Satellite on Window
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It may get some signal through a window, but not much. Do you have a balcony that you can set a 5 gal pail on? If yes, you can put a post in the pail and fill it with cement. A lot of people use that trick when traveling in a Winnebago.
If its ok with your management, you might try to custom-make a mounting plate that clamps to your window sill. That way it won't need any holes drilled and you could just open the window to adjust the dish. Good luck.
A satellite dish would be way too heavy to attach using a suction cup, but if you can open the window and set the dish inside on a tripod (provided, of course, your window has an unobstructed view to the satellite you want to receive), it may work.
We had a sample several years ago that was constructed of a 16" x 16" plexiglass plate predrilled for a standard J-post mount with suction cups placed in the four corners. It securely held a Winegard 76cm dish, but I would suggest adding tether as a safety for those below!
i made one years ago in our first apartment. Management didn't allow satellites either since they provided cable. Back then, DirecPC was the only high-speed available.
I used a sheet of 3/4 Ash I had and cut it to match the open window. I screwed the mast on it and anchored the board to the sill. then I sealed around the board and open window. Man I got some FUNNY looks from the neighbors and people driving by. Imagine it, an open window (on the 2nd floor) with a weird looking dish in it.
It worked great and management was fine with it. They did dock my deposit a little for the holes left by the "L" anchors. But you know that goes....
I used a sheet of 3/4 Ash I had and cut it to match the open window. I screwed the mast on it and anchored the board to the sill. then I sealed around the board and open window. Man I got some FUNNY looks from the neighbors and people driving by. Imagine it, an open window (on the 2nd floor) with a weird looking dish in it.
It worked great and management was fine with it. They did dock my deposit a little for the holes left by the "L" anchors. But you know that goes....
You may try to utilize a glass suction cup handle tool like this one:
Attach the dish to it somehow, and like Brian said, make sure you tie everything with a tether to a hook or something solid, just in case the dish falls down.
Attach the dish to it somehow, and like Brian said, make sure you tie everything with a tether to a hook or something solid, just in case the dish falls down.
We do not carry this device, but it sure would be easy to build! Buy 4 bolt mounted suction cups and a piece of plexiglass.
I really like Sadoun's suggestion of the plate glass carrying handle. Seems like the would be easy to modify.
I really like Sadoun's suggestion of the plate glass carrying handle. Seems like the would be easy to modify.
Suction cups can lift and sustain great weight on a temporary basis, lifting heavy plate glass, etc., but when they fail, over time, they fail suddenly and completely. I'd want to avoid a suction cup solution if at all possible.
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I recall listening to someone from Manhattan, NY describing an urban legend; a DirecTV antenna suction cupped to an apartment 30 or 40 stories up. The occupant brought it in every evening after watching television, and carefully "temporarily" installed with the suction cups every night after work. Management had a problem with permanent installations on the building, and there wasn't much of a ledge to hide it.
The temporary installation was noticed one weekend during a period of high winds, when the suction cups did not hold, allowing the antenna to swing down over one story below by its coaxial cable. Thoughts of horror crossed some people's minds when considering that the coax might have been loosely finger tightened, and could have dropped several hundred feet below to the ground. The owner of the dish VERY carefully pulled it back up without incident, but retained a state of paranoia afterwards.
The temporary installation was noticed one weekend during a period of high winds, when the suction cups did not hold, allowing the antenna to swing down over one story below by its coaxial cable. Thoughts of horror crossed some people's minds when considering that the coax might have been loosely finger tightened, and could have dropped several hundred feet below to the ground. The owner of the dish VERY carefully pulled it back up without incident, but retained a state of paranoia afterwards.
I have seen ads for a suction mount with some type of coaxial connector atached that will work though the glass(no idea whether it works or not), BUT it was designed for a 18" dish. All though I have never seen one in person, I would never advise it for a dish larger than 18", and with a 18" dish I would only recommend it IF the dish had a tether cord anchored to the building to stop it from falling onto somebodys head.
What about magnets? You can get some pretty powerful magnets and mount some on the outside and some on the inside. That would necessitate having two people for the setup, of course, but magnets tend to hold better than suction cups. Of course, a good tether is still necessary.
The magnets could be an idea, the neodymium magnets are very strong but a tether cord should still be used for safety reasons. Large neodymium magnets are used in windmill generators and need a air gap of about 1/4". Be very, very careful if you try this type of magnets if you try this method as people have crushed thier fingers without using jackscrews to bring them close enough to 'grab' ahold of each other. They could also result in a broken window if they start to 'grab' each other with a tiny bit of a gap from one side of the window to the other. The force of suddenly slaming into a piece of glass from only a few millimetres away could shatter or crack the glass.
Ever use a bicycle carrier on the back of a car?
If you had a double hung window you could fashion clips to grab the edges of the upper frame and use straps to crank it down tight.
You'd need rubber pads on the dish mounting plate to distribute the force on the glass.
You may want to check to see how much a new window is before you start.
Have you checked to see if you have a line of sight from your window?
If you had a double hung window you could fashion clips to grab the edges of the upper frame and use straps to crank it down tight.
You'd need rubber pads on the dish mounting plate to distribute the force on the glass.
You may want to check to see how much a new window is before you start.
Have you checked to see if you have a line of sight from your window?
Yea, this is the same OP as the air conditioner mount.
I'm just waiting to see some solution executed, only to find the window is north-facing! -
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