Help with Installation!

[VCode]

Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum and was hoping someone could give me some advice on an installation problem I am having.

I currently live in an apartment building that does not allow you to drill into the outer brick walls of the building to install a dish. The dish can be mounted any other way so long as you are not drilling into or damaging building property.

My apartment is in the corner of the building, so that my balcony faces one direction and my window is on another "side" of the building, facing a different direction.

The installer from DirecTV came the other day and was very unhelpful. He basically set one foot in my apartment, looked out my balcony and said "you're facing the wrong way" and therefore there was no line of site. I asked him to at least check out my windows, and sure enough when he checked he noted that there was in fact a line of site from my windows. However, he stated there was no way to mount the dish to the window so it couldn't be done. There are thin iron bars on my window, but he stated that there is no equipment that could clamp the dish (which would be the HD dish which I hear is pretty large) to the window and that nothing else could be done.

I then asked him to look again at my balcony, which even though it faces the wrong direction, since I'm in the corner of the building perhaps the dish could be mounted on a horizontal extension off the balcony so that it could face the opposite way (meaning angled towards the building, but it would face the sky since I'm at the corner of the building).

he wouldn't even look out there, saying there was no chance.

Now, is he correct? Or is there some way I could either mount it to the thin iron bars of my window or have some sort of horizontal extension off my balcony so that it could be positioned in the right direction?

I was surprised to see that they really made little effort to set me up and get my business.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you very much.

 

[NiFi]

Its really impossible to give you stone solid info going by descriptions of your location, but i can tell you of things we have done in apartment situations.

If your the top apartment, even though your looking the wrong way, we have U bolted a 10' pole to a corner of the balcony railing allowing us to shoot over the building ( all depends on what part of the country you live in and how much "look" angle you have )

Being in this business for MANY years now, you as a customer have to understand that a quality installer CAN walk into a job and have a good idea what will or wont work. I have No sights all the time who get angry that i didnt even put my ladder up, after doing thousands and thousands of installs, i dont need to put up a ladder to know if something will work, Yes sometimes if its real close i will do so, but most times i can give a yea or nea just by walking around and looking.

Cant speak for the company that works your area, but us subcontractors only get paid if we INSTALL you, so its really in our best interest to get you online. :up

 

[VCode]

I hear what you're saying and appreciate that insight. It may certainly be the case that there is no chance, but I guess I was wondering about the following:

-Can the HD dish somehow be mounted to thin iron bars that are outside covering my window? (Again I know that you can't see the exact setup, but is this something that you have familiarity with that generally is done). like I mentioned, the view from the window DOES have a line of site, he just told me that he didn't have the equipment to attach it to the window and that either way it would "flunk" a post-installation check

-There is about 6 feet of wall between the edge of balcony and the edge of my building. If the dish could somehow be mounted at the end of a horizontal pole that ran from the edge of my balcony to the edge of my building, it could face the opposite way in the correct line of site. Is this at all possible? (the notion of a "horizontal mounting pole". I live in the bottom of the building).

Thanks for any help. Ultimately I'm probably taking a stab in the dark here but I just want to exhaust all options before giving up.

 

[NiFi]

Rut ro, your talking HD so big ol "slimline" dish. They are heavy and like parachutes when it comes to the wind, so i would have to agree with the installer that the window options are not safe nor would they pass QC checks.

I also dont think your extension idea will fly either, just not enough stability for the dish.

You say your not far from the corner of the building, why not a regular ground pole mount?

 

[boba]

You need to understand you are looking at a satellite about the size of a van located 22,300 miles out from the equator. A very slight movement of your dish can move you completely out of the sight of the satellite signal. The wind blowing you a 32nd of an inch can cause a drastic drop in signal,so a poor mounting site is disasterous for enjoying your satellite signal. Next time you move be sure to chose an apartment with a southern view.

 

[Joe Diamond]

V Code,
Here is anotherr approach. As a DTV installer for several years and CATV before that I can tell you this may work but you gotta be lucky and spend some money.
The cable outlets in your unit run to a common point in a telco / cable /antenna room somewhere in your building. You can tone or otherwise identify the cable for your unit. Then look again outside the cable drop box (where the cable company connects to your building.) If you can get a LOS (Line of Sight) near the CATV drop you can connect your apartment, and all the other apartments. The installer will be able to ground your system per code and you can begin paying for the DTV commercials instead of the cable company commercials.
Some buildings are or have been connected this way and there are SMAT(System master antenna) companies that convert MDUs (Multiple dwelling units) to this service. The CATV (Community Antenna Television) companies will fight you because they may have paid for the initial rg59 that serves your building. The wire is, however, owned by the building owner, who could give you permission.
Or you could weld a mast to the bars on your windows....unless you post from a JOINT ( penal institution ).

Keep smilin you CATV cx (customer) you,

Joe

 

[VCode]

Thanks for the info guys. Sounds like it's probably not going to work out for me....although how does the ground mount work? I literally live on ground level so the window is only like 3 or 4 feet above the ground. Like I said, if I could somehow have the dish in front of the window I'd have a clear line of site, but I can't drill into building property.

 

[Joe Diamond]

V Code,
A ground mount is just a 1.6 or 2.0 steel pole in the ground. It is set plumb and the down end needs to be dented before you put the bag of concrete so it won't spin when you mount the OU (outside unit)-dish.

A regular installer will not want to do this because the ground point for the building is probably far far away-where the cable guy hooked up.

RVs use a folding tripod mount that they fold when they move. An irregular installer could do the pole and pass the cable through the window or use a flat coax.

Then you could join the happy DTV family. I could get you an introduction to the actress on channel 101. He an I were in the Marines together.

Joe