Could the army be blocking my satellite uplink?

I live just outside Bitburg, and DSL is not available. I have been using ISDN for the past 2 years, but recently, I decided to try the new Astra2Connect internet over satellite. ( www.filiago.de ) I got all of the equipment, and paid E130.00 for professional installation. The guy came out and was up on the roof for about an hour with his satellite finder and talking on his cell phone. Long story short, he said that he could not get a signal (even though previously I had a dish pointed at Astra and got TV fine, but I have since move the dish to point to Hotbird so I could get AFN) Now I know all dishes have to be pointed south, and directly south of my house is a mountain covered with trees, and to be able to get Hotbird, I had to mount another bracket up higher on my chimney, and then bolt a 1 meter metal pipe to that bracket and mount my dish at the top of the pipe. The technician, mounted the Astra2Connect dish to the "old" bracket that is about 1 meter below the new one (and about 2 meters below the top of the pole where my other dish is mounted). I asked him if moving the Astra2Connect dish to the top of the pole might help, and he said (if I got the broken English correct) that around some of the Army bases in Germany, the Army blocks any upload signals to satellites, and since I am about 3 km from Bitburg Air Base, they may be blocking the signal. Has anyone ever heard of this? We hooked the modem up to the dish to try and check signal strength and it showed 0 tx and 0 rx. The signal actually jumped a couple of times and looked like it might be working, but it was only for about 1 second each time and then went away. I'm considering getting with my landlord and swapping out the 1 meter pole for a longer one (perhaps 1.5 to 2 meters) long enough to fit both dishes on it (with the Astra2Connect dish at the top, that would put it about 2 - 3 meters higher than it is now). Do you think this would help? Or would it be useless because of this whole "Army blocking the uplink signal" stuff? Thanks, Kevin.

Crikey, I'd hardly call that post "cutting a long story short".

Very few people will bother reading, let alone answering, an unparagraphed block of text like that.

For the benefit of others who don't have the patience to wade through your post, here's a précis of what you wrote:


Why use 400 words when 40 will do?

Topic title clarified too.

EB having a BadDoggie day?

While the capability exists, I doubt the US is blocking your signal. More than likely you hired an incompetent ass who sat on your roof calling Bavaria Sat for help, but couldn't even dial the right number.

or jam theres...or reroute or bounce a signal off it...maybe its illegal though

Your Satt. installer is full of shit... Get another one. This time one who knows WTF their doing.

Bitburg (As an Airbase) was closed down long ago..


- Link

And Bitburg is Aprox 18km away from Spangdahlem AB, so I doubt their blocking you from anything. I still have friends in that area, and they have no prob. with Satt. TV
(AFN and Sky), nor with the Intenet via Satt. services which use the same Satt.'s to broadcast TV.

I doubt the military would blanket block your signal. If you are VERY close to an airbase you may get sporadic interference (interruption every 5-10 seconds) from ground radar, but even this is unlikely. I concur with all the others here that your satellite installer was incapable. I hope you didn't pay him...

They're not just blocking, they're listening.