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

A bucket, some cement and plumbing pipe

[Cranx]

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.

Put it on the roof

[cornjones]

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.

Wrong

[lorcha]

First off, your landlord can specify exactly what they're allowed and not allowed to do when they sign a waiver.

Wrong wrong wrong. The FCC says that you cannot sign away your right to install a 1M or smaller dish in a non-common area (as in for your exclusive use). Your landlord cannot prevent you. Your city can't prevent you. No one can.

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!"

Seriously, if your landlord is that brain-dead he is not gonna be a landlord much longer. Landlord school has a mandatory course called "Seeing Straight Through Tenant Bullshit 101". Any landlord who fails that one is in for a hell of a ride.