Whats your average elevation before things get in the way?

[stanleyjohn]

Just like to know what kind of viewing area others get before a tree,mt or something else blocks the view.My worst area is west with a average elevation of low 30s and my best is true south where i get 10 to 15 degrees.For me its mostly trees that block so winter time may bring in some more of those lower satellites.My location is south central Ct.

 

[qwert1515]

I can get down to 11° Elevation.

 

[Mr Tony]

depends on dish location

roof I can get down to Hispasat which is a 9 elevation here in Minnesota. Use to be able to get to 148 before that sat blew up...that was 16 elevation

Dishes on deck are severly limited by the dish farm on the roof

6 foot dish I wheel out in front of garage I can see form 40W (17 elevation) over to 139W no issues...trees are far enough away

 

[ZetaMale]

Just like to know what kind of viewing area others get before a tree,mt or something else blocks the view.My worst area is west with a average elevation of low 30s and my best is true south where i get 10 to 15 degrees.For me its mostly trees that block so winter time may bring in some more of those lower satellites.My location is south central Ct.

I can get down to 29/30 degrees. (Wish I could go lower to get Intelsat 11 which is about 12 degree elevation for me).

 

[freezy]

30 to 148 also. I could get further east but nothing is pointing this way

 

[Blindowl1234]

Must be nice guys...An elevation of 20-25 is about it for me to the west. I had NHK once or twice to my east...a line of the neighbors trees is 200 feet long, with some trees 75 foot tall!
Reliably I get 72W to 135W. I'm surrounded by trees you'd have to see to believe. Blind

 

[AcWxRadar]

I don't have anything that gets in my way, as far as I know. Except the curvature of the earth itself.

Here are some pix.

Picture #1 is my dish installation. You can get an idea how far from the house it is. Not extreme, but there is about 280 feet of RG-11 cable laying across the yard (not in a straight line to the house). The entry point to the house is on the far side, beyond my car in the driveway and entering through the backside of the garage. Notice the cut limbs stacked in the picture. I had to cut these off the tree just above the dish install area to avoid the limb falling on the dish. It was pretty dead and you can see the cut limb on the tree is partially hollowed already. If you look directly towards my car in picture #1, you are looking nearly straight north (only a slight bit west of north).

In picture #2, the sun rises to the left of where the tree line ends, a bit off the picture frame.

Picture #3 is roughly EAST-SOUTHEAST. The trees are roughly 600 feet away from my dish (estimated).

Picture #4 is roughly SOUTHEAST

Picture #5 is DUE SOUTH

Picture #6 is roughly SOUTHWEST

Picture #7 is roughly WEST-SOUTHWEST or about 250° to 260° degrees. You can judge from the setting sun where due west would be.

The terrain of the land pretty much slopes downwards from my hilltop location, and you tell from the trees in the pictures that I have an excellent shot at the entire Clarke Belt. I feel very lucky here and I don't mean to gloat, but this is an exceptional testing ground for satellite reception!

RADAR

P.S. That is a Coolsat 5000 receiver sitting there on the table along with a "regular" Busch beer!

 

[Ironsides]

umm

I can get down to about 29 if I am lucky otherwise trees and more trees and trees...when I first moved here about 25 years ago I could get the entire belt with my C-Band dish..I think F1 was the lowest back in those days..before the little pizza pan days...I talked with my installer once about going H to H but he talked me out of it because of the expense back then. Started out I think with a Startreker receiver and a bunch of other gadgets..

 

[classicsat]

If you mean totally by sight lines, I haven't tried below 119 at my current dish location, but could receive significantly east, that is until it is the season to dry laundry outside, unless I move my dish. When I had a C-band dish up. I could barely get C-band over the barn in the back yard, the side yard was excellent for domestic C/Ku-band, bit I never really tried for beyond 74.

 

[WTguy]

The furtherest east I have ever tried was Telstar 11 at 37.5, this was about 8 yrs ago, got the sat but could not find the signal I was hunting (I think the info was outdated at the time). West I have been on the old Echostar that was at 157. I used to check it every so often just to see if there some itc signals.

 

[mr.crane]

I don't have anything that gets in my way, as far as I know. Except the curvature of the earth itself.

Here are some pix.

Picture #1 is my dish installation. You can get an idea how far from the house it is. Not extreme, but there is about 280 feet of RG-11 cable laying across the yard (not in a straight line to the house). The entry point to the house is on the far side, beyond my car in the driveway and entering through the backside of the garage. Notice the cut limbs stacked in the picture. I had to cut these off the tree just above the dish install area to avoid the limb falling on the dish. It was pretty dead and you can see the cut limb on the tree is partially hollowed already. If you look directly towards my car in picture #1, you are looking nearly straight north (only a slight bit west of north).

In picture #2, the sun rises to the left of where the tree line ends, a bit off the picture frame.

Picture #3 is roughly EAST-SOUTHEAST. The trees are roughly 600 feet away from my dish (estimated).

Picture #4 is roughly SOUTHEAST

Picture #5 is DUE SOUTH

Picture #6 is roughly SOUTHWEST

Picture #7 is roughly WEST-SOUTHWEST or about 250° to 260° degrees. You can judge from the setting sun where due west would be.

The terrain of the land pretty much slopes downwards from my hilltop location, and you tell from the trees in the pictures that I have an excellent shot at the entire Clarke Belt. I feel very lucky here and I don't mean to gloat, but this is an exceptional testing ground for satellite reception!

RADAR

P.S. That is a Coolsat 5000 receiver sitting there on the table along with a "regular" Busch beer!

You are so lucky to have such great views!

 

[Tron]

Radar, from your pictures, it looks like the snow finally melted up there!

 

[Blindowl1234]

Radar, Wow flat land...that's what I need around here. I drive by places...a lot of farms with a lot of flat land, that would be great for a dish farm. I'm stuck where I'm at. Come to think of it if I was living at our old house five years ago I'd have had no reception at all. I was totally surrounded by trees there. Blind

 

[AcWxRadar]

Radar, from your pictures, it looks like the snow finally melted up there!

Tron,

Yes, not much snow left now. Most of us here figured some of it would last til May, but it is mostly all gone now. Only the deepest drifts (in the shade) and the hard packed stuff from the plows remain. It is supposed to be 80°F over the next couple of days, so all should certainly be gone by the weekend. I thank God for the reprieve to get out of the snow and ice and cold and especially for sparing us from major flooding this spring. He was really on our side for this area this spring. Others were not so lucky, they had a terrible winter, too, but spring has been no blessing. I pray for them.

You are so lucky to have such great views!

Radar, Wow flat land...that's what I need around here. I drive by places...a lot of farms with a lot of flat land, that would be great for a dish farm. I'm stuck where I'm at. Come to think of it if I was living at our old house five years ago I'd have had no reception at all. I was totally surrounded by trees there. Blind

Most people (even around here) don't have this good of a view. Very few have as good of a location with no trees or buildings or other obstructions. I am just extremely fortunate. Others who may have this good of a satellite testing location aren't interested in the hobby (and that's a shame).

I definitely plan to utilize this perk of my location to its fullest advantage. Not only am I going to enjoy it for my own purposes, but I intend to take any findings to assist others in the hobby with motor testing information and whatever else I can procure.

I do wish that there were Ku-Band satellites near the 170°W, 163°W and the 21° W orbital positions that beamed a good signal my way. That would provide me with a great opportunity to test my motor alignment practices throughout a total arc of 149°. That would be excellent! More would even be better. Currently, I can only test from 30°W through 125.0W. Which is only 118° degrees of the arc. I have tested further, when 148.0°W and 129.0°W were still viable, but they are gone now, so I cannot test anything new or beyond. Of course 148W was a bit of a cheat since it was circular.

A linear Ku-Band satellite every 2 degrees covering the entire globe with at least one horizontal and one vertical polarity test card channel (with audio and video) and all beamed at my location with the same power level would be the epitomy for testing. Oooohhhh! That would be fun! A person could test all sorts of motors and dishes this way!

RADAR