Satellite Dish: Mount on roof or pole?

[ruxCYtable]

Is there any advantage to one method over another? I looked at the DirecTV self-install instructions and it says to use roof mount only as a last resort. I don't know why that is.

We are having our roof replaced due to the recent hail in our area. My dish is currently on the roof, but I wonder if I should reinstall it there or if now would be a good time to just go ahead and move it somewhere else.

 

[RayShimley]

Is there any advantage to one method over another? I looked at the DirecTV self-install instructions and it says to use roof mount only as a last resort. I don't know why that is.

We are having our roof replaced due to the recent hail in our area. My dish is currently on the roof, but I wonder if I should reinstall it there or if now would be a good time to just go ahead and move it somewhere else.

I think it depends on the LOS angles of your home. The DirectTV guy who installed our dish basically told us that the roof was the only place we were going to get any decent reception because of where our neighbor's houses are located. Could be BS, but I'd guess it would've been easier for him to stick it on a pole then climb up on our roof.

 

[jdoggivjc]

I think it depends on your yard. For a decade or so my parents had their dish on a pole in their backyard. Makes maintenance of the dish (realignment, etc.) a hell of a lot easier. The problem was, as the trees matured in the backyard, they blocked the southern sky, preventing the dish from getting a signal. They then had the dish moved to their roof and have had no problems with it whatsoever.

Basically it's personal preference unless you have something blocking your view of the southern sky, then you'll be limited to the roof.

My one suggestion - do not put the dish on a deck that has an overhang - at our condo, during a decent snow storm, I have to brush the dish off every 15-30 minutes because the snow from the roof blows off the overhang and onto the dish sitting on our ledge, and that's about how long it takes for enough snow to collect on the dish before we completely lose the signal.

 

[CycloneErik]

Roof. I our building (before they provided free cable), we started our DirectTV with a pole, since there was a dish there and the line already ran to our apartment. It worked OK much of the time, but it was less stable in windy conditions and such. It basically went out every time we had wind.
On one call, the service tech switched our cabling over to an unused dish on the roof, and we only had the problem one more time over a couple of years. It's much more stable, unless your roof blows away.