Roof to pole...

[soulbarn]

Right now, my dish is on the roof. We’re just into our second snowstorm of the year, and once again, it seems that slush and snow have interrupted of our services. I’m thinking of relocating the dish to a pole mount for easier snow removal. Our DIRECTV dish is pole mounted in our yard and reception is fine, so does that mean I can assume that will have similarly good reception if I pole mount the HughesNet dish?

[maratsade · Accepted solution]

Having the dish pole-mounted does help with keeping it free of snow and slush, but it may not change reception necessarily. 

I have my DirecTV roof mounted and my HN dish pole mounted.  Reception varies for both in bad weather, and can't be predicted.  I've had excellent reception during snow days, and bad reception during rainy days, and vice versa.  In my case, ice on the HN dish is what makes reception so poor, and removing that can be tricky, because you might accidentally misalign the dish. 

Edit: also,  the installers usually put the dish where it can get the best line to the satellite, so maybe yours is on the roof because that's the best location (there are installers who post on this site, and I hope one of them will correct me if I'm wrong).  Additionally, you will likely have to foot the bill for the job. 

@soulbarn wrote:
Right now, my dish is on the roof. We’re just into our second snowstorm of the year, and once again, it seems that slush and snow have interrupted of our services. I’m thinking of relocating the dish to a pole mount for easier snow removal. Our DIRECTV dish is pole mounted in our yard and reception is fine, so does that mean I can assume that will have similarly good reception if I pole mount the HughesNet dish?

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[soulbarn]

What about a dish heater? Are the dishes made of metal or fiberglass? I’m just trying to get my options scoped out before winter “really” hits (he said, with six inches of snow on the ground)...

[MarkJFine]

1. DirecTV is around 99, 101, and 103 degrees (I think they center-aim it at 101 tho). HughesNet Echostar 19 is at around 97 degrees, so it's close.

2. As far as heaters go... I don't know about you, but anything electrically heated and not in the confines of a controlled environment scare me. First, the heat might warp the dish. Second, is the possibility of an animal eating the cord and causing a fire... I just wouldn't.

If your sky is still clear to 97W somewhere near your DTV dish (in theory should be 4 degrees to the left of where it's pointing) I'd go with a pole mount.