Satellite TV signal behind trees

November 11, 2005

satellite tv dishSomeone emailed me about his satellite TV problem not being able to penetrate some trees. He writes, "I have a line of trees behind my house and the sky engineer says its not poss for me to ever get satellite. ...surely this isn't the case? Do you know of a product I can purchase to solve my problem?"

I'm not sure I know myself the solution to satellite signal issues when the satellite dish is behind a line of trees, however I know I have seen houses with satellite dishes that were partially and even completely obstructed by trees. I recall one house where I saw a huge oak tree directly in the line of site of the satellite dishm yet somehow they were obviously receiving a satellite television signal. Maybe the satellite signal is able to penetrate through gaps in the leaves? My house is actually obstructed by some trees and I've been contemplating signing up for satellite TV, so I need to find out the answer myself. I used to have DirectTV many moons ago. It was the best satellite provider back then, but I know Dish Network has gained on them. Will have to compare the two.

Anyone know the answer to the satellite tree issue? How much obstruction can you have and still get a strong signal?

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Comments to Satellite TV signal behind trees


  1. Aris :
    November 12, 2005 5:33 AM

    Most of the smaller dishes are what are known as offset dishes. This is a more efficient design than a prime-focus dish (at least for dishes smaller than about 1.2m). With an offset dish, the dish is not pointing directly at the satellite, but is slightly offset, so the dish might look like it is pointed at a wall (or tree), but in fact is has a clear line of sight.

    Here is a picture so you get the idea:

    http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/Antenna/offset_dish.gif

    The reason why it is more efficient for smaller dishes than a prime-focus is that with a prime-focus, the LNB masks too much of the received signal, whereas with an offset dish, though a less efficient way of focusing radio waves, the LNB masks less of the received signal.


  1. Rhonda :
    December 7, 2005 10:40 AM

    We just had a guy from Dishnetwork come out to our house today and said that a dish could not be installed because of all of the trees around our home and that there is no clear path to receive a signal. The home next door has Dishnetwork and the home behind us does too so I don't understand why, but he had a little gadget and to measure with and said it couldn't be done.


  1. Subir Sinha :
    January 9, 2006 2:47 AM

    I had a guy this morning to fix the problem of receiving signals at a particular angle(different longitude) as the dish was rotating to different positions but was either unable to receive or convert EMW signals to electric signals. The guy told me the same story about the ability to receive signals which are basically weak and cannot penetrate through the trees. But my question is that having small wave length and high frequency, why can't these waves pass through between the leaves or branches of the trees? They should be able to diffract and reach the dishn unless the diffraction is too larg or the dish is too small in size. But the swinging branches of the tree or leaves may create interference pattern of the downlink signals which the existing mechanism of the dish may not be able to polarize the components of the EMW. Therefore, the signals cannot be received properly or at all.
    My dish can receive signals from different satellites that is spread across at different angle over Australia but the one that is close to the horizon is possing the problem.The signals from the existing satellites close to the zenith should not be difficult to receive even if they are weak.


  1. Richard :
    March 20, 2006 8:10 AM

    In stay in a apartment now and i getting Directv . But I will be moving to another apartment but i will only a view of the north side can i still get a Satellite signal from Directv or Dishnetwork ?


  1. Mark :
    August 26, 2006 12:04 PM

    I Just got DIRECTV installed at home. switched from time warner cable. I live in a heavily wooded area. some trees have to be about 100 feet tall and there are lots surrounding our secluded home. The back area of the house faces the southern sky and it has about an acre of woods with sort of a canopy look of the sky, not a very good view of the sky at all. Installation guy came out and even though he said the new satellites are pretty strong and can shoot through some trees, we could not find signal better than 45-55 anywhere in the vicinity of the house. It helped having a cool installation tech. He explained everything to me, and told me every option.
    We eventually walked around the acre of woods back there and found a nice open area, which i didnt think would work. He took out his meter reader, and that was the end. We found a really strong signal reading at 90. The way the trees were growing it didnt look like they would ever be a problem. Take it it was pretty far away from our house on the property, maybe 200+ feet. He did some custom work (not included in the standard installation) longer cables, pole installation, etc. Said it would run me about $175. I told him $150 and i would go ahead and get the job done. (DIRECTV was having a 150 cashback promotion anyways) So he came back and finished the work that same night for the price i negotiated. The dude was determined to make it work for me. I had already accepted the fact that I was not going have satellite tv, which to me meant spending more money going out to a restaurant bar to watch the football games.
    Well, I have DIRECTV with dvr, nfl sunday ticket, and I love it. So, if you live in a wooded area, dont give up. Walk around and see if you can find any view of the sky somewhere on your property. The fact that my dish is on a long cable does not affect the picture quality at all, and if it ever does, ill just pick up an amp for 20 bucks.
    The tech even called directv installation dept after he installed and got me a $75 dollar credit in addition to the $150 cash back, so i ended up paying 75 for making it happen in an almost impossible property. Well worth it.
    alright, good luck. I have some tv to watch.


  1. Dan :
    November 11, 2006 8:39 AM

    You said that you used to have DTV ... Then it must be working .
    I lived in an apartment and my lanlord does not allows any dish on the roof, so i tried to place it inside, behind a stucco wall and it does work. Amazing !
    I tried it bedind a glass windows but it didn't work.


  1. K.W.D Darshan Ruwan Suresh :
    April 17, 2007 12:32 PM

    place give me satellite signal finding transmitter and satellite equipment and dooks infomation receiver.


  1. Carlisle :
    April 21, 2007 2:22 PM

    My apartment does'nt allow satellite on the outside of the building, I'm trying to set it up inside, which may not work, My question is, what is the least amount of signal you need for the satellite to work?


  1. Ryan :
    May 27, 2007 11:32 PM

    I have dish network and they installed dish on the roof before the leaves on a nearby tree had grown. Before the leaves grew I had a signal strength of about 95 on 119 and 105 on 110. Decent signal strength. After the leaves grew, I now have a signal strength of 0-80 on 119 (which is awful, I wouldn't accept anything less than 90 on 119 and 100 on 110). This causes the signal to go in and out on 119 which is the core satellite. Yuck. Some leaves caused all the problems with 119. However, 110 never had any issues. I think 110 is on a different satellite. Looks like the direct tv core satellite. So, I think I will cancel the dish network since they hire installers who don't know what they are doing.


  1. Kristy :
    June 4, 2007 12:11 PM

    Looks like I can relate with you Ryan, we had 2 Dish Network techs to come out here Saturday to install, the first thing they said was the trees might be an issue. There's a line of them in our backyard. They went out to the road and got out there signal meter and then made a phone call. They came back inside and broke the bad news. Said that they weren't getting a signal and would hate to hook it up and it not work. He mentioned calling Direct Tv since they have higher signals and more signal satellites than Dish Network, he also gave me a phone number to call someone else from Dish Network to come out here and over look. I think they may have found a signal or more solutions if they had tried. So, I called Direct Tv and I asked the man would the satellite HAVE to point to the southern sky and he said NO, it was a RUMOR and asked where people were hearing that from, I told him that it was on the website and he said hmmmm. I don't know why he would lie to me and have the techs to come all the way out here Wednesday knowing that they may not get a signal..but Direct Tv do have more signals but every website I've gone to says that the dish has to point southwest, southeast, for me southwest since I live on the east coast.

    My neighbor has a dish and his yard is full of trees, front and back, both sides, looks like he lives pretty much in the woods. And they have a dish, so I'm thinking I can get a dish installed if they can. My cousin has direct tv and he installed it himself and his was pointing towards trees and he got a signal just fine when he thought he wouldn't be able to get one. He hasn't had a problem with them.

    I really hope that the techs that come here Wednesday from Direct Tv are more willing to try than the Dish Network techs, I don't want them to just go out there and give up if they can't find one right off the bat! It makes me mad when they don't at least try!


  1. Kristy :
    June 6, 2007 12:23 PM

    Direct Tv came yesterday, this tech was a lot better than the two guys from Dish Network..he was really cool and when he couldn't find a signal in the front yard, he helped us come up with a solution which was clearing out some weeds and bushes that leads to a clear spot behind our house, it's a wooded area but there's a clear shot of the sky and he said it would be a golden view so we had to rescheudule an appt for Monday to give us time to clear out the weeds and stuff did all of that yesterday and now we have a clear shot of the southern sky for the satellite to be installed Monday.

    So, if you do live in a place that is surrouned with trees and blocking the southern sky, don't give up because there's always something that can work out. I honestly didn't think we stood a chance. But you can make it happen...so don't give up.


  1. Mike Baker :
    September 2, 2007 9:14 PM

    I subscribe to Sky Angel (a Christian TV network of channels that piggy backs off the DISH satellite). A few months ago I lost my signal and can't seem to get it back. To make a long question short: should I be able to find the signal and lock on to it even if Sky Angel inadvertently cut me off?


  1. Bill :
    September 9, 2007 10:07 AM

    I have an interesting story. About 10 years ago i bought a directv dish from Circuit City. (back then you could install yourself, i don't think they like that now) so i installed it myself. "facing into trees" It worked just fine for 2 years, doing work to myhouse and wanting to try cable again i took it down. about a month ago, i ordered Directv from the internet wanting the huge savings with sunday ticket. order in , install date set !!! Saturday morning was the scheduled day. I live in Virginia Beach , Virginia. So Friday before at 4pm Mastec, the contractor for directv called me saying we don't have enough employees to handle the workload, could we reschedule your install for the following monday. I said i had done alot of planning for that sat and couldn't do it. They didn't like that answer , said Well, ok then, guess we will send someone out anyway, Sat morning. So , Tech arrives, looks at his compass and says , no signal, sorry but we can't do the install. i was like that fast. I asked him to walk around my property, he did. But he also had the aditude of wanting to leave. He called his supervisor , explained trees in the way, he asked me if i would like to have the supervisor come out and give me a second opinion. I said of course, Sunday ticket is what i want.....I was like we can find a way . Well, the Supervisor never came out, i never got a call. I just now called Directv back and we are waiting for that second opinion to come out and visit our property. so, We will see where this goes.


  1. Satellite TV :
    September 17, 2007 9:38 AM

    We had that problem at my buddy's house with a DirecTV dish..We didn't know what it was at first but then we figured it was the huge palm tree blocking it...We cut some leaves off and it started working properly...


  1. Glass :
    September 18, 2007 5:55 PM

    Can i successfully have the direct tv guy set it up inside the apartment in my computer room facing out of a window?


  1. phil :
    October 26, 2007 3:57 PM

    Do you know of a product I can purchase to solve my problem?"
    A chainsaw =)


  1. MARCO :
    December 9, 2007 7:08 AM

    Hi

    I have usually alligned satellite everywhere but now I am pretty sure it won't be the case as my balcony is facing the north.
    I can get a bracket but I would like to know how much distance i need from the baclony to the wall to have a bit of signal.
    The building is 2 floor and I live on the first.

    Thanks


  1. scott :
    January 27, 2008 12:42 AM

    I had two Dish Network techs do the same to me. Came out to the house and said that trees were a problem and they couldn't get a signal anywhere in the front except out on the road. I did not understand because The way it is situated that would mean the signal could then be accessed on top of my roof. After noticing some houses in my area surrounded by woods of 100 ft. trees that had dishes, I went to a local DirectTV provider for a second opinion. He agreed that the Dish Network techs "don't typically try too hard" to get a signal. Upon arriving at my house the local provider found a great signal within 30 seconds right beside my house. We are scheduling an install this week. We lived at our new home for three years using rabbit ears with terrible reception under the assumption we were just out of luck for tv. I'll never deal with those DishNetwork morons again!


  1. Lee :
    February 16, 2008 11:10 AM

    Yes it can be done lot easier than one think, far too much to post here:

    http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellite/digital-systems/115646-digital-satellite-indoors-oh-yes.html

    The reason for all this, I saw going over the chippy this van satellite, so on.
    Did motions of wind down your window and asked the young lad and guy in the driving seat eating away if possible to get satellite in your bedroom, both say no chance, words to that effect.

    I think in truth, they either don't know themselves, bit like evolution lie, or they know and don't want you to know the truth.

    Think, if they agreed yes it can easily be got, how many could just put s simple minidish inside and not pay them to come and put it on the house outside, money lost right.

    However having said all that, trial and error and you can get 15 to 20% less signal inside compared to out, but some are that strong, no worries.


  1. Marvin Schafer :
    April 7, 2008 1:00 AM

    For direct tv you need a clear view of 220 degrees on the compass and 40 degrees elevation if you want hidef with dtv you will need 30 degrees elevation and 240 on the compass and you will be able to get some hidef programming. If you have this on you and live in virginia you can get dtv it is a little different in each state if you call and can get through to tech support person they can give you the angles for your state. As for installing inside and appartment through a window you can do it but it has to be a single plane glass and very few installs will do it.


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