As you can clearly see from the illustration on this page, parabolic antennas for satellite reception can also be placed at ground level close to the house (e.g. in the garden, etc.), and only in rare cases is it actually necessary to mount the antenna on the roof.

Even in cases where the parabolic antenna cannot be installed in the garden, because there is no straight line of sight to the desired satellite, we recommend that you check whether a wall mount may be used to attach the dish antenna to a house or garage wall.

On the one hand, this simplifies the installation, and on the other hand it makes the dish more easily accessible. The illustration below shows how well placed the key satellites, ASTRA and EUTELSAT are for the direct reception of satellite TV signals.

The orbital positions of these satellites provide extremely favourable elevation angles for reception in Germany. For example, the elevation angle required to receive the signals from the ASTRA satellite at the 19.2° East position varies between approx. 28° (in the North) and approx. 35° (in the South) within Germany. Therefore, one usually requires only a few metres space (clearance) between an antenna and an obstacle in order to ensure a free line of sight to this satellite (see table below).