HD Dish Size Question

[rhino1000]

Hi all,

I have searched the net for countless hours with little luck so I figured I would try a post instead.

Here is my problem... I live in a condo which has a rule stating that your dish can either be mounted on the balcony or on the chimney. My balcony does not face the proper direction so I am one of the unfortunate ones who is stuck with the chimney mount option. For years this was not a problem as I did not have a HD TV so the DirecTV dish was relatively small and could mount to the chimney quite easily. Then aprox 2 years ago I got a HDTV and had the dish guys come out to mount a new HD dish on my building. Low and behold the thing is gigantic (like 32 inches or something) and they said that even though I have a very large chimney (about 4 ft by 8ft) that they could not mount a dish this size on a chimney. Either way it was irrelevant as my condo has the 24 inch rule. They then came back with some sort of a new slim line dish which was still too large (28 inches or something). I then tried dish network and had the same problem. With all that being said I was somewhat forced to switch to cable (charter) so that I could get HD. It has been a nightmare ever since. Multiple cable boxes, dozens of calls (literally) to tech support and so on.

With all the ongoing cable issues I am desperately trying to find a way to get back on DirecTV since I did not have one problem with them or their service for the five years that I used them.

My question is are their any smaller HD dishes coming out in the near future or is it possible to combine two 18 or 20 inch dishes together to pickup the required 4 or 5 satellites? (Condo would allow two dishes as long as neither is larger than the 24 inches.)

I apologize for such along post, but I am having such a terrible time with my cable that I am desperately trying to explore my options....

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[iwc5893]

Your only hope is for the SWM3 dish, which I don't think is being released yet (possibly next year some time)

 

[rad]

Your only hope is for the SWM3 dish, which I don't think is being released yet (possibly next year some time)

What I heard was the dish is the same size as the current slimline, just the LNB assembly is different.

I'd check the FCC regs, AFAIK if the dish is <36" the condo association can't stop you as long as it's mounted on your property. I'm sure others that have been through this will be posting here shortly on this subject that know more.

 

[iwc5893]

What I heard was the dish is the same size as the current slimline, just the LNB assembly is different.

I'd check the FCC regs, AFAIK if the dish is <36" the condo association can't stop you as long as it's mounted on your property. I'm sure others that have been through this will be posting here shortly on this subject that know more.

I haven't seen the dish yet, so I don't know about the size.

The FCC point is a moot issue here. The OP's balcony faces the wrong direction, and the chimney is by no means considered exclusive use property as required to be covered by OTARD.

 

[rad]

I haven't seen the dish yet, so I don't know about the size.

The FCC point is a moot issue here. The OP's balcony faces the wrong direction, and the chimney is by no means considered exclusive use property as required to be covered by OTARD.

Guess I was asusming that the chimney was his alone.

 

[Tyralak]

Hi all,

I have searched the net for countless hours with little luck so I figured I would try a post instead.

Here is my problem... I live in a condo which has a rule stating that your dish can either be mounted on the balcony or on the chimney. My balcony does not face the proper direction so I am one of the unfortunate ones who is stuck with the chimney mount option. For years this was not a problem as I did not have a HD TV so the DirecTV dish was relatively small and could mount to the chimney quite easily. Then aprox 2 years ago I got a HDTV and had the dish guys come out to mount a new HD dish on my building. Low and behold the thing is gigantic (like 32 inches or something) and they said that even though I have a very large chimney (about 4 ft by 8ft) that they could not mount a dish this size on a chimney. Either way it was irrelevant as my condo has the 24 inch rule. They then came back with some sort of a new slim line dish which was still too large (28 inches or something). I then tried dish network and had the same problem. With all that being said I was somewhat forced to switch to cable (charter) so that I could get HD. It has been a nightmare ever since. Multiple cable boxes, dozens of calls (literally) to tech support and so on.

With all the ongoing cable issues I am desperately trying to find a way to get back on DirecTV since I did not have one problem with them or their service for the five years that I used them.

My question is are their any smaller HD dishes coming out in the near future or is it possible to combine two 18 or 20 inch dishes together to pickup the required 4 or 5 satellites? (Condo would allow two dishes as long as neither is larger than the 24 inches.)

I apologize for such along post, but I am having such a terrible time with my cable that I am desperately trying to explore my options....

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

The "24 inch rule" is illegal and you ought to call them on it. Federal law states 1 meter (3 feet). Federal law supercedes jerk-off HOAs and condo associations. Here's the link to the FCC rules. FCC Fact Sheet on Placement of Antennas Show it to them. If they push back, report them to the FCC.

 

[Tyralak]

I haven't seen the dish yet, so I don't know about the size.

The FCC point is a moot issue here. The OP's balcony faces the wrong direction, and the chimney is by no means considered exclusive use property as required to be covered by OTARD.

Given that they allow dish mounting to that area, they may not have a legal basis for regulating the size, since they opened that door.

 

[rhino1000]

Thanks for all the info so far. Yes the chimney is in a shared/common ground so I was under the assumption that the FCC document would not help me. Although I have no expertise in such issues so I could be completely wrong.

Although like was previously mentioned, they may have opened the door concerning size by allowing them to be mounted on the chimney in the first place. I am tempted to go ahead and mount the slimline and see what happens. They very well may just let it be as the association may not want to spend time/effort/money arguing over a dish.... but who knows... The association manager is kind of a jerk...

If I do decide to go ahead what is the recommended method for a large dish on a chimney? The standard mount, or one of those metal strap mount things that I have seen on a couple websites. (It looked the most secure to me although I have never actually seen one used anywhere.)

What really sucks about all of this is I never realized all this stuff until after I bought the condo. The whole dish thing slipped my mind at the time of purchase but it is something any future condo owner should keep in the back of their mind...

What is really killing me now is I hate not having the NFL package from dish. With cable I only get two day games via network stations. And being in St. Louis, one of them is always the Rams and they don't really count at the moment......

 

[chris prack]

And as everyone knows, it's not the size but how you use it..........

I am just trying to get to 15 posts so I can post a friggen pic....

 

[Tyralak]

Thanks for all the info so far. Yes the chimney is in a shared/common ground so I was under the assumption that the FCC document would not help me. Although I have no expertise in such issues so I could be completely wrong.

Although like was previously mentioned, they may have opened the door concerning size by allowing them to be mounted on the chimney in the first place. I am tempted to go ahead and mount the slimline and see what happens. They very well may just let it be as the association may not want to spend time/effort/money arguing over a dish.... but who knows... The association manager is kind of a jerk...

If I do decide to go ahead what is the recommended method for a large dish on a chimney? The standard mount, or one of those metal strap mount things that I have seen on a couple websites. (It looked the most secure to me although I have never actually seen one used anywhere.)

What really sucks about all of this is I never realized all this stuff until after I bought the condo. The whole dish thing slipped my mind at the time of purchase but it is something any future condo owner should keep in the back of their mind...

What is really killing me now is I hate not having the NFL package from dish. With cable I only get two day games via network stations. And being in St. Louis, one of them is always the Rams and they don't really count at the moment......

Yeah, the chimney straps are a good idea. It also wouldn't hurt to send off an email to the FCC and ask for advice on the matter. They can tell you if you're covered by OTARD or not. Then you can have your reply to show the condo ASSociation.

 

[iwc5893]

Yeah, the chimney straps are a good idea. It also wouldn't hurt to send off an email to the FCC and ask for advice on the matter. They can tell you if you're covered by OTARD or not. Then you can have your reply to show the condo ASSociation.

Yep, despite what us internet lawyers think, it is the FCC that has the final say in whether or not the OP is covered. Good advice.:up

 

[dtbx]

???

 

[boone0875]

The SWM3 is the same size as the 5LNB only thing that is different is the LNB is reduced to 1 Head instead of 3 i have installed many of them they work wonders