# problems seeing some birds from trees



## jonm42 (Apr 27, 2006)

Thanks to the 50+ foot trees in my new back yard, it appears that I cannot see all the needed birds (110, 119, 129) to be able to get a full spectrum of HD programming (I live in Portland, OR). Said trees are directly south of the house, and while we can get 70-80 on 110 and 119, 129 gets a max signal of about 50. Do I need to point at a different bird? 50 sounds low to get any sort of consistent signal. I was thinking of getting the dish 622/1000 installed anyhow, getting one of the metal packages to see HD locals, and using the OTA HD preference instead...

Thoughts and comments requested. Thank you!


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## kf4omc (Apr 11, 2006)

jonm42 said:


> Thanks to the 50+ foot trees in my new back yard, it appears that I cannot see all the needed birds (110, 119, 129) to be able to get a full spectrum of HD programming (I live in Portland, OR). Said trees are directly south of the house, and while we can get 70-80 on 110 and 119, 129 gets a max signal of about 50. Do I need to point at a different bird? 50 sounds low to get any sort of consistent signal. I was thinking of getting the dish 622/1000 installed anyhow, getting one of the metal packages to see HD locals, and using the OTA HD preference instead...
> 
> Thoughts and comments requested. Thank you!


May be cut some branches out for a better signal. Or if an option cut a tree or two down. Just before I had gotten Dish I had a tree in the way but thanks to "Wilma" I don't have to worry about it now. (Just a side note my Landlord had over 100 trees on about 2 acres. Abut 1/3 fell during the storm and destroyed half his building on the property. He removed all the trees before this next storm season. Now no more trees to fall and damage anything.)


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## dave1234 (Oct 9, 2005)

jonm42 said:


> Thanks to the 50+ foot trees in my new back yard, it appears that I cannot see all the needed birds (110, 119, 129) to be able to get a full spectrum of HD programming (I live in Portland, OR). Said trees are directly south of the house, and while we can get 70-80 on 110 and 119, 129 gets a max signal of about 50. Do I need to point at a different bird? 50 sounds low to get any sort of consistent signal. I was thinking of getting the dish 622/1000 installed anyhow, getting one of the metal packages to see HD locals, and using the OTA HD preference instead...
> 
> Thoughts and comments requested. Thank you!


The 129 bird has low signal levels in the Northwest. 50-60 is what I would expect you'd be seeing. Unfortunately that's as good as it's going to get. I've pointed my extra dish to 61.5 instead, but I had to cut down a few trees to get a line of sight as it's so low in the sky. That's probably not an option for you.
Not sure what you've got now, but the DISH 1000 would probably give you an even worse signal.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Place the antenna as far North on the property as possible. All of your signals should be up at least 20 points from where they are at. If you can place the dish at least 60' from the trees, you should be able to clear them.

Then again, if you get a consistently good picture, who cares?


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## jonm42 (Apr 27, 2006)

Unfortunately (or not, depending if you're a tree) cutting off branches is not an option.

As to "low in the sky", how low is low? Do I need to chop down the house next door? See the horizon?

As to what I have now, this is a new house with no dish installed, so I have no idea what a different config would give me.

Wild hair question -- would getting an LNB with a lower noise floor for the 129 bird help any? Are there compatible ones?

Thanks!


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## dave1234 (Oct 9, 2005)

jonm42 said:


> Unfortunately (or not, depending if you're a tree) cutting off branches is not an option.
> 
> As to "low in the sky", how low is low? Do I need to chop down the house next door? See the horizon?
> 
> ...


My understanding is a bigger dish would work. Apparently there are 30" dishes available that will accept a dish pro LNB. I have read others have had success with that approach.

Lower in the sky(for sat. 61.5) is 12 degrees above the horizon. You may well have to "adjust" your neighbors house to get that low.  

Hopefully Dish will address this issue(low 129 signal levels) in the future. That would be the best scenario in your case.

I've also heard rumors of a Dish1000 version 2.0 that's bigger, that could help also.


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

dave1234 said:


> My understanding is a bigger dish would work. Apparently there are 30" dishes available that will accept a dish pro LNB. I have read others have had success with that approach.
> 
> Lower in the sky is 12 degrees above the horizon. You may well have to "adjust" your neighbors house to get that low.
> 
> ...


129 is 42 degrees above the horizon for a Portland, Or dish. So there should be no problem with trees unless they are quiet close to the house.


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## dave1234 (Oct 9, 2005)

whatchel1 said:


> 129 is 42 degrees above the horizon for a Portland, Or dish. So there should be no problem with trees unless they are quiet close to the house.


Regarding height above horizon I was discussing 61.5. I neglected to mention that in my last reply.


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## jonm42 (Apr 27, 2006)

Does anyone know of a compatible 30" dish? (Or the dimensions of the 1000, for that matter?) Does bigger really equal better for this? Thanks!


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## dave1234 (Oct 9, 2005)

jonm42 said:


> Does anyone know of a compatible 30" dish? (Or the dimensions of the 1000, for that matter?) Does bigger really equal better for this? Thanks!


Try asking one of the posters on this thread:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=58941

They are in Hawaii which requires at least a 30" dish.


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## hankmack (Feb 8, 2006)

jonm42 said:


> Thanks to the 50+ foot trees in my new back yard, it appears that I cannot see all the needed birds (110, 119, 129) to be able to get a full spectrum of HD programming (I live in Portland, OR). Said trees are directly south of the house, and while we can get 70-80 on 110 and 119, 129 gets a max signal of about 50. Do I need to point at a different bird? 50 sounds low to get any sort of consistent signal. I was thinking of getting the dish 622/1000 installed anyhow, getting one of the metal packages to see HD locals, and using the OTA HD preference instead...
> 
> Thoughts and comments requested. Thank you!


Are the trees going to grow much taller? If so the problem may worse as it did for me. Finally I bite the bullet and had 5 trees (out of 50 Plus) cut. Signal is great now, no more needles and leaves on my roof, and my garden loves the additional sunlight. And now I can see the forest!


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## blkhouse (Jan 18, 2005)

hankmack said:


> Are the trees going to grow much taller? If so the problem may worse as it did for me. Finally I bite the bullet and had 5 trees (out of 50 Plus) cut. Signal is great now, no more needles and leaves on my roof, and my garden loves the additional sunlight. And now I can see the forest!


That would be nice if we could, but we have the same problem and the trees belong to my neighbor. I don't think we could even get 129, it is hard enough to get the other two. My husband built a box which pushed the dish out away from the house and eaves, but high enough to get through.

You could get a tower for your backyard (I saw them at www.solidsignal.com). I threatened to do that once, but that is really expensive. Maybe that is why DISH isn't that popular in the wooded areas of the Pacific Northwest.

Our specific problem is Douglas Firs which fortunately are not dense trees and often fall down on our neighbor's property because they don't stand very well in the wind.


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## jonm42 (Apr 27, 2006)

As far as I can tell from reading http://www.dbstalk.com/ekb/Adding 61-5 dish.htm I should be able to hook a DP Dual to a dish500. Any info to the contrary appreciated. (I'm trying to see if splitting the 129 off my dish1000 will work since I have a spare 500 sitting around.) Thanks.


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## nazz (May 4, 2006)

> problems seeing some birds from trees


You're probably scaring the birds away ... get out of the tree.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

whatchel1 said:


> 129 is 42 degrees above the horizon for a Portland, Or dish. So there should be no problem with trees unless they are quiet close to the house.


On my home planet, Earth, 129W is only 37.2 degrees above the horizon as viewed from Portland. At my home, just South of the 45th parallel, the angle is 37.88.

The place where the Seahawks play has a look elevation of 34.93 at 129W


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

dave1234 said:


> Regarding height above horizon I was discussing 61.5. I neglected to mention that in my last reply.


The angle from the Rose Quarter would be 11.3 degrees.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

jonm42 said:


> As far as I can tell from reading http://www.dbstalk.com/ekb/Adding 61-5 dish.htm I should be able to hook a DP Dual to a dish500. Any info to the contrary appreciated. (I'm trying to see if splitting the 129 off my dish1000 will work since I have a spare 500 sitting around.) Thanks.


There are some issues with figuring out how to point a single horn on a dual horn dish. Otherwise, it would work fine.


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## jonm42 (Apr 27, 2006)

harsh said:


> There are some issues with figuring out how to point a single horn on a dual horn dish. Otherwise, it would work fine.


I was going to use an I adaptor, then a professional installer. Should that work?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

jonm42 said:


> I was going to use an I adaptor, then a professional installer. Should that work?


The direction will be a few degrees off unless you're using a single horn adapter. It should not be a problem as most people can't line up the dish that closely anyway.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

harsh said:


> There are some issues with figuring out how to point a single horn on a dual horn dish. Otherwise, it would work fine.


If you're using the "Y" adapter and a single Dual LNB you need to point a few degrees off. I had a Twin LNB available so I just used that (and let the second half of the LNB point off into space). Both my 61.5° and 129° dishes are D500's with DP Twins ... not too hard to find a signal.

If he's got the straight "I" adapter for the D500 and a single Dual LNB then he can just point it like a D300 ... straight at the satellite desired with no skew needed.


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## jerryez (Nov 15, 2002)

Remember that straight at the satellite is for the lnb and not the dish. The dish is pointed well below the satellite. An easy way to remember is that 90 degrees is straight up, O degrees is ground level. So point your arm straight up and halfway to the ground is 45 degrees and half way between 45 and 0 is 22.5 degrees, etc.


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