Really stupid way to install a satellite dish
Before I go any further, may I suggest you read my previous post, Why do companies hire incompetent and uncaring installers? You will see why I think the installation shown in the accompanying picture was done by an idiot or lazy installer (and allowed by a clueless or absent homeowner).
Let’s touch on some of the problems with this all-too-common method of installation:
- Unlike terrestrial television signals, you do NOT get any appreciable signal gain by mounting a satellite dish high off the ground. A Geosynchronous satellite is 22,236 miles above the earth’s equator. Do you really think getting it an extra 10 or 15 feet above the ground is going to make any difference, unless you are doing so to avoid a specific obstruction in the path of the signal? The only valid reason to mount a dish high is if you absolutely need to do it clear a ground-based obstruction, which is rarely the case.
- The dish is like a sail against the forces of wind, and also can be moved by ice dams and heavy snow, which means that over time the lag bolts used to screw it into the roof will loosen and allow water to penetrate. Unless there is treated plywood under there (something almost never used on a roof), the wood will then start to rot, allowing even MORE water to penetrate. That, in turn, will lead to more rot and eventually to roof leaks. By the time it happens, good luck locating the original installer and trying to hold him responsible.
- At least in this picture, the wire does not appear to be stapled to the roof, but that also happens. When it does, that’s more opportunity for water penetration and eventual leaks.
- The wire is going over the eaves at exactly the place you might see ice dams build up in northern climates. Get a heavy enough chunk of ice frozen around the wire, add a warm day and the forces of gravity, and you may find the wire snapped or detached from the dish. If you are really lucky the dish and the LNB’s at the end of the arm won’t be damaged, or moved out of position.
- In a typical northern winter (not a mild one like we’ve been having this year), there will be days where the dish gets full of snow, and that blocks the signal. Trust me, you are not going to want to have to get a ladder out every time it snows just so you can sweep off the dish. You can buy a heated dish to avoid this problem, but then you’re wasting electricity on the days you don’t need it just to avoid a problem on the days you do.
- And let’s not forget that you have an ugly wire running down the side of your house, which may or may not be attached in a semi-neat manner, depending on how lazy/incompetent the installer was.
Now as I said in the article linked above,
At the very least, dishes should be mounted under the eaves in a location where snow or ice will not slide down the roof onto them, if such a location is available. For a great many people, perhaps even a majority, the ideal mounting option for a satellite dish is on a metal pole stuck into the ground, a few feet away from the side of the house (or further away if necessary to get a clear signal), where the dish is about five to six feet above ground level. This is high enough that the signal won’t be interrupted by people or animals walking nearby, but low enough that should snow accumulate in the dish, it can be easily brushed off with a broom. Who wants to climb up onto a roof to brush snow off of a dish?
But installers hate putting a dish on a metal pole because they have to make two trips: The first is to dig the hole, insert the metal pole, insert a piece of plastic pipe or tubing so you can run the cable out through the concrete and keep it underground (to avoid damage from lawn mowers, etc.), mix and pour three or four bags of concrete, level the metal pole in the concrete, and then keep the pole perfectly level while the concrete sets. You may note that I keep saying metal pole. You can buy a 10 foot long galvanized steel pipe at most home improvement stores that works great for the purpose. But some homeowners have tried using a treated wood pole – that’s a big mistake, because even though the pole won’t rot, it will warp and twist, and soon your signal disappears. On the second trip (after the concrete dries), the installer then has to install and aim the dish. Obviously it’s a lot faster and easier to just attach the dish to the roof or the eaves, and get it all done in one trip, and what do they care if it causes a leak or rots the wood?
But here’s the rub with ground installations: The lower you go, the more likely you are to get interference from nearby ground-based obstructions, such as buildings, other man-made structures, and trees. If the trees are on your property there is often the chainsaw solution, but most reasonable people have at least a few reservations about cutting down a healthy tree that’s been alive longer than they have just to get a television signal, plus the tree may be on a neighbor’s property, in which case that option probably isn’t open to you, unless you have an exceptionally good relationship with your neighbor. It’s better to try to find an existing spot in your yard where there will not be any interference with the signal, but that can be pretty difficult EXCEPT during about two weeks out of the year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
When I was searching for information that might help me explain this, I came across this post on the SatelliteGuys.US Forum that explains it better than I could:
Solar outage time is here again-great time to reposition dishes!
That post explains the procedure, and has a link to a program you can run in a DOS emulator to calculate solar outage times in your area (it also has a link to an online calculator, but that has moved here). I have tried running that program in Boxer under OS X and it seems to work great, despite its age. I think you could also run it under something like DOSEMU on a Linux-based machine, or as the article suggests, from a DOS prompt on a Windows-based machine (don’t know if newer versions of Windows still allow that but if not, someone’s probably come up with a way to run DOS programs in newer versions of Windows).
The point is that on a certain day at a certain time (the date and time will vary depending on your latitude and longitude) the sun will be right behind the satellite you want to receive. All you have to do is make sure that your dish will be in a spot that’s in full sunlight at that time — the further from any shadows cast by buildings, trees, etc. the better — and you are golden, at least for that satellite. If your dish has multiple LNB’s, then you need to find a spot that’s in full sunlight at all times that the sun is behind one of the satellites. For U.S. dish owners, that means you’ll have to check at three different times during the morning or afternoon, depending on whether you are using the eastern arc or the western arc of your provider, and try to find a spot that’s in full sunlight at all three times. If no such spot exists in your yard, keep in mind that you do have the option to set up a separate dish and pole for each satellite you want to receive — you don’t have to use the three-in-one combo dish (I will also note that individual dishes are much easier to aim at the satellites, especially for the homeowner that has little or no experience in aiming a dish, but of course some people just don’t want three dishes if they can get by with only one).
If the exact date isn’t convenient for you, you can try a day or two earlier or later. Remember that if you are earlier, the sun will be lower in the sky than the satellite so you want to beware of shadows near the top of the dish. Conversely, if you are late on the date, the sun will be higher in the sky than the satellite, so it’s shadows nearer the bottom of the dish that will be closer than they appear. Sometimes you can’t do it on the exact date because the weather doesn’t cooperate, but usually being a day or two early or late doesn’t affect the result that much. Where you don’t want to be early or late is with the time. The sun moves a full degree in the sky in just four minutes (I didn’t believe it either, but check it with a calculator – it’s true!) and that’s quite a huge distance when you are trying to check the position of the shadow of an object that may be several yards/meters away.
For those of us in the northern latitudes, the next solar outage time will be in about a month from now (the further south you live, the sooner it will occur) so I am posting this now to give you time to research this a bit and ask questions if you need to. Remember that in spring the trees usually don’t have leaves on them yet, so a small shadow from a branch now can mean a full obstruction of the signal to your dish once the leaves appear. Also, branches get heavier and move in the wind more with leaves on them, so don’t cut it too close – preferably you want your dish in the middle of a nice BIG sunny spot, not a small opening in the trees (unless you only want to watch TV when it’s not windy). And finally, remember that your dish won’t be on the ground — note the suggestion in the linked article to use a tall stick and a paper plate or pie tin to help make sure the dish itself will be in the sunny area, not just the bottom of the pole.
Sure, you could pay for a professional satellite site survey, but the sun will do it for you for free twice a year, so why not take advantage of it?
Related articles
- How To Set Up Dish Network (answers.com)
- The saga continues… Philadelphia ‘dish’ law (managesatellitedishes.wordpress.com)
- Local Communications Expert Shares Thoughts On Philadelphia’s Satellite TV Dish Law (philadelphia.cbslocal.com)
- Satellite dish service WITHOUT a dish! (managesatellitedishes.wordpress.com)
- SatPlus Sat Chair is satellite dish in disguise (gizmag.com)
Robert Coates said
The part you said about some dishes being heated to prevent snow build up, and that you didn’t want to waste electricity when the heating was not needed intrigued me. Is there a power connection for the heater that is separate from the power connection for the dish itself (assuming the dish needs a power connection)? If there is a separate power connection for the heater alone, this device seems like it would fit the bill — a outlet that has a thermostat built into it. The power to the heater would only be on when the outside temperature is below 35 degrees. http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovators-TC-3-Thermostatically-Controlled/dp/B0006U2HD2
michigantelephone said
Robert, that probably would work except that normally the power supply is not waterproof and is kept inside the house, so in order to use something like that you’d probably have to put the power supply outside in some kind of watertight enclosure. But that would still waste a lot of electricity because the power only needs to be on during periods of snowfall (or blowing/drifting snow) — there are a lot of days in a normal winter where it is cold but not snowing, and on such days there’s really no reason to keep the dish heated.
You could connect the power supply to a power bar with a switch (or a remote-controlled outlet of some kind) and turn it on and off manually. I suppose if you had it on a computer controlled power bar (such as a Baytech RPC3-NC, which can be remotely controlled via a telnet connection) you could even write an intelligent program to search for snow in the forecast and only power it up when snow is expected (now THERE would be a programming challenge for someone!).