Satellite Dish

[lotus eater]

I will be taking over a house where I intend to also take over a ubc satellite dish connected to a reception box device upstairs. I’ve agreed a sum of money for the dish to be left behind. But I will need to have it moved, and my questions are:

1.

Will someone be able to easily and cheaply move it for me to another place much further away from its present one? Would this cost me more than a nominal amount of money (say 500 baht) involving as it would expertize, labour, time and extra wiring etc.

2.

Is there a lot of flexibility in the direction the dish must point? Upwards I know – but east, west, north & south? Initially I assumed no, but the neighbour has his dish pointing virtually in the opposite direction.

3.

Can I hide the dish behind trees or a car port without worrying about reception of signal etc.? And would greater distance from the box to the dish, ie a much longer wire affect the reception?

If the answers to these questions are not encouraging I must renegotiate the price I discussed for the dish, or even call off the deal. I couldn’t get completely consistent answers at the time, and hence I ask here – hoping someone has the expertize or experience to give me accurate, disinterested info. I’d appreciate it.

l-e

[sumrit]

I will be taking over a house where I intend to also take over a ubc satellite dish connected to a reception box device upstairs. I’ve agreed a sum of money for the dish to be left behind. But I will need to have it moved, and my questions are:

1.

Will someone be able to easily and cheaply move it for me to another place much further away from its present one? Would this cost me more than a nominal amount of money (say 500 baht) involving as it would expertize, labour, time and extra wiring etc.

Idon't know what the cost would be in Thailand. In the UK it would probably be £50-70, defnding on the work involved.

2.

Is there a lot of flexibility in the direction the dish must point? Upwards I know – but east, west, north & south? Initially I assumed no, but the neighbour has his dish pointing virtually in the opposite direction.

the dish must be accurately aligned to point at the satelite you want to receive signals from. If a neighbour's dish is pointing in another direction he's picking up signals from a different satelite.

3.

Can I hide the dish behind trees or a car port without worrying about reception of signal etc.? And would greater distance from the box to the dish, ie a much longer wire affect the reception?

The dish must have an uninterupted 'line of sight' view of the satelite. If there's anything in the way you will receive no, or at best a distorted, signal. Generaly speaking the longer the cable the more it reduces the signal strength. You'll need to get a qualified person in to tell you if the distance is excessive.

[lotus eater]

Many thanks for your replies to my questions. The info is discouraging but very helpful that I know now. I can't get qualified on the spot advice because I'm out of Thailand right now. So I'll have to go on what you say.

At present the dish is on the grass more or less directly below the upstairs window. I would want it moved to a place some 30 yards further away - so the present length of cable would be about quadrupled in length, at least.

Secondly, you imply that even a tree's branches interfering with the clear 'sight' will affect the signal.

And the cost suggested to me was the equivalent of under £10 all-in. Which seems an understimate even for Thailand based on your english costs. But I'll wait a bit to see if someone else chimes in before I take the decision.

[ballbreaker]

Moving it will not be a problem but finding someone to perform that task might unless you contact UBC to have it done. In any case it must have an unobstructed view of Thaicom 3 satellite.

On second thought it might not be a UBC dish since you mention it is on the ground. What size dish are you talking about? A UBC dish is usually only 60cm or so in diameter. Is yours 2-3 meters in diameter?

[roietjimmy]

I will be taking over a house where I intend to also take over a ubc satellite dish connected to a reception box device upstairs. I've agreed a sum of money for the dish to be left behind. But I will need to have it moved, and my questions are:

1.

Will someone be able to easily and cheaply move it for me to another place much further away from its present one? Would this cost me more than a nominal amount of money (say 500 baht) involving as it would expertize, labour, time and extra wiring etc.

2.

Is there a lot of flexibility in the direction the dish must point? Upwards I know – but east, west, north & south? Initially I assumed no, but the neighbour has his dish pointing virtually in the opposite direction.

3.

Can I hide the dish behind trees or a car port without worrying about reception of signal etc.? And would greater distance from the box to the dish, ie a much longer wire affect the reception?

If the answers to these questions are not encouraging I must renegotiate the price I discussed for the dish, or even call off the deal. I couldn't get completely consistent answers at the time, and hence I ask here – hoping someone has the expertize or experience to give me accurate, disinterested info. I'd appreciate it.

l-e

Ballbreaker and Sumrit pretty much sum up the situation. Maybe you should consider a slightly different approach. Rather than moving the dish further away from the house, move it from the grass to high up on the house wall. This is the way 90% of the UBC dishes are mounted in Thailand and the distance from the dish to the decoder box on the second story will actually be shorter. The dish is very light and is mounted to the wall with 4 concrete screws. The dish needs an unobstructed view to the southwest and after moving will have to be aligned to aim directly at the satellite. This is easily done by moving the dish while observing signal strength using the decoder box. If you do it this way, the cost to move it should be less than a 1000 baht.

Edited July 11, 2007 by roietjimmy

[lotus eater]

Moving it will not be a problem but finding someone to perform that task might unless you contact UBC to have it done. In any case it must have an unobstructed view of Thaicom 3 satellite.

On second thought it might not be a UBC dish since you mention it is on the ground. What size dish are you talking about? A UBC dish is usually only 60cm or so in diameter. Is yours 2-3 meters in diameter?

It's a UBC dish (bright red - I think it even says ubc on it). However it's used for picking up programmes from the Philippines....I think it's much more than 60cm diameter.

[lotus eater]

Ballbreaker and Sumrit pretty much sum up the situation. Maybe you should consider a slightly different approach. Rather than moving the dish further away from the house, move it from the grass to high up on the house wall. This is the way 90% of the UBC dishes are mounted in Thailand and the distance from the dish to the decoder box on the second story will actually be shorter. The dish is very light and is mounted to the wall with 4 concrete screws. The dish needs an unobstructed view to the southwest and after moving will have to be aligned to aim directly at the satellite. This is easily done by moving the dish while observing signal strength using the decoder box. If you do it this way, the cost to move it should be less than a 1000 baht.

I want it out of sight from the front of the house, and given the direction it's pointing now, mounting it on the side of the house would leave it equally prominently visible from the front. Hence my idea to take it away among the things in/under the car port.

Beginning to think it won't work...

[Jimjim]

Are you going to be keeping the UBC service running? I don't see why you'd want to move the dish. If you're going to be a paying customer of UBC, they will charge you 2700 to come and move it for you. Expensive, but at least they'll do it right.

[lotus eater]

I think I've now come to a decision on this.

Many thanks to all above for their contributions.