Two Different Wires, Two Different Rules
Two overhead lines cross a typical yard and they are not equivalent. The service drop runs from the pole to a bracket on your house and carries power to your meter. The distribution line strung along the street belongs to the utility, and clearance near it is utility work rather than homeowner work. Knowing which conductor a limb is touching decides who prunes it and whether anyone should be up there at all.
The Weatherhead and the Span Across the Yard
The span from pole to weatherhead sags in the middle, which is precisely where limbs reach it. Loblolly pine growing under that span pushes a leader straight up into the cable, and the contact point is often invisible from below because needles hide it. Look for the wire disappearing into foliage rather than for a visible touch. A foot of growth pressing on insulation abrades the jacket within a couple of seasons.
Solar Arrays Need a Cone, Not a Plane
Solar panels do not need clear air directly above them so much as a clear cone toward the south from mid morning to mid afternoon. A single sweetgum forty feet away can drag a moving shadow across a string for two hours a day and cut output disproportionately, since one shaded panel pulls the whole string down. Judge the pruning by where the shadow lands at eleven and at two.
Satellite Dishes and the Southern Sky
A satellite dish points low into the southern sky, so the branches that block it are rarely the ones directly overhead. A pine two lots south, well below roof height from where you are standing, can sit right on the signal path. Reception degrades first in heavy rain, then in wet foliage, then permanently as the tree gains height. Sighting along the dish arm finds the obstruction faster than guesswork.
Measuring Clearance You Cannot Reach
A gap overhead is hard to estimate and most people underestimate it badly. Photograph the span from directly beneath and again from thirty feet to the side, then compare the space against something of known height in the frame, such as a single storey eave at about nine feet. Repeat that photograph each spring from the same two spots. The comparison catches regrowth the eye will not register year to year.