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."

Comments

Make a good case

[webscathe]

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!"

Re:Make a good case

[afidel]

Actually the FCC has ruled that you can not sign away your right to put up an antenna up to 1m in size which does not cause undue harm to the property so long as you install it in an area that is designated for your private use.

Ideas

[MBCook]

I've seen quite a few dishes mounted, here are some ideas:

• I've seen people stick a small pole in a large bucket that was filled with concrete and mount the dish on that. If you could get permission to just set that next to the building that would be fine, or you put it inside and point it through a window, but it would be ugly.
• Lots of people around here have the dishes clipped onto a railing of some sort that they have near (like a balcony, but you might have something). This would hold it just fine, if you have a railing of some kind near.
• Build a mount. You should be able to rig something up. For example, use a 2" by 4" the height of the window. Then you close the window on it (securely and tightly). You could paint it to make it look better. You mount the dish to the 2" by 4" (or a block of wood attached to it). By putting a small piece of wood on the sides and top/bottom of the 2" by 4", you can make it easily support the weight of the dish with just friction (no screwing into the wall).
• Neighbors. Do any of your neighbors have dishes? Just attach a multiswitch (basically a splitter for satellites) and you can use their signal with no problem for either of you. It's usually used to allow you to have boxes in more than 2 rooms, but it will do the same for you. You might not even need one if they have a Dual-LNB dish and only one simple reciever.
• Through the roof. You might (might Might MIGHT) be able to get a usuable signal through the roof (if you are on the top floor) or through a wall. The closer you are to the equator the better.
• Ask a professional installer. Find one who will give you a free "estimate", and see what they think.

Re:Ideas

[jadenyk]

As was explained to me during my recent Direct TV install, anything organic will screw with reception.

That being said, I seriously doubt you could get signal through a roof. And even if you could, come winter, there better not be any snow on that roof.

Personally, I'd make a small platform to hang out my window. But then again, you have to have windows that face the right direction in the first place.

Re:Ideas

[itwerx]

Big magnets!
Seriously!

Works like this:
Put the dish on a large flat padded base, tie 3 or 4 short guy wires from the disk mounting bracket to a couple of large rare-earth magnets (you can get 'em with handy mounting loops and whatnot at Edmund Scientific for a price and most surplus places for a lot less). Then, with a buddy on the inside and you hanging out the window, press the base against the glass, pull each guy-wire out as far as it will go and have your buddy put a matching magent on the inside, voila'!
This is probably hard to visualise from this post but all you're really doing is using strong magnets to clamp the dish to the window itself. If you can make your mounting base large enough and thin enough you can even do away with the guy-wires and just make a magnet sandwich.
Note: make sure the outer magnets (against the base) have a release mechanism or you will probably break the glass at some point.
Alternatively, you could pull the window (or maybe even just the screen) out of the frame and substitute a bit of plywood as a semi-permanent mounting point.
Good luck! :)

Talk to your landlord

[mcgroarty]

Your landlord will probably agree to a professional installation, and you can get those for free when you purchase the unit from many dealers.

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.

Why not ask them?

[nacturation]

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.

Re:Do the damage

[ForestGrump]

Nope, if your only renting the unit, and the roof is not part of your rental, then they have authority over the roof.

Now, if you put a dish inside your apt, and had it pointing through a window...and they went into your unit and tossed out the dish. Then they would be in violation.

grumpy

The easiest thing...

[ameoba]

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.