What's the best kind of portable dish setup?

[OoTLink]

We have two houses (at the moment), and go to our (soon to be main residence) every now and then to check up on things and clean the yard/prepare the house for our moving there.

Usually, these trips are for about a week, and our place in Vegas is about a 10 hour drive from here considering breaks and everything, so yeah it'll be nice to have something to watch (especially to keep my older bro busy)..

While it'd be ideal to just go ahead and mount a real set of dishes since we'll be moving there soon enough anyway, I don't have the time, would rather not spend the money, and "planning" with the homeowners association (we have to let them know where it'll be if they're above the 'fence'), I'd rather just have a portable setup for now, besides they're nice for mucking around with. (I'd love a dish I could repoint without having to go up on the roof to do so)..

That said, I've looked around at a few things, and will say this, the only thing I'm limiting on is that with cable, the dish, and whatever it is that holds it up, I'm trying to keep it down to $100, for the stand/dish/cable. Since I've already got a DP D500 lined up (that does 110/119), I guess the 40-50 range is okay for the stand, that said..

1. Unfortunately I don't have access to a hardware store, nor do I have much in pipe cutting tools, so building up a rig isn't really a huge idea (maybe out of an umbrella stand but meh)...

2. Lighter and more portable the better (Ideally I just want to use a tripod, but I've seen a few kinds.. in fact, this is what I want to know -- what's the best kind? I saw a winegard one that looked like it was built decently enough but yeah.. the other thing is height might be an obstacle, though I doubt it. The dish will have to be able to pick 110/119 and clear the fence at the same time, though I should definitely be able to do that even if it's as short as 3ft off the ground.

3. Any tips/suggestions? I've read plenty about pointing portable setups and that seems painless enough (especially since I can set the TV in front of the nearest window and gauge signal strength from there).. I think I have a good idea where the satellites are in the sky relative to our house, and getting 100+ in signal isn't a huge issue, so what would be a damn economical way of pointing this sucker without a $100 compass?

4. Any other things can be said lol. I'll be using one of our 322s for the tv and while we could probably be just fine off 119 alone, the price of a DP 500 setup isn't much different from a 300 setup (especially off ebay). If all else fails and I end up with a 500 with a busted LNB I can always borrow the one off our current 500 [Yeah, I'll test out the setup before we head out on our trip heh]

*grin* thanks in advance for the replies

 

[Liquidforce88]

Well if you get a complete Dish500 with the mast all you need is a 2'x2' piece of plywood. Just mount the mast to the plywood, then put something heavy on the plywood to keep it steady. Level your mast and set your dish, turn it untill you get signal.

Have set this type of mount up for several people with RV's. They can set the dish on the ground or on top of the RV. When they take it down they just take the dish off the mast and lay the mast down and store the plywood with the mast on it.

 

[Liquidforce88]

By the way I have several brand new Dish500's with DPTwin LNB's for sale in the classified section.

 

[OoTLink]

Dave, how much would ya want to ship one of those here? (zip is 94591).. there's gonna be a dozen ways to mount this but I'll still need a dish

 

[HokieEngineer]

Radio shack sells a tripod for mounting an antenna:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F001%5F003%5F004&product%5Fid=15%2D517

Its $30. Buy a section of PVC pipe from home depot for $6 (I believe the 1.5" diameter fits the dish mount). Trim pipe with hack saw to length you desire. You should be able to get a d500 on ebay or from Dave. Total cost definitely less than $100.

This provides a sturdy mount and its very easy to repoint. I've used this setup for years during football tailgates.

 

[dfergie]

I've got one of the tripods from Radio Shack, with a chain link fence post cut off in it... use it tent camping with tent stakes...

 

[Devil24]

Sat dish + PVC pipe + quickcrete + bucket = perfect, cheap temporary solution for you .

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

I use a tripod from camping world, it was about $35 or so. It's not too bad, although there may be some better ones. If I had it to do agin, I would get something a little taller, and maybe with legs I could stake to the ground. It's hard to stabalize this on in the wind.


http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm?skunum=17091&src=SRQB

 

[OoTLink]

lol thank sprint, I was thinking about that one but I'm glad you pointed that out

The tripod that rat shack has, I've seen online from a few other places with a 1.5" pipe already mounted, that'll do was just wondering because they didn't look as nicely built as the winegard one, but the fact you can use stakes in them is a plus.

Then again, wind isn't a huge concern .. just one

 

[Fredinva]

A 1 5/8 inch galv post from Lowes/HD is about 7 bucks.
Bucket and concrete works good. ( I take mine to the beach!!)

(mash one end of post so it won't turn in the concrete.)

fred

 

[Mike500]

The best portable mount I've seen is the no longer made D&L portable pole.

It is a two piece all steel powder coated unit that packs into a space of about 6x6x24 inches.


Unstrap the two pieces held on with a bungee cord. Slip the bottom spiked square section into the top section with the round dish mount. The top acts as a slide hammer like a farmer's fence post driver and drives the bottom section into the ground. One screw knob lock them together, and you're ready to mount the dish.

To remove the pole, just unscrew the locking screw. Place the hole in the middle of the top section over the pin in the bottom stake section and lever it out of the ground.

As a professional installer, I love this handy unit for testing line of sight challenged installs. It is so easy to use and takes so little space in the truck.

 

[OoTLink]

http://dishstand.com/pd_tpod.cfm

I think that MIGHT do it. Playing with maps (locating our place on the satellite map, checking it to see what's "real north" and uh, this should be damn easy.

Azimuth/elevation for 119 is 186.52 and 48.016, for 110 it's 171.27 and 47.85

Essentially, a little more than 45 degrees from the ground and about 10 degrees from the wall in our yard. Slick, I could probably get elevation with a box sitting on the ground and the azimuth, we'll just have to see... Ya think having a "darn good idea" where the dish should be will be enough to catch the signal? I suppose since it's a twin LNB that might not be the case.

I think I'll go for the tpod vs a tripod though..