Can satellite tv signals pass through buildings?
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Let me say, under certain circumstances it's possible but it's not reliable at all.
When my installer came out yesterday there is a newly built house next door, he tried to convince me to go ahead and let him install, because he had set up the dish, and said he was getting a signal. I looked at his signal meter, and it looked to me like it was at about 1/2 strength. I did not let the install go ahead. This was on a bright, clear day, and the house next door is just framed, the brick on the bottom floor, no siding on the top floor, no carpet, or drywall, electricity, appliance, etc. I can only imagine getting that installed, having a crappy signal that goes out in light cloudiness, AND when they put a washer or dryer, or something else in my LOS. I was disappointed, but no way I'm signing off on a two year commitment on that.amhere said:
The meter is not a percentage, new customers always think it should be higher than it is especially with certain dishes. High 40's into 50's could be excellent. Another factor is that the beam is a lot higher on the dish than most people seem to think it is.
The frequencies used for satellite service are too high, and the power used too low, to go through much of anything other than air. In theory, if you used enough power, you could get the signals through buildings, but that would introduce a whole host of other problems that I think we'd rather not face.amhere said:
The antenna has no clue what is in front of it.
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What difference does it make? Do you think they can run a cable up to the satellite to boost the power output of all those transponders? Geez! They are probably outputting all that they can.amhere said:
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I just did. Higher power means everything in the beam gets cooked, just like your microwave over.amhere said:
Even on two-way satellite internet services where the transmit power is only about 5 watts, they warn the technicians NOT to place the dish where people pass in front of it.
Not really sure what you're driving at.
And there's no @ in front of my ID.
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Imagine you are a hot dog. Put a hot dog in a microwave for 10 minutes. See what happens.amhere said:
Keep in mind that this Satellite has a number of transponders and all of them require power. The satellite has to be able to have sufficient power to drive all of those transponders using batteries that are charged from solar cells and they need to be able to maintain service during a time when the solar cells are blocked from the sun. As technology has improved over the years, better Low Noise Amplifiers have allowed antennas to get smaller. The DBS system is based on Unobstructed view of the satellites. Anything in the way of that signal is going to degrade the signal including clouds, rain and physical objects like trees or leaves. With a marginal signal, one of the options available is to go with a larger dish. The signal gain of the dish is directly related to the size of the dish.
Others have addressed this, so I think it's pretty well covered. First issue is that you'd need a lot more power at the satellite - which means the satellite would need much larger solar panels and would be much more expensive. Second issue is radiation - people already walk around with tin foil hats because of all that radiation coming down. Third issue is selectivity - the stronger the signal coming down, the harder it would be to differentiate between orbital slots. That means fewer satellites up there to deliver stuff, which leads to less choices (and more expense) for us Finally, in order to pass through buildings, you would need some way to deal with scatter from the signal bouncing off things in the walls like electrical wire, which means you couldn't really have much directionality at all - one use of each frequency, instead of reusing the same one every 2 degrees over the satellite belt.amhere said:
So yes, if there was only one signal in space on each frequency, and we found a way to blast that signal with a few thousand times more power than currently used, and we didn't care about genetic defects or cancer rates skyrocketing, we could send a satellite signal through walls such that you could veg out with an indoor dish.
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