I agree with the RG-6 cable also. I bought a 1000 foot roll of it while visiting Anchorage (in 1997) because I was going to wire my whole house along with installing the dish. Ummm, I still have some left. Anyway, it was not "direct burial" and was not “outdoor” rated so I figured I would have to replace the out door part of it some day but didn’t care. Years later the cable outside still seems fine.
Just took these pics of my dish (Its raining here). Its an eight foot one but most everybody else up here seem to do OK with the four foot (nowadays). Once again, don’t go much smaller where you are at or you may be sorry when its snowing or raining. You have to point them a lot lower at the horizon in Alaska but I believe both Dish and DirectTVs web sites let you type in your zip code for the angles. Hope the pics also show the heavy duty mount that they gave me. Every few years I tweak the adjusters for max signal but its not hard to do.

 

Nice view Bark.

 

I bought mine at Sam's many years ago(came with an installation video).......cable had been prerun....took me all of an hour to install the dish and receiver(came with a cheap compass).....had my wife help me when it came time to adjust the signal for max reception......Direct TV sent me a new car for the receiver once....took all of 5 seconds to change out the cards.....be sure and have a phone line close to the receiver.

 

Thanks! The view out the front is the really good one (Cook Inlet). Have to post a pic of it sometime. However, our house looks like a cross between a bomb shelter and brothel.

WoW! All Dish ever sent me was a stupid card--and a bill. My spelling, like my hair, is perfecte.

 

So I guess I will need the bigger style dish, for this far north of a location. The elevation angle is 8.6, and that's not going to clear any trees unless it's on a very tall pole. I am going to take a drive and look around like you said, I know I have seen small dishes here.

 

This site can give you some direction:
hxxp://sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Satellite-Heading-Calculator.htm

Just replace the xx's with tt's on the link.

 

THanks, the angle is so low, about 7-8*, that its not even close to clearing the trees, does it have to have perfect line of sight? No answer at that local business

 

What size of dish is this elevation based on? As mentioned before a bigger dish is better and the elevation angle will be higher. All you can do is try it, I have seen some dishes at some camp site's at a mountain base that looked like they were aimed right at the mountain, and they were getting TV.

 

WoW! All Dish ever sent me was a stupid card--and a bill. My spelling, like my hair, is perfecte.
You mean they haven't sent you your new Caddy yet?

 

My angle is a bit higher being in southern Iowa, but I do know a clear line of site is critical to both DISH and DirecTV. A heavy rain will interrupt the signal for my DirecTV service so my guess is with a lower angle and more atmosphere to go through you will definitely not want any other obstructions.

 

Sniff, no new Caddy for me. 13ALPHA On your drives around you should be able to get an idea (from the angle of other peoples dishes) how much clear space you will need. Mounting on your house might get it up high enough. Also, If I remember correctly, the signal is actually coming from a higher elevation than the dish is pointing at and getting bounced off the dish onto the LNB (the gizmo that sticks out in front). Because of this, my dish is actually pointed at a spot below the horizon. One more thing: The local businesses don’t like to give out installation info for free (they need to make a living). Somebody in our area (some years back) was charging 50 bucks to bring a meter out and tell you if you could get Dish signal and if you needed to take down any trees. They would than refund the money if you bought the system from them. Might be worth it.

 

Around here, the installation is free, provided you sign up for service.
The independent installer gets paid by the satellite company.

 

x2...The guy who came to install mine was a chicken $hit that was afraid to climb onto a 2-story house. Yea, It's freakn tall but get your but up there and install it. He said no way...I call the tech support and told them what a bunch of sorry installers they had. I climbed up there and had it installed in 10min. I leave to go to work and come back and he has the wire draped across the front of the house looking like crap. DTV is over priced for a bunch of junk channels but w/the limited selection what is one to do. Anyone watch internet TV as I'm thinking about this option. rant off. HAND.

 

if the provider dish or direct won't sell you the equipment, then go to costco, sam, or one of the other large box stores. you can also buy from some of the above retailers online, so you don't have to drive to the warehouse store to buy them.
buy your equipment and install it your self.
i had to readjust mine, as i lost signal yesterday during a sand storm. took me 15 mins which included making and adding extra clamps to the pole to keep the dish from turning in the 70+ mph wind.
current location, a desert in arizona.

 

or look on Craigslist...you can find the equipment on there also...just make sure the recevier has a card w/it as the card and serial# are the details of what is activated by DTV.