Installing Dish Antenna

Tree branches and even leaves can interfere with a satellite signal. Our Association has a firm policy in place that the Association will not pay to trim any trees for the sole purpose of obtaining a satellite signal. If you start doing it for one, you will have to start doing it for everyone.

However, when the board does receive such a request, the Board always adds that the member is free to hire a tree service to trim the tree at their expense. I understand that the last person who asked us now has cable.

I don't think it is the HOAs responsibility to trim the tree for a homeowner to receive satellite. Why don't they try re-positioning the satellite or get another form of TV?

It could be that IF we tell the tenant to do it themselves, they could butcher the tree....... and yes
other individuals could follow suite byhiring their own tree trimmers and really butcher a tree.

The HOA should hold firm and not tree trim for satellite purposes. That "challenge" is one between the landlord and the tenant, not the community.

Sorry but as someone who has studied electronics and worked in the field a long time... The tree is not blocking their signal. It's most likely just the satellite that needs moved to a better position. They need to call the satellite company/installer and see if they can adjust the satellite. It may just be moved around to catch the satellite signal better.

You're joking, right?

As I understand the rules (see the FCC website, http://www.fcc.gov/guides/over-air-reception-devices-rule) the HOA cannot prevent the tenant or owner from positioning the dish anywhere within his exclusive use area.

The rules do not appear to require the HOA to allow positioning outside of the exclusive use area OR the removal of obstacles.

Today's communications are largely digital because digital signals use less bandwidth. The problem with digital communication is that acceptable reception does not depend solely on signal strength, which is an analog measurement, alone.

To assure acceptable reception of a satellite signal, it is recommend that you have a clear line of sight from the reception device (dish) to the satellite, without any obstruction, which includes trees.

If trees are causing poor reception, you can cut or trim them if they are yours. If the trees belong to someone else, or if they are on common property, there is nothing you can do except to try and find a better location or increase the height of the antenna (dish) so that the line of sight is above the top of the obstruction (trees).

And that's a contradiction. Change the location to one that provides a clear line of sight to the satellite, free from trees.

I've had more than 55 years experience in radio and TV communication, and more than 25 years experience in digital and satellite communication. Digital communication allows several communications "channels" to be multiplexed on the same "carrier" signal. These signals are not only multiplexed, but are highly compressed by means of various algorithms with "correction" coding embedded into the signal to allow the original analog version to be reconstructed at the receiver. Poor reception does not mean a weak, fuzzy, noisy, or fading signal. Poor reception usually results in "pixelating" (seeing individual colored blocks instead of a picture), complete "freezing" of the image, or loss of the image altogether. Digital communication is not like analog communication where the received signal can be there with varying degrees of strength or with some noise. Digital communication consists of a series of bits, and the bit is either there or it's not. It's on or it's off. There is no in between. Noise in the signal, caused by obstructions and interference, can be interpreted by the receiver as bits of information, which they are not.

Obstructions, such as trees, which can cause poor reception with analog signals, can result in totally useless and unacceptable reception, or even no reception, of digital signals. I have even known of cases where acceptable reception can be received in the wintertime, but not during summer when there are leaves on the trees.

Sure, it's possible to get acceptable reception at a home surrounded by trees, as long as you can get a clear line of sight between the reception device and the satellite. That also depends on the latitude of the location where the receiver is.

For example, the line of sight to the Echostar 10 and 11 satellites (DirecTV) in Orlando, Florida (latitude 28.54 degrees) is 44.2 degrees; almost a 45-degree angle or about mid-way between the horizon and straight up. At that location, an object located 163 feet away would have to be over 160 feet tall before it would interfere with the satellite signal from the dish. In Anchorage, Alaska (latitude 61.22 degrees) the light of sight angle is only 13.2 degrees above the horizon. At that location an object located 163 feet away would need to be only about 38 feet tall to interfere with reception from the satellite.

The point is, whether or not you can be surrounded by trees and still get acceptable reception depends not only on the height of the trees and the height of the dish, but on how far away the trees are from you and where on the earth (the latitude) you are located.

Of course, a good installer should know all this. But, even the best and most competent installer cannot overcome nature, the laws of physics, or the laws of communication theory.

> How can a tree after a signal is blasted from the outer atmosphere from a satellite dish somehow be blocked by a tree and some leaves?

At high frequencies anything containing water will absorb electromagnetic waves to some degree.

This, by the way, is why your microwave oven works.

Our CC&Rs (which should be changed on this issue) state that no antenna on the patio at all.. BUT FCC regs trump that so we have allowed antennas ON the patios or balconies BUT... they may NOT be affixsed to the walls/ceilings/floors... they can be weighted down with sand bags or whatever... iron made fixtures, or whatever but NOT screwed i any way to the walls, etc.