New apartment, new dish setup

[kittyhas1000legs]

The snow's finally mostly melted at my new apartment, so it's time to talk to the landlord about putting up my dish. It will be in the grass near my building (porch is north-facing), and she said it's fine so long as I put the request in writing before I put it up. Here are the installation difficulties I face, making me lean toward a pro/insured installer instead of purely DIY:

-Grounding: I know it's had many threads on this forum, and rather than just forego it, I'd prefer a pro to do it to code. My previous dish was on a second floor balcony ungrounded. This one would be blatantly out in the open and the landlord's insurance person or someone from the city can easily see it. Don't want to cause any waves.

-Wire run: If my wife wants 125W, the dish won't be right next to the building. This would potentially mean burying some cable and running it through the basement, then drilling into the apartment to run the coax. If it's not buried, the exterior walls are an odd material that I wouldn't attempts drilling into (south side is stucco-ish, north side is something concrete or stucco-ish with a bunch of chunks of rock in it.) I'd rather let a pro's insurance cover any screw-ups.

From there, it should be easy. If trees don't allow for 125W, then probably a single dish with 103/97/91, 103/99/95/91, 103/97/87, etc. If trees do allow for 125W I might just go for that, or maybe two dishes (one for PBS, one for other sats, possibly motorized). If I have a pro there with their meter, hopefully they'd be able to peak a few satellites, or at least get one ready and I could go from there, maybe with the purchase of my own meter or I could bribe a fellow SatelliteGuy in the area with beer/food/gas to come by with a fancy meter

Equipment are as follows:
90cm GeosatPro
HH-90
NPRM
Slimline dish
Clamps to have both disheson one NPRM
Four quad-output skinny LNBFs
Five(?) single-output PLL LNBFs
Various 4x1, 8x1, 2x4 switches
Linkbox 9000i Local
TBS dual-tuner card

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

So... Looks like the satellite shop in town just does pay-TV and internet. I feel confident installing on my own again, except for grounding. I guess I'll be digging through the county website for zoning regs so I can figure out how to do it correctly. As for aligning the dish, I'll probably get Skype set up between my phone and the wife's iPad since I don't have a satellite meter.

Are there any decent DVB-S2 satellite meters under $100 out there, or a SatelliteGuy I can convince to come by for an afternoon?

 

[etlam34]

I've seen some freesat finders and satheros on amazon.

 

[FTA4PA]

As for aligning the dish, I'll probably get Skype set up between my phone and the wife's iPad since I don't have a satellite meter.

Are there any decent DVB-S2 satellite meters under $100 out there, or a SatelliteGuy I can convince to come by for an afternoon?

I've been using a Satlink WS-6933. Inexpensive but gets the job done. It has a built in flashlight for adjusting at night. Also has a compass but I don't trust mine.

USA SHIP Satlink WS-6933 DVB-S2 FTA C&KU Band Digital Satellite Finder Meter US | eBay

Here are a couple pics of the menu and signal screens (thumbnailed - click to enlarge).

 

[harshness]

In terms of grounding, the Mark Holt website pretty well covers NEC requirements that are included in most building codes.

Mike Holt Enterprises - the Leader in Electrical Training.

There's a big disclaimer about the above page being out of date, but not much has changed about the NEC relative to satellite antennas.

Here's an informative PDF:

https://www.mikeholt.com/instructor2/img/product/pdf/17LED-1498-sample.pdf

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

I've been using a Satlink WS-6933. Inexpensive but gets the job done. It has a built in flashlight for adjusting at night. Also has a compass but I don't trust mine.

USA SHIP Satlink WS-6933 DVB-S2 FTA C&KU Band Digital Satellite Finder Meter US | eBay

Here are a couple pics of the menu and signal screens (thumbnailed - click to enlarge).

View attachment 138052 View attachment 138053 View attachment 138054

Hmm... looks fairly tempting. Is it fairly easy to update TP info via USB?

As for the compass, the version on Amazon doesn't even have one.

 

[Titanium]

No need to buy a meter.

I see in your signature that you have the Amiko A3? If so, you already have an awesome signal meter when the Spark 2 Player apk is loaded on an Android device.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

No need to buy a meter.

I see in your signature that you have the Amiko A3? If so, you already have an awesome signal meter when the Spark 2 Player apk is loaded on an Android device.

That's FTA4PA. I've got a Linkbox 9000i and X2 mini HD. I have the buggy "remote" app for Android to stream from the X2, but I don't know if it has a meter or if my wifi will reach that far.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I "Facetime" my iPad (facing the signal meter on the TV) to my iPhone and it works REALLY well. No noticeable delay. If you have 2 Apple devices, you might try that

 

[FTA4PA]

I've seen some freesat finders and satheros on amazon.

Hmm... looks fairly tempting. Is it fairly easy to update TP info via USB?

As for the compass, the version on Amazon doesn't even have one.

Satellite info can be changed 'on the fly' in the menus so no need to connect to a computer.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

I e-mailed the landlord about setting up the dish in the grass, and she said that's fine, just absolutely not on the roof. I had no intention to put it up there, but apparently she's "super touchy about that roof" since it cost $80,000 last year. I'll most likely set up the dish Friday while Skyping with my wife's iPad. I'll probably be a good husband and get 125w set up initially. Eventually I'll get the 90cm motorized, possibly with the slimline parked on 103 or 125 (though I doubt it can get 125 at that size).

 

[Brct203]

I e-mailed the landlord about setting up the dish in the grass, and she said that's fine, just absolutely not on the roof. I had no intention to put it up there, but apparently she's "super touchy about that roof" since it cost $80,000 last year. I'll most likely set up the dish Friday while Skyping with my wife's iPad. I'll probably be a good husband and get 125w set up initially. Eventually I'll get the 90cm motorized, possibly with the slimline parked on 103 or 125 (though I doubt it can get 125 at that size).

I can understand her about the roof. When i bought my house it had 2 Dish Network dishes attached to the roof, with lag bolts through the asphalt shingles, and it definitely caused leaks and rotted the plywood. I did the Skype thing and it works but there is a delay that makes it a bit difficult to use. Also, it can be difficult to read the small details on the screen like the quality percentage - which is of course essential in this task. Now I just bring the receiver outside near the dish and hook it up to either a small TV or a computer monitor (with an HDMI -to-DVI cable)

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

I mentioned putting it in the grass when I first moved in, and again in the e-mail. There must have been some pretty bad issues under those shingles for her to remind me again that absolutely nothing is to go on the roof, even an NPRM. Even when my wife and I get our own place, there will be nothing on that roof. Dishes in the yard, antenna in the yard, solar (if we can afford it) in the yard.

She said it could go on the east side of the building, which was my plan anyway. It's a fairly tall dish stand (came from a guy who used Dish Network in his RV), so I might be able to put it right behind the curb of our freshly paved parking lot without having to worry about cars/trucks blocking it.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

Welp... nothing yet. Apparently there are some big maintenance issues at the landlord's other property, so the maintenance guy should be running the cable some time this week.

Wife is impatiently waiting for 125W. The antenna gives us the occasional blip on KSPS, and our building plus a hill block Montana PBS. I'm looking forward to the picture quality of Nature & Nova on the national feeds, and tying the 125W Montana PBS signal to the OTA EPG will be a nice bonus.

 

[cyberham]

I "Facetime" my iPad (facing the signal meter on the TV) to my iPhone and it works REALLY well. No noticeable delay. If you have 2 Apple devices, you might try that

I use VNC Viewer with my wifi to remotely view the TV while moving the antenna or dish. I point my PC at the TV, then connect my Android via wifi. A little delay but you should work slowly anyway when doing this. Or, even in Halifax, I found a free small TV via Kijiji. Our hobby tools are others junk. It sits in the dirt at the base of the dish for me to monitor as I move the dish.

 

[Brct203]

I use VNC Viewer with my wifi to remotely view the TV while moving the antenna or dish. I point my PC at the TV, then connect my Android via wifi. A little delay but you should work slowly anyway when doing this. Or, even in Halifax, I found a free small TV via Kijiji. Our hobby tools are others junk. It sits in the dirt at the base of the dish for me to monitor as I move the dish.

Same for me, I bought an old flat-screen small TV at Savers for about $10, and it's small enough that I can carry it wherever it's convenient to have it to tune the dish or even OTA antennas