The south side of my house is shaded by a large lime tree and I would like to set up a Freesat Dish. Is there any gadgetry around which would trace a signal without my having to buy a dish and box?
You will need both a Dish and a Digital Box to receive Freesat.
If the Tree is a major obstacle as far as reception goes then you may need to have the Dish mounted on a Pole on the other side of the Tree with the Co-axial Cabling buried in the ground and waterproofed. Might be a costly option but you could do with an Engineers opinion when weighing up the situation.
I take it that you know the rough direction to point a dish. Same as Sky dish.
You would be surprised what a dish can 'look' through.
Buy an 80cm offset dishpack with a good low noise (less that 2Db noise) LNB. Have it mounted on the side of a chimney breast. Keep top of dish low as poss.
I would be VERY surprised if it could not see past a tree at that height.