wobbie said:
What about a skid mount on the roof of the building?? Is it a flat roof?? You could weigh it down with some sand bags. AS long as the existing cable doesn't have any splitters in line other then the one where they all meet with the main cable feed I would suspect that you will be okay with the existing cable. If there are only four cable outlets in the house, that would signify to me that there is a single line to each room ( you did mention a four-way splitter)The only other questions to that scenerio.... is it possible to get the cable from the dish to the existing cable and are you getting Tivo or any reason you would need two lines to one reciever location. Good luck, keep us informed.
Ok...this is a long post...sorry in advance!
A single RG6 cable runs from an outside location on the side of the home (intended for the dish to be mounted there) at the 3rd story level. The single cable runs inside the walls from the 3rd story into the 2nd story to a 4-way splitter as an "in". Four RG6 cables run "out" from the 4-way splitter to different rooms, on different levels of the home. Tivo will be installed on the 3rd floor, where currently, only 1 cable runs to that location.
We are not opposed to running 4 new cables from the dish externally on the home to the different rooms - if we actually have to, but have been told by Install Inc that they won't even run those cables from the exterior of the home due to the metal siding, etc...it would have to be from the $80 tri-pod (now $60 today for some reason) that they really, really want to sell to us.
In addition to above, found out some interesting things today. Install company never called today as they said they would - had to call them to try to get someone else out to install and/or answer questions about what actually could be done. I requested that everything be clarified for the new installer and for us PRIOR to their trip out here so we didn't have a repeat of the other day...that proved to be too difficult to accomplish...
So, they told me today they could not mount to a steel building because of the risk of lighting, etc. HOWEVER, she said they could mount the dish to a 6' STEEL pipe that would be cemented into our yard.
I asked why the dish could be mounted to a steel pole, and the rep from Install Inc said it was because it was a "special" steel. I asked her what the "special" steel was, and told her I found it very odd. She reluctantly told me that the steel they would use is galvanized steel.
Well, lo and behold, our entire home is constructed of galvanized steel beams and painted galvanized steel siding (we live above a business if you are wondering). So, I then asked why they would not mount to the home - she said it would take a "special" drill bit and "special" bolts to mount the dish and we would have to pay extra for it. Still not reason enough to not mount the dish.
Rep then said that with the dish mounted on the home, there is a high risk of lightning striking the home. Odd that a 6' foot steel pole wouldn't be struck, but a grounded building (as law requires new construction to be) would? The rep also stated that the building would be an "unstable mounting surface". I still cannot figure out how in the world mounting into a steel stud is less stable than a dish waving around in the wind and rain on top of a pole...
Needless to say, we are at the point of deciding whether or not we are going to return the entire system and wash our hands of it or if we are just going to intall it ourselves. Argh!!!
I have a bad feeling...rabbit ears, here we come... :river
