Satellite dish pruning

[Pelorus]

Situation where wind blowing limbs causes poor dish reception. (with the understanding that the dish is aimed correctly)
I thought I'd have to climb a maximum of three trees on the property to remove the culprits.
I was wrong, and a 1 to 1 & 1/2 hour estimated job took a whole lot longer, involving more than half a dozen trees.

Wondering if anyone has ever experimented with taping a laser or something to the dish to be able to get a good line-of-sight as to what is causing interference?
I tried sighting along the dish (from the ground) before starting, and would try to line up the dish angle while up the trees, but it seems like a more accurate method might save time & effort.

The laser idea is inspired by Jomoco's cabling thread that NC tree recently posted a link to.
If it is difficult (and it can be, admittedly) to precisely line up a cable strung 20', then the problem is really amplified when the limbs are 100 - 150' or more away from the dish.
There has gotta be a better way to do this than trial and error.

 

[ATH]

150' away shoulnd't be causing much interference...

The laser idea should work

 

[Grouchy old man]

Keep in mind also that Dish and Direct TV dishes (and may others) are offset 15 degrees. That means that if you sight along the center line, the dish is actually receiving it's signal from 15 degrees higher. So if you do the laser thing, aim it up 15 degrees from centerline.

 

[squad143]

Keep in mind also that Dish and Direct TV dishes (and may others) are offset 15 degrees. That means that if you sight along the center line, the dish is actually receiving it's signal from 15 degrees higher. So if you do the laser thing, aim it up 15 degrees from centerline.

I agree.

For Sat. pruning, I'll usually charge by the hour.

Sometimes, no matter how much you prune back, you'll never get 100% signal. Sometimes the customer will have to settle for 80%.

Although I've installed several sattelittes, I try and get out of re-aiming dishes.

 

[treemandan]

Oh crap, I quit... but not before i rip that dish off the roof and drive it up yer ass. I had a friend who installed dishes, we would work for hours cutting then aiming the dish with a meter, breaking out the azimuth, installing dishes in trees, ripping out walls, trying to get more money. Screw that. I got fios, I got my email, I got my pron, I got chevy chase and my AS. What do I care?

All I really know is that some dishes are better than others because I have seen some work fine under trees and some have major interference with the trees being far away. I think it was said best " charge by the hour" cause yer gonna be there for quite a few of them.

 

[imagineero]

I seem to get 4 or 5 of those jobs a year, and they can be a real pain in the butt. I haven't had any with the branches so far away, most times the branches are directly over/in front of the dish. The dishes puncture real easy if they're the mesh type!

I always quote them based on removing specific branches. I can't quote based on signal strength, that would be absurd. If they want more branches done (which they often do) then it's more $.

Shaun

 

[treemandan]

I agree.

For Sat. pruning, I'll usually charge by the hour.

Sometimes, no matter how much you prune back, you'll never get 100% signal. Sometimes the customer will have to settle for 80%.

Although I've installed several sattelittes, I try and get out of re-aiming dishes.

I don't think you can aim a dish without 600.00 worth of equipment.

 

[imagineero]

re-aiming the dish is probably the easy part. I didn't think you could install a satellite unless you had your own spaceship or knew someone high up in the russian military. Maybe china would do it a bit cheaper.

Shaun

 

[treemandan]

re-aiming the dish is probably the easy part. I didn't think you could install a satellite unless you had your own spaceship or knew someone high up in the russian military. Maybe china would do it a bit cheaper.

Shaun

Now I am remembering: you can see the signal strenth on the menu program of the TV and aim the dish accordingly. Trees 100 feet away can cause problems if they are in the line of sight. My friend has a meter that plugs right into the dish that reads signal strength as well. It really wasn't that hard to do if there was a clear line of sight and was pretty cool to do.

Once I was helping him set one up and he crawls out from underneath a counter, his arm was all wet, I was like " that is cat piss dude, can we go now?"

Another time I was laying on the floor messing with a TV, I looked up at the woman sitting on the sofa, looked right up her 400 pound leg and... well, I don't go into people's houses anymore that is fer sure.

Once my wife and I had a dish, it would go out with every thunderstorm. You want to clearcut for a dish? Go ahead, I'll sit and watch.

 

[Pelorus]

Appreciate the replies!
I only get 2-4 calls a year for this, but it is usually way less of a hassle. "Usually" because the owner just says to take the offending tree(s) down, and it is much easier to figure out how long that will take.

Should have realized I was in trouble when I saw the dish pointed out towards a jungle. Pricing this by the hour as some have suggested would have been a good plan. The dish clearing was only part of a larger overall job, and I gave the h/o a fixed estimate for everything.

Don't know if I'll bother getting a laser pointer thingy. I have a quite a collection of gadgets that were "must haves" at the time of purchase (TCIA Expo is bad for that), but are still in a new or like new condition. Wife would prolly kill me if she knew how much actually gets spent. Esp when I grumble about her wanting to replace a 1980's era microwave on the fritz.