Poor Signal

[corny]

I am installing a system at a friends house about two miles away from mine. My system is getting 98 signal strength. The best we can get at his place is 68. We cut down trees to get a clear path to the birds, there is nothing but sky between bird and dish. Tried new cables, diff. lnb,newer ird,Any idea's?

[PrivateGuy™!]

This is where having a meter pays off. How long is your cable run? The longer the run of cable the more loss of signal you will notice. Make sure all your coax ends are of good quality and that the barrel is making contact with the shielding. Sounds like a pointing problem to me though. Also if your mount to the house isnt square and level this can cause your dish to be cocked to the left or right which I have found to make a difference. Hard to be much help without being there on a problem like this but hope this helps anyway.

PrivateGuy™

[azjoe]

I know you said "nothing but sky...", and maybe the following is obvious... but just in case, don't forget that the line-of-sight from the dish to the bird is at an angle ABOVE a line perpendicular to the face of the dish to the bird. So, if you still have tree limbs slightly above the "line of sight", these could be the problem.

[PrivateGuy™!]

Sometimes we overlook the simple things...

PrivateGuy™

[PrivateGuy™!]

Another good way to tell is to do the math. I'm not going to do the math for you so I will give you an example. If your dish was pointed at elevation of 45 degrees it would gain a foot in height for every foot in front of the dish. So say your tree was 40 ft tall and was located 30 ft from your mounting point on your house. If your dish was mounted 10 ft high you should mathmaticly clear the tree. Heres how. The tree being 30 ft away would give the dish 30 ft of distance to clear the tree. At the 45 degree angle you are gaining a ft for every ft so you have already cleared 30 ft. Then add the 10ft gained by the mounting height of the dish and there you have it 40 ft! Man I'm bored!

PrivateGuy™



[This message has been edited by PrivateGuy™! (edited February 07, 2000).]

[corny]

Thanks for all the replies. Cable run is 65ft. I never thought about the birds being higher than the line of sight with the dish. Does anyone now approx. anlge that the signal comes in? My dish angle is 40
Thanks again

[smack]

The dish is offet about three degrees to the vertical. The signal is coming from over the equator, so the signal is coming from an angle that corresponds to the latitude of your location.

For example, Chicago is at 42 degrees North latitude. The dish setup guide says to set the elevation to 39 degrees (some say 40); either way, it's close enough to capture the signal so you can fine tune it to peak.

FWIW

Scott