Help Pointing relocated dish ( Hopper 3)

[plumerman2003]

I had to relocate my dish about 3 feet lower on the wall of my house because of some new tree growth. Now I can't get a signal at all. Need some help. I can't find the "point dish" on the hopper 3 menu.

 

[JSheridan]

You can access the signal meter by pressing the Home button 3 times and then select #3 Dish.

 

[plumerman2003]

Thanks. Now i can see the signal strength which is 0. I used dish pointer to aim at sat 72 and with the elevation and azimuth shown, but it still is zero. no branches in the way. i don't understand why I'm not getting a signal at all.

 

[boba]

Thanks. Now i can see the signal strength which is 0. I used dish pointer to aim at sat 72 and with the elevation and azimuth shown, but it still is zero. no branches in the way. i don't understand why I'm not getting a signal at all.

Maybe you should call DISH for a service call, that isn't a TV antenna you can just point in the general direction. It needs to be aimed at a van sized satellite 22,300 miles above the equator.

 

[dishnet_tech]

You moved the dish lower? To get under new bottom growth?

Sent from my SM-G920V using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[plumerman2003]

You moved the dish lower? To get under new bottom growth?

Sent from my SM-G920V using the SatelliteGuys app!

The tree that is now causing me problems with the new growth doesn't a lot of branches lower, mainly higher up like 30' above the ground

 

[dishnet_tech]

So you meant you moved the antenna higher on the wall?

Sent from my SM-G920V using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[plumerman2003]

So you meant you moved the antenna higher on the wall?

Sent from my SM-G920V using the SatelliteGuys app!

No, I lowered it so the los would have minimal interference with the branches/leaves of the tree. Originally it was maybe 8' off the ground, now its 5'. Probably just going to try getting a line meter and if that doesn't work, get a service call put in. The problem was I was losing signal on almost every channel and the only ones that were still working some were my locals.

 

[dishnet_tech]

Ok. I guess I'm not understanding how lowering the antenna rather than raising it would help if you were having signal issues due to new tree growth at the top.

Sent from my SM-G920V using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[rvvaquero]

The tree that is now causing me problems with the new growth doesn't a lot of branches lower, mainly higher up like 30' above the ground

Am I understanding you correctly, you lowered the dish to get line of sight below some new growth? You do realize that the signal comes in from above where the actual dish is physically pointing?

 

[plumerman2003]

Have technician coming out Monday. I put the dish back to original location, cut more limbs down, now get signal of 44 from Sat 61.5 and nothing from Sat 72. Neighbor has same setup as me and also has a tree in front of his dish, no problems for him. At least i can watch some channels, not all in sd

 

[Foxbat]

Do you have a smartphone? It might be well worth your time and money to get the DishPointer AR App so you can locate the Dish satellites in the sky.

I don't know that the Pro version gives you anything extra that the Augmented Reality basic version does.

 

[Brussam]

Dishpointer may show you holes in the tress but what are you pointing with? The dish arm does not represent the signal path to the satellite.

 

[Brussam]

Dishpointer may show you holes in the tress but what are you pointing with? The dish arm does not represent the signal path to the satellite.

 

[Foxbat]

If you position the phone with the App at the location of the dish, you should be able to determine if the satellites are behind the tree or if lowering the dish by a few feet was enough to shoot under the tree.

Long time ago, I had my dish on the side of my house, and the maple in the SW corner of my house grew up enough to cause reception problems when the wind kicked up. I had to relocate to the roof edge on the north side of my house to shoot over the trees. Eventually I switched to EA and the trees were no longer an issue.

My response about the App may not work, though, since it hasn't been updated (at least on the Apple App Store) since 2011. But if you can get a sense for where the satellites actually are in the sky (and like you said, the arm does not point at a satellite but somewhere between the two or three satellites). It may be the side of the house is not the best place in the long term for the OP's dish.

 

[stardust3]

I've seen big trees where the signal was coming in below the branches. Can relate to what the op is trying to say.

Hopefully the tech will get your signal issues fixed.

 

[pattykay]

My response about the App may not work, though, since it hasn't been updated (at least on the Apple App Store) since 2011.

Well, the orbital slots are geostationary, so they shouldn't have moved very much since then.

I've seen big trees where the signal was coming in below the branches. Can relate to what the op is trying to say.

I agree. I am pretty sure that my sister's dish is aimed through below the tree branches. The pole-mounted dish is pretty low to the ground. She has a small yard in an apartment complex, and that was the only place she could get LOS, since they do not allow mounting dishes on the roof or walls.

 

[plumerman2003]

Tech arrived today and moved my dish to another location on my house, no tree in the way now. He told me previous installers should have not located the dish there in the first place. The previous location had worked for a while because the dish was low to the ground, and kind of pointed below the branches. Now if my town can finish the fiber optic lines in the street in the next few months so i can dump comcast blast internet for 100gb service!

 

[rcpandr]

most people don't realize that the satellite signal comes from higher than where the dish is "pointing".

 

[pattykay]

View attachment 126198 most people don't realize that the satellite signal comes from higher than where the dish is "pointing".

Yep, I found that out the hard way when we aimed our first Directv dish, in a situation similar to the OP: trying to aim through below the branches of a big Maple tree. The advantage of aiming through below the branches is that when the lower branches grow enough to start blocking the signal, they are easier to reach and trim back to get the signal back. If you are aiming above a tall tree, and it grows enough to block the signal, it is very hard to fix unless you hire someone to trim the top of the tree, or remove the tree completely which is what we eventually did. If the offending tree is on someone else's property, then the situation gets even trickier.