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Television Media

DirecTV in an Apartment? 115

Posted by Cliff from the antennas-should-grow-on-trees dept.
Sc00ter asks: "I live in an apartment and I'm seeking advice on how to mount a DirecTV dish without causing damage to the building. I don't have a balcony to put it on, only windows. There are some people that have worked around this by using other types of antennas, but the cost of such a device is too high. I have also seen some window mount type antennas but I don't think I should trust these in the wind. I was hoping somebody out there had been in a similar situation and had a tip or two."
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DirecTV in an Apartment? More

DirecTV in an Apartment?

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  • Football Season (Score:3, Funny)

    by saden1 ( 581102 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:13PM (#9638254)
    Yes, it is almost that time of the year again, where we give our money to the NFL and DirectTV.

    Hail to the Redskins! Joe Gibbs is back!!!!!

  • My Case (Score:4, Funny)

    by k.ellsworth ( 692902 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:15PM (#9638270)
    On the building i lived, i had the same problem, just that i live on the 4th floor (6 floors building), so i asked the community manager about using the internal shafts of the building up to the building's roof, and place my dish on it... i had on ly to ask the manager about and voila'...

    if that doesn't work do a kinda ghostbusters 2 movie solution, turn the whole building into a reciving antena.

  • Make a good case (Score:2, Insightful)

    by webscathe ( 448715 ) *
    Note, I don't live in an apartment but...

    First off, your landlord can specify exactly what they're allowed and not allowed to do when they sign a waiver.

    Second, if you approach your landlord in a way that makes it sound like they're getting a deal out of it, they may just say yes. Try pitching it to them like, "I want to upgrade your apartment, free of charge, to be satellite ready!"
    • First off, your landlord can specify exactly what they're allowed and not allowed to do when they sign a waiver.

      Gee, way to answer a question that he didn't ask.

      Thank You Captain Obvious.

      I've heard stories of people successfully geting indoor dishes to pick up a good enough signal for satellite TV. Granted, these dishes were pointing out windows and had no curtains in front of them.

      NTITE

      • Re:Make a good case (Score:3, Interesting)

        by allism ( 457899 )
        In our last apartment we had the dish pointing out the window. Worked fine. Here is how the setup worked:

        We had a loft on the north wall of the apartment. The apartment had a south-facing window directly across from the loft.

        We mounted the satellite dish to the floor level of the loft (I am not sure how to explain it - it was mounted to the vertical side of the loft floor, so that it was visible from the loft but not taking any floor space).

        We pointed the dish out the window, and made the minor adjust

    • Re:Make a good case (Score:3, Insightful)

      by afidel ( 530433 )
      Actually the FCC has ruled that you can not sign away your right to put up an antenna up to 1m in size which does not cause undue harm to the property so long as you install it in an area that is designated for your private use.

    • Wrong (Score:1, Redundant)

      by lorcha ( 464930 )

      First off, your landlord can specify exactly what they're allowed and not allowed to do when they sign a waiver.

      Wrong wrong wrong. The FCC says [fcc.gov] that you cannot sign away your right to install a 1M or smaller dish in a non-common area (as in for your exclusive use). Your landlord cannot prevent you. Your city can't prevent you. No one can.

      Second, if you approach your landlord in a way that makes it sound like they're getting a deal out of it, they may just say yes. Try pitching it to them like, "I wan

      • the landlord can't prevent you from having an antenna, but he CAN prevent you from drilling a hole in the wall.

        The original post isn't asking about convincing his landlord to allow the antenna - he's asking how to mount it without damaging the building.

  • Ideas (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:20PM (#9638305) Homepage
    I've seen quite a few dishes mounted, here are some ideas:

    • I've seen people stick a small pole in a large bucket that was filled with concrete and mount the dish on that. If you could get permission to just set that next to the building that would be fine, or you put it inside and point it through a window, but it would be ugly.
    • Lots of people around here have the dishes clipped onto a railing of some sort that they have near (like a balcony, but you might have something). This would hold it just fine, if you have a railing of some kind near.
    • Build a mount. You should be able to rig something up. For example, use a 2" by 4" the height of the window. Then you close the window on it (securely and tightly). You could paint it to make it look better. You mount the dish to the 2" by 4" (or a block of wood attached to it). By putting a small piece of wood on the sides and top/bottom of the 2" by 4", you can make it easily support the weight of the dish with just friction (no screwing into the wall).
    • Neighbors. Do any of your neighbors have dishes? Just attach a multiswitch (basically a splitter for satellites) and you can use their signal with no problem for either of you. It's usually used to allow you to have boxes in more than 2 rooms, but it will do the same for you. You might not even need one if they have a Dual-LNB dish and only one simple reciever.
    • Through the roof. You might (might Might MIGHT) be able to get a usuable signal through the roof (if you are on the top floor) or through a wall. The closer you are to the equator the better.
    • Ask a professional installer. Find one who will give you a free "estimate", and see what they think.
    • I REALLY question the "through the roof" one. You can't get a signal through the leaves of trees -- how could it go through a roof?

      • Re:Ideas (Score:3, Informative)

        by Daniel Wood ( 531906 )
        From my understanding, the leave have water in them. Water REALLY fucks with radio waves, badly. The roof would likely contain little moisture.

        • Re:Ideas (Score:2, Insightful)

          by jadenyk ( 764614 )
          As was explained to me during my recent Direct TV install, anything organic will screw with reception.

          That being said, I seriously doubt you could get signal through a roof. And even if you could, come winter, there better not be any snow on that roof.

          Personally, I'd make a small platform to hang out my window. But then again, you have to have windows that face the right direction in the first place.

          • fwiw, if you are close to the equator (one of the prerequisites in the previous post, snow is unlikely to be a problem... unless you are on a mountain, in which case, wouldn't you get better signal for being "closer" to the sats? =) )

            *shrug*

            e.
            • wouldn't you get better signal for being "closer" to the sats?

              Sure, because instead of being an distant 23,000 miles from a geostationary satellite, up in the tallest of inhabitable mountains you might be a mere 22,999 miles away... ;-)
        • I'm shooting through a couple of trees and everything but transponder 18 is at 93+/100 on the signal readings.

          And I installed it myself, using nothing but a starchart (from Weather Underground [wunderground.org]) and dead reckoning. They make it a really user-friendly process, so long as you've got half a clue.
        • From my understanding, the leave have water in them. Water REALLY fucks with radio waves, badly. The roof would likely contain little moisture.

          Moisture is not the only substance on the planet that "fucks with" radio waves.

    • - I have no place to put a bucket with the dish. I have no balcony and I'm on the 4th floor.
      - again, no railing since I have no balcony
      - That's a good idea
      - No neighbors with dishes :(
      - The way our roof is, not a chance...
      - Most pro installers will not install in MDU :( I've tried that.

      • Re:Ideas (Score:3, Insightful)

        by itwerx ( 165526 )
        Big magnets!
        Seriously!

        Works like this:
        Put the dish on a large flat padded base, tie 3 or 4 short guy wires from the disk mounting bracket to a couple of large rare-earth magnets (you can get 'em with handy mounting loops and whatnot at Edmund Scientific for a price and most surplus places for a lot less). Then, with a buddy on the inside and you hanging out the window, press the base against the glass, pull each guy-wire out as far as it will go and have your buddy put a matching magent on the inside,
        • Wouldn't the force of the magnets crush the two (or more panes) of glass into each other?
        • rare-earth magnets (you can get 'em with handy mounting loops and whatnot at Edmund Scientific

          You can get plenty of not too small ones for free by taking apart old 5.25" hard drives.
      • As a landlord, I highly recommend that you ask your landlord. Don't attach anything to the building unless you want to pay for it to be removed & damage repaired.

        If you tell your landlord that you're willing to pay for the expense, chances are they'll let you do what you want. However, the chance is inversely proportional to the number of units owned by the landlord. i.e. if you're in a large apt building thats one of many owned by a corporation, forget it. If you're in a duplex owned by a guy that
        • Well I'm looking to do an install that will not damage the building. I live in an old mill that was converted so it's all brick, metal/vinyl windows. I think I figured out a way. I am telling the landlord, I asked to roof mount it, I'll see what I get back. There is also rumors that the building could go condo, if that's the case we'll probably buy, but that doesn't get rid of the issue.

    • Re:Ideas (Score:4, Interesting)

      by orogorhotmail.com ( 744478 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @08:15AM (#9640740)
      What i would do is do the same thig that we did in our building, asking everyone if they want to have a dish ( they ll probably say yes ), then go see the guy in charge of the community stuff, tell him than everyone would like to have a dish, and suggest a proffessional installation for everyone. Our community have 400 flats , they paied eatch one 100, this make a total of 40 000 , now we have 4 proffesionnals dishs installed on the top of the highest building by proffessionals with switches and so, and now everyone have a satellite plug in his house. Notice than it was quite fast to obtain this, well everything is relative , but it took like 4 months. (escuse me for typos, grammary and stuff, french guy there)
    • Through the roof. You might (might Might MIGHT) be able to get a usuable signal through the roof (if you are on the top floor) or through a wall. The closer you are to the equator the better.

      Not a chance in hell. If heavy rain can block it, a wall definitely will.

  • We took about 4' of plumbing pipe that fit the DirecTV bracket, sunk it into a bucket half-filled with cement and set the bucket out on the balcony, let it set, filled the top half with soil and grew flowers in it. To keep the bucket from shifting around, we applied a bead of silicone around the base. We've had to move it once, and the silicone was easy to cut away and re-apply. It's solid as a rock.
  • Your landlord will probably agree to a professional installation, and you can get those for free when you purchase the unit from many dealers.

    If you're wondering whether they'll agree, there's a good chance your worries are unfounded. Rentals are at a long time low right now with Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac handing out home loans like candy, and most supers will bend over backwards to keep you happy.

  • I would just do the damage. How much can a couple of holes cost to repair? It's going to cost way more in time and materials to try to work around doing it the right way.

    • I'd say to be careful with this advice. At my apartment complex, the maintenance guys go around every couple of months and pull the dishes off the roofs (not allowed based on the lease). On the bright side, the dishes end up in the dumpsters every so often. Does anyone want me to save them one?

      I guess we're stuck with cable.

      • Re:Do the damage (Score:3, Informative)

        by gcaseye6677 ( 694805 )
        If you're in the United States, your landlord is violating FCC regulations [fcc.gov]. Scroll to about the middle of the page.

        • Re:Do the damage (Score:3, Insightful)

          by ForestGrump ( 644805 )
          Nope, if your only renting the unit, and the roof is not part of your rental, then they have authority over the roof.

          Now, if you put a dish inside your apt, and had it pointing through a window...and they went into your unit and tossed out the dish. Then they would be in violation.

          grumpy

        • Re:Do the damage (Score:2, Informative)

          by Bob MacSlack ( 623914 )
          Go read again. The roof is a "common area" and isn't covered by that rule. It only applies to antennas mounted in an area you have sole access to, so the property owner can remove them whenever they want.
      • You don't need to save the entire dish, but if you remove the LNB (Low Noise Block) from the dish, you should be able to sell those for a pretty penny on eBay, especially the dual-LNBs that allow you to have multiple receivers per dish.

        Those seem to be the single-most expensive/valuable part of the whole system.
      • Mmm... wifi.

  • Put it on the roof (Score:2, Redundant)

    by cornjones ( 33009 )
    I don't have the actual details so you will have to do the googling.

    My father works maintenance and a really expensive "assisted living" place. The other day, one of hte tenants comes up to him and says, "I am putting a dish on teh roof".

    "Well sir," starts my father, "We are going to have to check w/ management to see if we can do it."

    "No, according to section blah blah of FCC code, I can legally do it. I was just letting you know as a courtesy."

    And he put it up. The guy was a lawyer and management d

    • Re:Put it on the roof (Score:5, Informative)

      by nachoboy ( 107025 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @11:28PM (#9638788)
      The regulation he was referring to is 47 C.F.R. Section 1.4000 and essentially prohibits restrictions of antennae placement to receive TV broadcasts.

      However, the management of the institution would have been well within their rights to deny the resident the privilege of mounting an antenna on the roof, as the roof does not belong to the resident.

      The FCC has a very helpful Fact Sheet [fcc.gov] regarding the issue. For those too lazy to click, renters can install an antenna on the private area of their residence (indoors or on a private balcony or porch) but public areas (shared walkways, balconies, and roofs) do not fall under the scope of this legislation. As such, management may impose restrictions on the mounting of such permanent structures as television dishes.

      I would highly recommend any renters read the link above. Many apartment complex owners are not aware of the legislation (or even worse, are acutely aware of it!) and will attempt to bully you into submission by flatly prohibiting any sort of dish installation. The FCC order is rather strong ammunition in such cases.
      • The FCC has a very helpful Fact Sheet regarding the issue. For those too lazy to click, renters can install an antenna on the private area of their residence (indoors or on a private balcony or porch) but public areas (shared walkways, balconies, and roofs) do not fall under the scope of this legislation. As such, management may impose restrictions on the mounting of such permanent structures as television dishes.

        I actually asked my apartment manager about installing a dish on my covered patio area, and

        • Re:Put it on the roof (Score:3, Interesting)

          by nachoboy ( 107025 )
          Not personally, no (thankfully management at my complex is very reasonable), but apartment "policies" like you describe are exactly the sort of restrictions this legislation is written to prevent (or pre-empt, rather). Depending on your location and how large your apartment/complex is, there's a good chance management does know of this regulation. I'd suggest pulling up as much as you can on the FCC site and enlisting the help of your proposed satellite provider. Put up your dish and call their bluff!

          Oh

          • Re:Put it on the roof (Score:4, Interesting)

            by cdrudge ( 68377 ) * on Thursday July 08, 2004 @10:56AM (#9642402) Homepage
            You are correct. An apartment compex owner, a HOA, etc can't say you can't have a dish positioned somewhere due to how it might look. They also can not limit the number of dishes that you have installed as long as all are under the 1-meter limit.

            If the community offers the same satellite service and the pricing is not unreasonable, they can deny you the right to install the dish. Say you want DirecTV and they have Dish, they can not deny you the right to have a DirecTV dish. If they say thought that you have to pay $20 just for the access to the line then you can install your own.

            They can deny you the right to do a penetrating mount. This means no driliing/bolting into a balcony, wall, roof, etc without their WRITTEN permission. This would also include running the line indoors.

            Tripod, bucket-o-quikcrete, etc are fine. So is u-bolting to a balcony railing as long as no holes are drilled into their property. As to getting the line indoors, this is the exact reason why inductive couplers for windows/patio doors and flat cable were invented. :)
            • You are correct. An apartment compex owner, a HOA, etc can't say you can't have a dish positioned somewhere due to how it might look. They also can not limit the number of dishes that you have installed as long as all are under the 1-meter limit.

              Actually, they can request that you install your dish in a way that minimizes the aesthetic impact, but only to the extent that it does not interfere with reception.
              • I'm sorry. You are correct. Given two locations that would have equal reception, they can ask that the better asestheticly pleasing location is used. However, if their is a significant cost increase, say to trench a cable across your back yard, etc, then the more unaesthetic location could be used.
          • So this morning I was planning on calling their aesthetics bluff (if you saw my apartment building you'd consider this hilarious) but I read that the dish needs to face the southern sky. I have a patio on the south-side of the building, but it conveniently faces a gigantic tree, and I'm on the first floor. I'll have to check with a DirecTV technician, but I'm guessing the setup won't work. I might contact the guys who live a few floors above me and see if they're interested in going in on the dish system

      • Just to clarify: the point about the regulation is that while it ensures you can have recieving antenna mounted, it doesn't give you the right to install it: the estates management can require you use a professional, and can place some restrictions on where the antenna is mounted (e.g. the rooftop may have a space allocated for antenna mounts, and the estates management will require the installer to put it there, and to run the cable all the way to your apartment, even if it is a long cable run).
      • I've heard that that regulation only applies to over the air, FCC licensed broadcasts.

        Many apartment complexes provide a connection to a common VHF/UHF antenna, which may meet the standard of the FCC regs.

    • Put it on the roof-FCC (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I recommend you read this [satelliteguys.us].

      The FCC links are about midpoint on the page.
    • If you rent, its not your roof. Its the owners choice to allow you do that or not.

      It would be grounds for having your lease broken if you pissed off the owner.

  • Tips (Score:5, Informative)

    by jakev383 ( 790413 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:46PM (#9638486)
    I used to install for Time Warner and Direct TV. First thing is to ask your landlord. Most of them are not too uptight, and will allow an installation onto the roof. If not, we used a tripod whic we purchased for $20 at RadioShack, and sold to customers for $34.95. The buckets with concrete in them aren't a bad idea; we use them now for PTZ cameras we put on our construction sites. My first bet would be talk to the property manager, though. Chances are good you're not he first person to ask.
  • I am not a lawyer, but as I understand it is illegal for your landlord to prohibit the installation of hardware for such services. I believe it has to do with keeping the cable companies from having a monopoly over such living situations.

    I read this information on either the Dish Network or DirecTV website when I was looking into it. I had already given them my location, so I suppose it could be based on state laws.

  • Why not ask them? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nacturation ( 646836 ) <nacturation AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @11:18PM (#9638728) Journal
    Give DirecTV a call. Tell them you want to give them your business, but you don't have any easy place to mount the dish and see if they have any suggestions. Heck, maybe they have some special kind of mounting gear for just your type of situation.

    The only other thing that comes to mind is getting permission from the property manager to put the dish on the roof and then run some wire down the side of the building through the window, to the receiving unit. If you're in a low-rise unit and/or not far from the roof, this may work but I wouldn't count on running ten stories worth of wire just so you can get your TV fix.
    • The only problem with this suggestion is that the people that come out to do the install, typically, have no desire to help you. I had waited over 2 months for someone to come out from Direct TV and the Dish Network. Both told me that I had no clear view of the sky (due to trees - I live in the stix) so I simply couldn't get their services.

      Then, a friend of my neighbors checked it out (who happens to do Direct TV installs) and had my service installed in 2 days by simply mounting on my existing antennae

  • Got a large one, about 18 inches wide and deep. stuck a steel pipe in it and filled it about half-way with quick-crete. You have to make sure it's in level and straight. We then put topsoil in it, and planted some flowers so it wasn't so tacky. Set it up on the porch and the apartment can't say a word. It's heavy enough that it went through a numerous Florida summers (severe thunderstorms almost daily) without flipping over once. Also doesn't modify their building so they are happy.

  • fcc has info (Score:3, Informative)

    by mrzaph0d ( 25646 ) <zaph0dNO@SPAMcurztech.com> on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @11:34PM (#9638842) Homepage
    FCC Fact Sheet on Placement of Antenmas [fcc.gov]

    Landlords and HOAs can prohibit installation in:

    common areas

    rooftops

    outside walls

    window sills

    so, unless permission is granted from landlord or homeowners associations you can't install there. the nice people at dish network have a landlord [dishnetwork.com] permission form and a diagram [dishnetwork.com] of exclusive areas.


    • I live in a converted victorian building on the top floor apartment. Monkeys from the 2nd floor decided to climb on the roof one day and install their own antenna, complete with cable that was just strung over the edge and not fastened.

      I promptly called the estates management. In the next few weeks, they'd come around to confirm it, then later, the tenants had been evicted and the antenna was removed.

      Good thing to. Last thing I want is (a) some shoddly mounted antenna swinging over and into my window duri
      • >water seeping in the roof through god-knows what mounting they used

        Had the antenna stayed, it was much less likely the roof would leak.

        Now there's probably 4 unsealed holes in it.

        You do the math.

        Sorry... but your solution probably didn't net you that gain.

        • "Had the antenna stayed, it was much less likely the roof would leak.

          Now there's probably 4 unsealed holes in it.

          Sorry... but your solution probably didn't net you that gain."

          Completely wrong assumptions there. Go back to school.
          • >Completely wrong assumptions there. Go back to school.

            Okay. If it's a penetrating mount, and the dish is removed by someone in anger, you expect the holes to be filled?

            If you're so smart, tell me why I'm wrong.

            Or did you not go to school either?
    • Actually, there was a later ruling that said that if the common area is of your exclusive use (like a window sill. Nobody else can get to it except me) then I can put a dish there. But they can prevent me from causing any damage.
      • but the rules also make mention (vaguely of course) that you can't count it as being installed in an exclusive area if it hangs over a non-exclusive area. so i think if the dish were mounted on your balcony or window, that would be ok unless it hangs over a common area (the dish, not the window, although that makes me wonder about those window seats where the window is actually jutting out from the building). then if the landlord is a prick he can say, "well, it hangs over the common bushes underneath your
        • I had a first floor apartment with a patio. They had a rule that you couldn't mount anything on the siding but they didn't care if you mounted onto the trim of the building. So I just screwed the satellite into the trim (big wooden stuff, about 1" thick). Pretty soon a few other people did the same. Then I just drilled a couple 1" diameter holes through the trim & into my apartment. I installed a cover on the apartment side but just siliconed it up on the outside.

          They were cool about it. I never

  • A better place to ask might be... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @11:37PM (#9638864) Homepage Journal
    at the Tivo community [tivocommunity.com] online. Your situation is hardly novel.

    Some of the solutions have been mentioned here, flower pots, getting the landlord to agree to a roof mount, etc.

    There are others who simply take the window, open it up, make sure that the window screen is fibreglass instead of wire, mount the dish on what becomes a piece of furniture, pointing out the window. When it gets cold they fill the void where the window would otherwise be, with a couple of pieces of plexiglass. It doesn't even have to be transparent.

    Then there are the phased array antenas, which I agree cost too much for most appartment dwellers.

    On the other hand, pretty much nothing I can do will help me. Physics is working against my getting sattelite reception from my appartment. Unless someone comes up with a way to position a satelite near the north pole, I have too much building in my way.

    -Rusty
    • I would think that you would just be able to take a peice of heavy sheet metal, and bend it to the frame of the window sill. Install the mounting hardware on the outside portion. The inside portion could wrap around the sill for extra support, and the window would be able to close freely on top of the sheet metal. It would be quite stable as well. Maybe something like this. Bow to my ASCII art skizzils (linked because of Slashdot's stupid lameness filters)...

      http://zborgerd.freeshell.org/satellite.txt
    • On the other hand, pretty much nothing I can do will help me. Physics is working against my getting sattelite reception from my appartment. Unless someone comes up with a way to position a satelite near the north pole, I have too much building in my way.

      There is. It's called a "statite" -- basically, it uses a solar sail to balance against the pull of gravity.

  • One word: Plexiglass (Score:4, Interesting)

    by affegott ( 104661 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @12:12AM (#9639041)
    I had an apartment with no balcony and a Southern facing window.

    I had line of sight to the primary sat, but the signal would not go through the glass. I just went to good ol' Home Depot and bought a sheet of plexiglass and some 2x4's. After building a simple frame and inserting it into the window I was good to go.

    My first attempt involved 2 spaced sheets of plexiglass, but I couldn't get a signal. 1 sheet worked great.

    I lost about 10 points of signal, rain fade was hardly a problem.
    • that's what I was wondering - in an appartment around the corner of my house someone also put a large dish (1 meter) behind his window..
      seems signals can get through glass ? (or maybe that for he has a large dish)

      anyone who has more information if you can put a dish behind a window without problems ?
  • well, a good friend of mine at Rutgers mounted his dish to the top of his school provided dresser, which was at the perfect height for the window, with nothing more than half a roll of duct tape. I'll be damned if that thing moved, since there was no wind... it was a nice setup, and it made me realize how much I miss HBO and such, which is not offered in the on-campus cable channel selection...
  • I see that you are awry of using suction cups (I would be too), but what about some high powered magnets. I've used them thar neodymium magnets to hold up some pretty heavy things, place them on either side of the glass, epoxy one of the magnets to a mount, homebrew or otherwise. I could see an issure with 'slippage' down the glass with the magnets, but maybe some rubber (nice sticky silicone) sheet would keep things upright.
    • I imagine that the magnets might be too powerfull and either upon bringing one of the magnets close the the glass, it pulls the other through the glass, breaking it and your fingers... or that the "pressure" created on the glass by the magnets pulling towards each other might crush the glass.
  • A buddy of mine who works in the video dept. is a serious DirecTV advocate. I didn't previously think that DirecTV was available in NYC due to the height of most buildings (but that really depends on which neighborhood you're in).

    Well, this guy didn't have permission from his landlord. He just figured that he would install now, pay later for damages if he gets hassled apologize etc and move if things got too hot. He's an easy going stoner type but majorly stauch about his entertainment resources. what sto
    • He just figured that he would install now, pay later for damages if he gets hassled apologize etc...

      That's what I did. Not much is more true than the axiom: "It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission."

      • than to ask permission", but it can be much more expensive.

        I used to live in an apartment complex with 7 three-story building full of apartments, and there were many small TV sat dishes installed in varying locations. Pretty much anywhere was OK, as long as it didn't interfere with other uses of the property.

        The most obvious example of stupid installers was the one that put their satellite dish post right next to the entry walkway, so that the dish hung at about head height over the walkway (yes, right w
  • My apartment manager says it's no problem if we want a satellite dish. (well, the law would compel her if she said otherwise)

    However, they demand that we purchase a renters insurance policy that would cover, in effect, the entire building, should something go wrong (a lightning strike, for example). The requirement stated some rediculous multi $100k dollar amount.

    • The renters insurance shouldn't be a problem. I work for a major insurance company and our renters policies come with $100k in liability, and can be upgraded to 300k or 500k for not more than a few dollars a month.

    • However, they demand that we purchase a renters insurance policy that would cover, in effect, the entire building, should something go wrong (a lightning strike, for example). The requirement stated some rediculous multi $100k dollar amount.

      FYI, according to the FCC [fcc.gov], that is illegal. Read the part that says

      Q: What types of restrictions are prohibited?

      A: The rule prohibits restrictions that impair a person's ability to install, maintain, or use an antenna covered by the rule. The rule applies to state

  • If you have a balcony, get the largest paving/patio stone you can buy (2 ft. x 2 ft. would be a nice size), and mount the base of the roof/wall mount to it using short lag shields and bolts.

    Enjoy. I've seen this work reasonably well myself. If you're worried about wind, lay 4 more patio stones over the edges of the one you mounted to.

    (Note: Don't try this with anything larger than an 18" dish)
    • Yes, do be sure to mount the stones with bolts, lets they get rocked or kicked by a visitor. Should one of these stones or plates go through the bottom of the railing, somebody below might "get stoned" or "be stoned", neither of which will be a fun stoning.

      I'd imagine tho, that if too many tennants wanted personally-owned rooftopy antennae, there could be an issue with holes drilled, and neighbors bumping into poles, dishes, and more.

      There is the issue of "rain fade", but is there one for "bird-turd-fade"

  • screw-in Mailbox post (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I used a screw-in mailbox post from Walmart and bolted the base of the reciever to the side of the post. Worked great. A lot lighter than the concrete in a bucket and looks better too. I think I paid ~$20 for it at Wally*World. It did break the 3rd time I screwed it in afeter moving again (I was moving every ~5 months for a while). I think I hit a rock or a tree root and it broke the weld on the screw part trying to force it.

    The apartment I live in now would have allowed DirecTV proffessional installa
  • Well, I see a bunch of people are describing balcony mounts, even though the person asking for help does not have a balcony, so I'll describe my balcony mount. My balcony has a rail on the walls, and I took advantage of that.

    Here is a photo [tzs.net].

    You can't see them in the photo, but at the bottom of the wood beam there are a couple of rubber feet. The zig-zag shaped metal thingy attached to the side and jammed up under the rail is actually a doorstop (at least, that's what it was labeled at Home Depot).

    To

  • People just have direct tv attach them to the side of the building. They are ugly and I'm sure they didn't ask management. They're lucky though that management doesn't come by here often. Oh the joys of living in the ghetto, made even more ghetto looking by 5 direct dishes attached to the sides of the apartment complex.

  • The easiest thing... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ameoba ( 173803 )
    I'm suprised that nobody's come out and suggested to just get cable; if sattelite TV was that big of a priority for you, you should've made sure you could use it before you moved.
  • Our mount was two 1x4" pieces of lumber. One piece was laid on the window sill, parallel to the window glass and held in place with the wood jawed clamps available at most home stores. The other piece was screwed to it sticking into the room about 1" (the depth of the dish). The dish pointed at a slight angle thru the glass.

    It worked well until a tree was planted in front of the window dropping the signal strength to below functional levels with the window closed. With the tree to hide our efforts, th
  • By law the apartment complex has to assist in mounting any satellite dishes... why don't you just ask your maintenance folks?

  • It's all about plexiglass! :) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by steppin_razor_LA ( 236684 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @04:52PM (#9646872) Journal
    I don't have a balcony on my apartment and can not mount a dish on the roof or bolt it to the external wall.

    I do have casement windows.

    Solution:

    One of my casement windows in my bedroom is always open. In its place is a plexiglass sheet that I purchased at home depot. I always keep the blinds closed in the bedroom anyways (sunlight! ick!) so this isn't an eye sore.

    The DirecTV signal will go through plexiglass with barely any signal degradation. Apparently plexiglass has a different dielctric (sp?) constant than glass (which absolutely destroys the signal).

    I get excellent reception. The only thing that stinks is the "once or twice a year" event where someone bumps the satellite dish. However, since I marked on the dresser the orientation marks, it usually only takes me a few minutes to get it recalibrated.

    Ghetto geek yes, but it sure beats AT&T cable!
  • .. I put the dish on the floor in the garage.
    garage was facing south and we had these convinent remote controls. So if you want to watch tv - you just have to use one more remote to fire it up.
  • and just put a dual lnb or triple lnb on it

  • cheap college student way (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I was driving one day, and I passed by one of those satellite dealer shops; they had a few of the 18" dishes mounted to one of those wooden forklift pallets. I had seen the bucket/concrete/pole solution before, but I had none of the above, and didn't want to mess with concrete. I also had no desire to purchase any either. So I "acquired" a wooden pallet from the back of a grocery store, and mounted the dish on that. My apt complex also has a no mounting clause whereby I cannot affix it to the structure

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