Advice needed on installer for non-standard satellite dish position

FrankGrimes

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who is looking for advice. House is outside Naas, Co. Kildare and is a standalone house with quite big front and back gardens. Most of the perimeter is surrounded by very high trees on adjoining land (so cutting one not an option).

eir indicated fibre is not an option for this house and indicated broadband would be max 25Mbps so IPTV does not seem a viable option. They are interested in satellite, probably will go for a Sky subscription, but FTA/Saorview setup at a minimum. They had Sky out a couple of years back and they said they could not get a reception due to the high trees blocking signal and they indicated it would take a 30metre pole on top of the roof and they wouldn't look at any other options on the roof as the slope of the roof was too high. Virgin Media indicated the house is not viable for their current products and the legacy cable TV it's on will be cut off in mid-April.

Thought I'd ask the knowledgeable folks on here for any thoughts on how they might get TV (and possibly broadband) into this house? Are there reputable satellite installers that would take more of a problem-solving approach than Sky did and go out and have a look at what options there might be? One thought that came to mind was putting some blocks down at the end of the garden, attaching the dish to those, and running a cable back to the house (approx. 30metres I'd guess, may require power). Thanks for any suggestions, hope it's ok to mention names of installers, but please PM me if not allowed on the forum.

foggy_lad

Here is one guy on adverts.ie who is in Kildare area, he might be close enough to drop by and have a look at the situation.

http://www.adverts.ie/member/1486320

mad turnip

I would find it extremely hard to believe there is no location for a satellite dish on a standalone house, satellite dishes require nearly no line of sight due to the angles in which it operates. A 30m pole, are you kidding? A 1m pole I would consider pretty large for something like this.

Gerry Wicklow

This site may help you decide. Enter your address, select 28.2 Astra and tick 'show obstacle' to get a better idea of directions and heights reqd. They also do a smartphone app that lets you select the required satellite and you can use the phones camera to see where it is in the sky.

FrankGrimes

Thanks. Agree mad_turnip, it does seem a bit odd what they were told. Wasn't in the conversations myself so can't comment on the validity of the points made. My friends are not very techy so it's best that someone in the know from a good satellite installer has a look, and given there's so many operators out there, I thought it best to ask for recommendations from the more experienced people here so they get a good steer.

steveon

mad turnip wrote: »

I would find it extremely hard to believe there is no location for a satellite dish on a standalone house, satellite dishes require nearly no line of sight due to the angles in which it operates. A 30m pole, are you kidding? A 1m pole I would consider pretty large for something like this.

Complete nonsense trees on an adjoining field that are over 30mentres in height and not too far from the house could indeed block the signal..

Dig a trench to end of garden and bury a 6 foot pole into an old tire wheel brace and point dish through the bottom of the trees, clearing any shrubbery in its line of sight could be a potential solution.

UrbanFret

Any chance of posting a few pics of the site. Would help get a better idea of the obstacles blocking line of site. Bear in mind height isn't really neccessary for a satellite dish. Ground mounted dishes work just fine as well.

mass_debater

Can you directly see the sun at 11am, if you can the Astra 28 satellites are just below it

FrankGrimes

Thanks for those pointers. I could try get my friend to take some photos of the site. But they are really quite non-techy and so self-solving isn't really an issue, it's more the case that they need someone in the know and prepared to do the work to survey the site and give them options on what is possible.

E.g. ideally looking for an installer who can advise if running cable in a trench and erecting some form of pole or stack of blocks in the right place to hold the dish is the advised solution, and that they will quote a price for doing that work if so.

So far I just have one link to an installer on Adverts who has only 1 review. Maybe I got it wrong, but I thought this as a busy Satellite forum might have more recommendations for installers who are reputable and can do this kind of work? Reason I think recommendation is important in this case is that it's not your standard installation setup, and also there are so many small installers out there, it's hard to distinguish between those who are reliable and less so. So any PMs would be appreciated if posting recommendations on the forum is not permitted. Thanks.

gerry sat

www.isaa.ie