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DirecTV in an Apartment?
Sc00ter asks: "I live in an apartment and I'm seeking advice on how to mount a DirecTV dish without causing damage to the building. I don't have a balcony to put it on, only windows. There are some people that have worked around this by using other types of antennas, but the cost of such a device is too high. I have also seen some window mount type antennas but I don't think I should trust these in the wind. I was hoping somebody out there had been in a similar situation and had a tip or two."
Yes, it is almost that time of the year again, where we give our money to the NFL and DirectTV.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
On the building i lived, i had the same problem, just that i live on the 4th floor (6 floors building), so i asked the community manager about using the internal shafts of the building up to the building's roof, and place my dish on it... i had on ly to ask the manager about and voila'...
if that doesn't work do a kinda ghostbusters 2 movie solution, turn the whole building into a reciving antena.
Putting a windows cd backwards, plays evil messages, but it gets worse, putting it right, installs windows.
Note, I don't live in an apartment but...
First off, your landlord can specify exactly what they're allowed and not allowed to do when they sign a waiver.
Second, if you approach your landlord in a way that makes it sound like they're getting a deal out of it, they may just say yes. Try pitching it to them like, "I want to upgrade your apartment, free of charge, to be satellite ready!"
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
We took about 4' of plumbing pipe that fit the DirecTV bracket, sunk it into a bucket half-filled with cement and set the bucket out on the balcony, let it set, filled the top half with soil and grew flowers in it. To keep the bucket from shifting around, we applied a bead of silicone around the base. We've had to move it once, and the silicone was easy to cut away and re-apply. It's solid as a rock.
If you're wondering whether they'll agree, there's a good chance your worries are unfounded. Rentals are at a long time low right now with Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac handing out home loans like candy, and most supers will bend over backwards to keep you happy.
I would just do the damage. How much can a couple of holes cost to repair? It's going to cost way more in time and materials to try to work around doing it the right way.
Yoda of Borg am I! Assimilated shall you be! Futile resistance is, hmm?
I don't have the actual details so you will have to do the googling.
My father works maintenance and a really expensive "assisted living" place. The other day, one of hte tenants comes up to him and says, "I am putting a dish on teh roof".
"Well sir," starts my father, "We are going to have to check w/ management to see if we can do it."
"No, according to section blah blah of FCC code, I can legally do it. I was just letting you know as a courtesy."
And he put it up. The guy was a lawyer and management didn't bitch.
Anecdotal but you may be able to find some fcc code (if it exists). Then you just have to decide if you trust your neighbors enough to leave it in a public space.
I used to install for Time Warner and Direct TV. First thing is to ask your landlord. Most of them are not too uptight, and will allow an installation onto the roof. If not, we used a tripod whic we purchased for $20 at RadioShack, and sold to customers for $34.95. The buckets with concrete in them aren't a bad idea; we use them now for PTZ cameras we put on our construction sites. My first bet would be talk to the property manager, though. Chances are good you're not he first person to ask.
I am not a lawyer, but as I understand it is illegal for your landlord to prohibit the installation of hardware for such services. I believe it has to do with keeping the cable companies from having a monopoly over such living situations.
I read this information on either the Dish Network or DirecTV website when I was looking into it. I had already given them my location, so I suppose it could be based on state laws.
Give DirecTV a call. Tell them you want to give them your business, but you don't have any easy place to mount the dish and see if they have any suggestions. Heck, maybe they have some special kind of mounting gear for just your type of situation.
The only other thing that comes to mind is getting permission from the property manager to put the dish on the roof and then run some wire down the side of the building through the window, to the receiving unit. If you're in a low-rise unit and/or not far from the roof, this may work but I wouldn't count on running ten stories worth of wire just so you can get your TV fix.
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Got a large one, about 18 inches wide and deep. stuck a steel pipe in it and filled it about half-way with quick-crete. You have to make sure it's in level and straight. We then put topsoil in it, and planted some flowers so it wasn't so tacky. Set it up on the porch and the apartment can't say a word. It's heavy enough that it went through a numerous Florida summers (severe thunderstorms almost daily) without flipping over once. Also doesn't modify their building so they are happy.
I recommend you read this.
The FCC links are about midpoint on the page.
Landlords and HOAs can prohibit installation in:
common areas
rooftops
outside walls
window sills
so, unless permission is granted from landlord or homeowners associations you can't install there. the nice people at dish network have a landlord permission form and a diagram of exclusive areas.
this is just a placeholder till i send back my real sig from the future.
at the Tivo community online. Your situation is hardly novel.
Some of the solutions have been mentioned here, flower pots, getting the landlord to agree to a roof mount, etc.
There are others who simply take the window, open it up, make sure that the window screen is fibreglass instead of wire, mount the dish on what becomes a piece of furniture, pointing out the window. When it gets cold they fill the void where the window would otherwise be, with a couple of pieces of plexiglass. It doesn't even have to be transparent.
Then there are the phased array antenas, which I agree cost too much for most appartment dwellers.
On the other hand, pretty much nothing I can do will help me. Physics is working against my getting sattelite reception from my appartment. Unless someone comes up with a way to position a satelite near the north pole, I have too much building in my way.
-Rusty
You never know...
I had an apartment with no balcony and a Southern facing window.
I had line of sight to the primary sat, but the signal would not go through the glass. I just went to good ol' Home Depot and bought a sheet of plexiglass and some 2x4's. After building a simple frame and inserting it into the window I was good to go.
My first attempt involved 2 spaced sheets of plexiglass, but I couldn't get a signal. 1 sheet worked great.
I lost about 10 points of signal, rain fade was hardly a problem.
well, a good friend of mine at Rutgers mounted his dish to the top of his school provided dresser, which was at the perfect height for the window, with nothing more than half a roll of duct tape. I'll be damned if that thing moved, since there was no wind... it was a nice setup, and it made me realize how much I miss HBO and such, which is not offered in the on-campus cable channel selection...
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I see that you are awry of using suction cups (I would be too), but what about some high powered magnets. I've used them thar neodymium magnets to hold up some pretty heavy things, place them on either side of the glass, epoxy one of the magnets to a mount, homebrew or otherwise. I could see an issure with 'slippage' down the glass with the magnets, but maybe some rubber (nice sticky silicone) sheet would keep things upright.
A buddy of mine who works in the video dept. is a serious DirecTV advocate. I didn't previously think that DirecTV was available in NYC due to the height of most buildings (but that really depends on which neighborhood you're in).
Well, this guy didn't have permission from his landlord. He just figured that he would install now, pay later for damages if he gets hassled apologize etc and move if things got too hot. He's an easy going stoner type but majorly stauch about his entertainment resources. what stoner isn't?
So he just tromped up to his roof whistling zippity doo-dah or some shit and glommed the thing into place. He lives close enough to his roof that he didn't need signal repeaters. Borrowed some equipment from work, found the satellite and *BANG* he was on!
I can ask him tomorrow how he did manage to work out the installation, what equipment he borrowed, and any possible damage, if you the submitter sees this and thinks it might be a help. Whether or not this works for you would depend on what kind of building you're in, city, neighborhood, rapport with the owner, etc.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
"I actually asked my apartment manager about installing a dish on my covered patio area, and I got a quick "no". The reason: aesthetics. Apparently there's an apartment policy that states that no antenna or dish can be visible, even on porches."
The "big dish" folks solved that problem years ago. There's a company that makes a dish cover that looks like a patio umbrella. Can't tell you if they're still in business, but I'm certain others make something like it for the smaller dishes.
However, they demand that we purchase a renters insurance policy that would cover, in effect, the entire building, should something go wrong (a lightning strike, for example). The requirement stated some rediculous multi $100k dollar amount.
If you have a balcony, get the largest paving/patio stone you can buy (2 ft. x 2 ft. would be a nice size), and mount the base of the roof/wall mount to it using short lag shields and bolts.
Enjoy. I've seen this work reasonably well myself. If you're worried about wind, lay 4 more patio stones over the edges of the one you mounted to.
(Note: Don't try this with anything larger than an 18" dish)
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I used a screw-in mailbox post from Walmart and bolted the base of the reciever to the side of the post. Worked great. A lot lighter than the concrete in a bucket and looks better too. I think I paid ~$20 for it at Wally*World. It did break the 3rd time I screwed it in afeter moving again (I was moving every ~5 months for a while). I think I hit a rock or a tree root and it broke the weld on the screw part trying to force it.
The apartment I live in now would have allowed DirecTV proffessional installation, but i could never get anyone to come out!! My stupid area is ruled by Pegasus Satellite (A DirecTV reseller) instead of DirecTV i think there's some asinine governmental anti-trust type regulatory reason for this.... but regardless, it meant i was inelligible for the DirecTV professional installation when you move. Getting a Pegasus installer to come out was impossible, nobody would return my calls.
So now (after living on the free basic cable provided with my apartment for 3 years), I have ordered a window suction cup mount (no grass for the mailbox post) and will be put on someone else's DirecTV plan for $5 a month as a reciever for an RV.
I would have gladly paid DirecTV full price but it is not offered in my area, I have to buy through the crappy Pegasus Satellite that costs more and gives me less. So screw the both of 'em.
Here is a photo.
You can't see them in the photo, but at the bottom of the wood beam there are a couple of rubber feet. The zig-zag shaped metal thingy attached to the side and jammed up under the rail is actually a doorstop (at least, that's what it was labeled at Home Depot).
To get the cables into the apartment, I cut away about an inch of the weatherstipping at the top edge of the door, and run the cable through there. When the door is closed, it does slightly pinch the cable, but not enough to cause a problem. Here is a photo of the cables.
This has worked very well, and when I move, the damage to the apartment will be minimal.
People just have direct tv attach them to the side of the building. They are ugly and I'm sure they didn't ask management. They're lucky though that management doesn't come by here often. Oh the joys of living in the ghetto, made even more ghetto looking by 5 direct dishes attached to the sides of the apartment complex.
I'm suprised that nobody's come out and suggested to just get cable; if sattelite TV was that big of a priority for you, you should've made sure you could use it before you moved.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
Our mount was two 1x4" pieces of lumber. One piece was laid on the window sill, parallel to the window glass and held in place with the wood jawed clamps available at most home stores. The other piece was screwed to it sticking into the room about 1" (the depth of the dish). The dish pointed at a slight angle thru the glass.
It worked well until a tree was planted in front of the window dropping the signal strength to below functional levels with the window closed. With the tree to hide our efforts, the screen was removed and the mount flipped around with the dish outside the window. Now the dish was outside our apartment, but the management ignored it.
By law the apartment complex has to assist in mounting any satellite dishes... why don't you just ask your maintenance folks?
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
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Wouldn't the force of the magnets crush the two (or more panes) of glass into each other?
I don't have a balcony on my apartment and can not mount a dish on the roof or bolt it to the external wall.
I do have casement windows.
Solution:
One of my casement windows in my bedroom is always open. In its place is a plexiglass sheet that I purchased at home depot. I always keep the blinds closed in the bedroom anyways (sunlight! ick!) so this isn't an eye sore.
The DirecTV signal will go through plexiglass with barely any signal degradation. Apparently plexiglass has a different dielctric (sp?) constant than glass (which absolutely destroys the signal).
I get excellent reception. The only thing that stinks is the "once or twice a year" event where someone bumps the satellite dish. However, since I marked on the dresser the orientation marks, it usually only takes me a few minutes to get it recalibrated.
Ghetto geek yes, but it sure beats AT&T cable!
Evolution: love it or leave it
.. I put the dish on the floor in the garage.
garage was facing south and we had these convinent remote controls. So if you want to watch tv - you just have to use one more remote to fire it up.
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If you rent, its not your roof. Its the owners choice to allow you do that or not.
It would be grounds for having your lease broken if you pissed off the owner.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Stop wasting money on DirecTV, save some, buy a house - do whatever the hell you want with your antenna.
and just put a dual lnb or triple lnb on it
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
than to ask permission", but it can be much more expensive.
I used to live in an apartment complex with 7 three-story building full of apartments, and there were many small TV sat dishes installed in varying locations. Pretty much anywhere was OK, as long as it didn't interfere with other uses of the property.
The most obvious example of stupid installers was the one that put their satellite dish post right next to the entry walkway, so that the dish hung at about head height over the walkway (yes, right where people would bump their heads on it). This one was forced to be repositioned. Shortly before I moved, I counted at least 14 dishes, several planted at the corners of buildings.
I was driving one day, and I passed by one of those satellite dealer shops; they had a few of the 18" dishes mounted to one of those wooden forklift pallets. I had seen the bucket/concrete/pole solution before, but I had none of the above, and didn't want to mess with concrete. I also had no desire to purchase any either. So I "acquired" a wooden pallet from the back of a grocery store, and mounted the dish on that. My apt complex also has a no mounting clause whereby I cannot affix it to the structure of the building, so this gets around that. The pallet is movable, provides a wide, sturdy base for the dish, and is lightweight and cheap (in my case) for future portability. I like it. I setup my friend's dish the same way.