Satellite Look Angles
Hi there,
SHORT ANSWER
For rule of thumb, (for Sky only in southern UK) if the building is X feet/metres high and at least 2X feet/metres away from the dish you should be OK.
(MUCH) LONGER ANSWER
(For the UK) Satellites between about 40 deg East to 40 deg West are at elevations of 15-30 deg.
eg For london Sky (28.,2 Deg East), the elevation angle is about 24 deg.
The buildings will either block the signal or not (unless you are VERY unlucky)....though even then it might be blocked for some satellites and not others.
If you use that SMSlink software you can see the azimuth (east-west bearing) and elevation angles for various satellite positions (eg Sky on 28 deg east). For all practical purposes the difference between (azimuth) magnetic bearing and true north bearings can be ignored.
Use basic trig to calculate whether dish will be able to "see" the satellite you are after:
eg If Satellite is Sky/Astra 2 at 28.2E and dish location is 53N 1E:
Azimuth bearing is 147 Deg (ie roughly South East)
Elevation is 24.5 Deg
Estimate height of Building (on that bearing) relative to the dish =H
Estimate (or pace it out) distance of dish from building = L
If (180/PI)*arctan H/L > 25 degrees you should be OK for that particular satellite.....if I remembered my trig correctly.....which is unlikely!!!
Hope one answer or the other helps.