So, last night I go to install my D* equipment at my new apartment. Management doesn't want a 'bucket and cement', so I took some extra 1x8s and made a flower pot basically. Grabbed the pipe from the old place, and mounted it to the inside of the box. I'll get pics later to show you all.
Anyways, I go and hook it up, check the az/el/tilt and all. Well, I can't get a lick of signal. Keeps saying 0. Auto detection doesn't work either. So I figure I have some problem here. I know the el/tilt are correct, and azimuth was mostly correct. Gave it a rest last night, and took a go at it this morning(well, last morning now, as it's 3am). Turns out I'm a moron, cuz I plugged the sat antenna into the OTA antenna in jack. Slapped myself, plugged into the right jack, and found out I was just about spot on the mark for all 3 sattys.
So the next thing I have to figure out, is how to run the cables. Management didn't say anything about drilling holes, so I guess that means it's ok. They just didn't want the antenna mounted to anything of theirs, and no buckets.
I do need to know where I can get the dual RG6 cable(home depot doesn't seem to carry it), and the bushing to put it through the wall with. Going to be upgrading to HD soon, and then will have 2 recievers to hookup. The dual that I have now isn't long enough for how I want to run it, so I need some new stuff.
And can one ground the grounding block to the ground in an outlet? Is that a safe house ground for the antenna? I would assume so, as it is a common grounding point throughout a building.
Anyways, I go and hook it up, check the az/el/tilt and all. Well, I can't get a lick of signal. Keeps saying 0. Auto detection doesn't work either. So I figure I have some problem here. I know the el/tilt are correct, and azimuth was mostly correct. Gave it a rest last night, and took a go at it this morning(well, last morning now, as it's 3am). Turns out I'm a moron, cuz I plugged the sat antenna into the OTA antenna in jack. Slapped myself, plugged into the right jack, and found out I was just about spot on the mark for all 3 sattys.
So the next thing I have to figure out, is how to run the cables. Management didn't say anything about drilling holes, so I guess that means it's ok. They just didn't want the antenna mounted to anything of theirs, and no buckets.
I do need to know where I can get the dual RG6 cable(home depot doesn't seem to carry it), and the bushing to put it through the wall with. Going to be upgrading to HD soon, and then will have 2 recievers to hookup. The dual that I have now isn't long enough for how I want to run it, so I need some new stuff.
And can one ground the grounding block to the ground in an outlet? Is that a safe house ground for the antenna? I would assume so, as it is a common grounding point throughout a building.
I'm going to leave the grounding and RG6 questions to the pro guys here, but I will comment on your apartment management. Them 'not wanting a bucket' is pretty asinine. If my management had a problem with buckets I could very easily disguise my bucket with some sort of outer construct that would make it look for all the world like a nice piece of patio furniture. Oh, and my landlord was pretty explicit about not drilling holes, and I'm pretty sure yours is as well even if they didn't say anything. I ran the lines into my apartment by using a 'false sill' that I constructed below a window, and drilled a hole through that. Once we move I open the window, take out the false sill and it's like there was nothing there. However when the installer guy was at my place he did mention something about routing the cables through where comcast routed the cables into the place. I didn't really want to dig around in the utility closet, but could have and you probably have something similar if your apartment is in any way wired for cable. Interesting how they won't let ME route cables in but for a big cable company it's just fine. Anyway, if you won't be able to drill holes (at this point, I'll assume that you can) the other option is flat coax under a window or door, but I've heard a lot about failure of those over time, plus I couldn't find any to save my life around here. Mail order would have been an option but I didn't want to wait.
