lookin for a cheap and easy way to mount dish!

[mattb]

Cheap and easy way to mount dish?

I have a E* system (i have had it for a few years) -- 4900 used to sub to Top150 and Skyangel before moving to a place that was a pain to put up a Dish... anyways, I now live in a place with a nice view of the south (1 story ) and I have a nice patio to put the dish on (its an apartment) What's the easiest way to mount a dish (besides the bucket method?

 

[K R Kimmel]

It will depend on what your landlord has to say about it. FCC rules prohibit him from not allowing you to set up a dish as long as it is located entirely within your exclusive use area except for valid and clearly stated (in writing) reasons of safety or historic preservation.

He is, however, permitted to forbid you from mounting the dish to the outside wall of the building (yes that included the wall between a porch/patio and the inside of the apartment) and he may also may forbid you from drilling holes in the wall to bring the cable into the apartment.

So, depending on what your landlord says, the bucket method may be your only option.

 

[mattb]

I wasnt going to "physically attach' it to anything.. and yes I know about the exclusive areas etc...

Just was curious if there was anything else besides the bucket option

 

[Cascade]

A tripod would work, my Dish installer tried to sell me one for my 30" dish 'til I told him I was installing a pole.
If you know a welder or anyone at a bodyshop you should be able to take 4 6ft lengths of 1.5" fencepost and get a nice sturdy tripod made up cheaply.
Lowes may even sell the brackets you need to make your own.

 

[Cascade]

If you have a spare dish you could do this.

 

[K R Kimmel]

Wind is another factor you may want to consider in determining how to mount the dish. You have to ask yourself if a dish bolted to a pole that has been attached to a bucket filled with cement more or less likely to move than a dish bolted to a tripod (are you able to bolt or stake the tripod into the ground?). Remember, it doesn't take that much movement before you lose signal on the dish.

When I was growing up we had a 50lb. cast iron table (the top was an open mesh of small iron ribbons, about the equivilent of 10ga. wire) with an umbrella bolted to a 75lb. concrete weight under the table. Whenever we weren't using the table we would close the umbrella and it would be strapped shut. Still 2-3 times a summer we would be obligated to go out into the yard (and sometimes into a neighbor's yard to retrieve the umbrella, table and concrete weight. In the house I currently live in I will occasionally find that all the patio furniture has moved up against the railing on one side of the patio. Wind can be a powerfull force, even if you aren't in tornado or hurricane country.