do in the future.
TonyS - The dish is aimed as best as possible already... I think I'll mount a tube at 22 degrees to a 2x4 and place the board on the face of the dish, holding it parallel to the skew, and have a peek through the tube. I expect I'll have a ton of db's on 119 if I just lop off one huge tree limb.

Sounds like your'e a long time customer. It might be worth sending a message to a DIRT member and discuss your options for an equipment upgrade. You might be surprised how economically they would be able to upgrade you. Just a suggestion.

 

[Tony S]

...TonyS - The dish is aimed as best as possible already... I think I'll mount a tube at 22 degrees to a 2x4 and place the board on the face of the dish, holding it parallel to the skew, and have a peek through the tube. I expect I'll have a ton of db's on 119 if I just lop off one huge tree limb.

I realize that your dish is pointed correctly, but what I was trying to say in my last post was that when you are looking to see where the satellite signal is coming from, it does not correspond to where the dish is pointing. The actual signal from the satellite is higher in the sky than where the dish appears to be pointing. When you cut the tree branches, you have to remove the ones that are a little higher than where the dish is actually pointed. (That is what I remember reading somewhere. I could be wrong. Maybe someone else can comment on that).

 

[Bob Haller]

back when i had dish i had a similar problem with a huge tree across the street.

so i moved the dish futher from the street, mounted to my deck in my rear yard. i never had another problem''

sadly the old guy who lived across the street had his beautiful home denuded of all trees. i heard he spent 8 grand on tree removal. he told me he was afraid a tree might hit his home. it must be a elderly thing, when you have no control pick something you can.. most trees were no where near his home

he fell at his garage sale and never lived in the home again.

the new owners are planting trees to replace those he removed....

 

[Bob Haller]

the bonus of my dish move, it made snow clearance super easy, just steps from my decks door.

 

[daffydoug]

I realize that your dish is pointed correctly, but what I was trying to say in my last post was that when you are looking to see where the satellite signal is coming from, it does not correspond to where the dish is pointing. The actual signal from the satellite is higher in the sky than where the dish appears to be pointing. When you cut the tree branches, you have to remove the ones that are a little higher than where the dish is actually pointed. (That is what I remember reading somewhere. I could be wrong. Maybe someone else can comment on that).

Thanks TonyS, I do understand you, and I hope someone can confirm how the actual signal path differs from the way the face of the dish points. G00gl3 found a blogger saying it is actually 22 degrees higher and I hope they are correct... but I'm about to find out. Wish me luck!

>>> Bob - That's a funny story! I had a 100' tall dying tree leaning towards my house... I climbed it half way and attached a strap. Then I anchored the strap to a truck in such a way that the tree could NOT fall towards the house, then I cut it down. The whole time my tree-hugging ultra environmentalist neighbor stood at the edge of my lot staring daggers at me. lol