[Haberle]

Hello all,


I now receive regular DirecTV and am interested in getting an HD receiver. How do I know I have a clear line of sight to those satellites that transmit HD? I have some trees on my property, that's why I won't proceed until I know for sure.


Thanks in advance.

 

[holcomb76]

 directv.com/learn/pdf/12429_00_AntennaManual_1D.pdf

 

[Bill Broderick]

If you buy the receiver from D* and have them install the dish for you, they will do a site inspection. If they can't do the install, they will take the receiver back.


If there is no single location from which you can see all of the satellites, you may be able to do so utilizing multiple dishes. That's the situation at my house. I can see Sats A & C from one location but have a seperate round dish to receive Sat B.

 

[Rick_R]

Wait until the summer and all the trees are full of leaves. If you install in the winter the installer could go away showing you perfect reception. When the leaves come out your reception could go away.


Rick R

 

[litzdog911]

On March 3 and 4 the sun will sweep across the sky along the same arc as the geosynchronous satellites. For New Haven, the sun will appear to shine from the location of DirecTV's 101-deg satellite (Sat A) at 11:09am, from the 110-deg satellite (Sat C) at 11:49am, and from the 119-deg satellite (Sat B) at 12:28pm.


So, to determine where you should mount your satellite dish, go outside at those times and look at your house for spots where there are NO shadows. Those locations should be good satellite dish mounting locations because you'll know the satellite view will not be blocked by trees or other obstructions.


Here's the web site where you can plug your latitude and longitude and find other dates/times where the sun or moon can be used to locate satellite locations. Unfortunately the sun only sweeps across the correct locations twice each year, in March and October.

http://perso.numericable.fr/~gjullien/satellite.htm