Wind

[EKGEKH]

I have just suffered two days with an unwatchable VAST service on the SA West coast. The weather has been atrocious with strong to gale force winds. This leads to my first question, is it the wind moving my satellite dish around that causes the problems or is it the weather in general? Secondly, I am in the process of building a new house. this gives me the opportunity to put the dish in the roof space with a clear panel above it. Does anyone have experience with or any knowledge of installing a satellite dish behind a transparent roof panel?

[mtv]

I have just suffered two days with an unwatchable VAST service on the SA West coast. The weather has been atrocious with strong to gale force winds. This leads to my first question, is it the wind moving my satellite dish around that causes the problems or is it the weather in general? Secondly, I am in the process of building a new house. this gives me the opportunity to put the dish in the roof space with a clear panel above it. Does anyone have experience with or any knowledge of installing a satellite dish behind a transparent roof panel?

If your dish is moving in the wind, yes, that can cause signal loss, depending how well it (and the LNB) was aligned initially and how much it moves.

What size is your dish?

It doesn't take much to upset signals on dishes smaller than 75cm for VAST.

I wouldn't recommend placing your dish behind anything.

That would more than likely deflect/refract some of the signal and any moisture/water/dust/leaves/bird crap etc would add to the signal loss.

There are commercial solutions, but very expensive.

If frequent strong winds are a problem in your area, consider placing a deflection shield beside the dish on the side of the prevailing wind direction.

[EKGEKH]

The dish is the standard size that comes with the Government subsidy. You could see it moving in the strong winds. When the wind backed off and the rain came down, the picture was 100% again. I am building on a hill on the coast in an area prone to very strong winds. Putting the dish in the roof space would solve a host of problems. It would be out of the wind and the elements and safe from becoming a bird perch. Future access would also be easier or at least safer, allowing me to be inside the roof and not clambering about outside. I'll try and gauge whether everyone was experiencing signal loss in the high wind or just me.

[mkhannah]

Depending on the size and outlook of your land maybe a larger solid dish not too far off the ground might be another option, somewhere in the garden.

[EKGEKH]

I'll keep researching and post my question in the general satellite forum. I find that all the new dishes on everyone's rooftops to be a real blight on the landscape although I guess that they are not that much different to TV antennas. If the roof space is an option, then I'd like to go down that route.

[gordon_s1942]

EKGKH, read up on how tiny the incoming signal is and how see ANY covering reduces the signal to the LNB.
While you may not see it, materials like Glass can be ' Radio Opaque' and reduce or block entirely the incoming signal.
Lead is often used in glass as is fine metal filings and metal is a blocker to a radio frequency.
Just consider that around the World there must be literally Hundreds of Millions of Dishs in use and if doing what you consider was practicable, someone would have done it by now and be making millions from it.
A dish is a totally different design to a FTA TV antenna that has to capture a signal coming over 30,000 kms to reach your dish at 3 or more times the frequency of a TV signal.
Originally most LNB's both C and Ku had no 'covers' over the front but due to the aperture proving a home to a myriad of critters which was hard to keep cleaning out, covers are now used.
Twice In the last week I have lost both VAST and Austar/Foxtel due to snow and heavy rains for around 10 minutes which makes that the third time this year.
mkhannahs suggestion is well worth considering BUT you WILL lose the signal occasionally because that's the nature of Satellite Signals.

[hoe]

yes, you can do it using perspex (from personal experience).....

you will lose a fair bit of signal depending on the thickness and angle of perspex, so I would try at least a 120cm dish....

I wouldn't bother personally, but I did it for a friend who lives in a complex in the city that doesn't allow sat dishes.

[nbound]

Make sure dish is well aligned and firmly attached to roof,
or...
ground/wall mount the dish away from winds.

A larger dish will also help, but may exacerbate the wind issue


As hoe has stated above it is possible to do (though ive never seen anyone bother), and you will need a much larger dish [many roofspaces would have trouble fitting a 120cm dish, especially if the roof frame isnt perpendicular to the satellite]. Passing through any medium will attenuate and diffract some of the signal away. Id just go with an esier option personally.

[transit]

I have an NBN satellite broadband dish [Gilat] and I am told that it is a made from a stainless steel mesh embedded into some sort of plastic. Surely they would use a radio transparent plastic as it works really well. Also, the ODU that the signal down my end is transmitted from is covered in plastic. My guess is that something like polycarbonate [eg Laserlite] would not absorb any measurable amount of signal.

As Gordon notes some glasses might not work -- my solar panels are covered with iron-free glass suggesting that most normal glass has some iron in it. I reckon that this might absorb a bit of signal.

[viewer]

I would also suggest the ground pole method.Place it in an area out of the wind and run your RG6 underground to where you need the cable to enter your building.

You can also spray paint your dish to camouflage (??) / blend it into the environment to avoid it's ugliness that you refer to.

[mtv]

Firstly, there is NO standard size that comes with the Government subsidy.

The size of dish installed is up to the installer, so it's possible you only have a 65cm dish (Eg: same size as Foxtel/Austar mostly use).

If a 65cm dish is wobbling around in the wind, then it has been poorly installed, is of poor quality, or both.

Many cheap pressed-metal dishes can flex considerably and these are often used by 'cheap' installers.

For VAST, I wouldn't recommend a dish smaller than 85cm.

I didn't go into options of covering dishes before, but I have covered several commercial dishes, both terrestrial microwave and satellite, but with fibreglass radomes specifically designed for the purpose.

Dishes used on ships is a good example.

There is some signal loss with any covering and there are plastics/fibreglass specifically designed for use with RF.

The thin RF-transparent panel needs to be much larger than the dish, so as not to pick up stray reflections from the sides.

You may need a panel of 2 metres or more diameter.

Don't forget the LNB arm, which will require the dish to be placed back some distance from the panel.

The panel needs to match the angle of the dish, so its surface is parallel.

If you have a metal roof or a tiled roof with foil insulation, there may be interference to the received signals.

As I pointed out before, you would need some method of keeping the panel clean.

You will also be required to comply with building codes for your area, of which many are now very stringent in regard to fire safety.

Having such a panel in a home roof would probably not comply, so check your local building requlations.

Will it resist ember attack?

Will it resist hail?

How will it prevent heat from entering your ceiling space? etc, etc.

A deflection shield or relocating the dish to a more-sheltered location would be a better option.

[newy1234]

I have just suffered two days with an unwatchable VAST service on the SA West coast. The weather has been atrocious with strong to gale force winds. This leads to my first question, is it the wind moving my satellite dish around that causes the problems or is it the weather in general? Secondly, I am in the process of building a new house. this gives me the opportunity to put the dish in the roof space with a clear panel above it. Does anyone have experience with or any knowledge of installing a satellite dish behind a transparent roof panel?

Next time you have some bad weather, check the signal strength in the advanced options menu in the UEC set top box. This is a tool you can use to compare the signal when the weather is good to when the weather is bad.

You should take note of what the levels are when the weather is good and keep those readings for future reference.

[EKGEKH]

I am getting much varied information. I have a second thread running on the general satellite forum so I am also getting opinions from there. Typically, just when I think that I know what to do, someone drops a bombshell and I am back to square one. I wish that someone would say "yes I have done that and this is how" but unfortunately that is not the case. At this point, it doesn't look like a goer but if I can get hold of o polycarbonate roof sheet and drape it over my current installation, I will have real information.

[mtv]

I am getting much varied information. I have a second thread running on the general satellite forum so I am also getting opinions from there. Typically, just when I think that I know what to do, someone drops a bombshell and I am back to square one. I wish that someone would say "yes I have done that and this is how" but unfortunately that is not the case. At this point, it doesn't look like a goer but if I can get hold of o polycarbonate roof sheet and drape it over my current installation, I will have real information.

Perhaps you could tell yourself what you want to hear then.

[knowabit1]

I been to a few pubs & people's houses where their terrestrial & sat signals dropout with just a bit of wind and or a little bit of spit.

Does not matter what you do if it is a poor install

[Godzilla]

If the signal is lost due to wind, what is moving, the pole with the dish or the pole is rigidly mounted and the dish is moving?

Maybe a simple inspection of the work performed, the pole may not have been rigidly mounted, maybe a weak cheap thin pole was used that flexes, maybe some of the dish mount u bolts were not tightened correctly.

The dish has some flex in it, it should spring back, a larger dish will help you with a stronger signal however will also catch more wind, if going towards a larger dish make sure the pole is strong or braced for extra support.

Im questioning if the dish setup has been optimized for max signal, wind is less of a concern compared to rain which is a pain in the arse.

[EKGEKH]

The reception at my current place has proven, so far, to be unaffected by heavy rain. The offending wind was well over 20 knots but that strength of wind is not uncommon. The installation is solid with a large diameter pole and two solid stays. It might be possible to stop the dish moving in such strong winds but it would take a lot more bracing to do it. Putting the dish in the roof space of my new house during construction is an elegant solution, if it works.

[mtv]

There's been plenty of good advice, including suggestions from those who have covered dishes previously.

You need to treat the cause, not the symptom.

Simply by ensuring the dish mount and the dish itself are of good quality, the correct size for the intended use and installed correctly, will minimise any movement.

Likewise with LNB optimisation.

If this was a government subsidised installation, explain your problem to the installer and have them rectify it.

Good luck with them, as I've seen a lot of shoddy work performed by some of these government 'endorsed installers'.

[weirdo]

I sometimes have problems with wind too
But it's more the brown out related type

[transit]

The offending wind was well over 20 knots but that strength of wind is not uncommon. The installation is solid with a large diameter pole and two solid stays.

Something is not right here. My dish is subject to winds up to and sometimes exceeding 100 km/h and presents no problem.